LOCAL TALK TOPS NPR NEWS IN MILWAUKEE

Common programming wisdom is that NPR News programs like Morning Edition draw more listening than local public radio talk programming. An emerging situation in Milwaukee is putting that wisdom to a test. Wisconsin Public Radio’s Ideas Network on WHAD tops NPR News station WUWM in several Nielsen Audio PPM metrics.

Comparing May 2015 to May 2014, WHAD increased AQH share from 1.4 to 2.1.  During the same one year period WUWM’s AQH share declined from 3.2 to 1.6.

WUWM still has a larger weekly cume than WHAD but the gap between the two stations has gotten smaller.  Between May 2014 and May 2015 WUWM lost around 40,000 weekly listeners.  Here is the topline PPM data courtesy of RRC:

MAY 2015

MAY 2014

DATA © NIELSON AUDIO

Provided by RRC, Inc. for use by subscribers only

© Radio Research Consortium, Inc. // www.RRConline.org // RRC@RRConline.org

Format designations & trends are the sole responsibility of Ken Mills Agency, LLC. Contact us publicradio@hotmail.com

MEET THE STATIONS

Both stations have strong coverage of the Milwaukee metro but their schedules are much different.  Here are the lineups for the hours when most people listen to radio:

MONDAY – FRIDAY 6am – 7pm

	WUWM	WHAD
6am – 7am	Morning Edition	Joy Cardin Show
7am – 8am	Morning Edition	Joy Cardin Show
8am – 9am	Morning Edition	Joy Cardin Show
9am – 10am	BBC Newshour	On Point
10am – 11am	Lake Effect	On Point
11am - Noon	Fresh Air	Larry Meiller Show
Noon – 1pm	Here & Now	12pm: Larry Meiller Show 12:30pm: Chapter a Day
1pm – 2pm	Here & Now	Kathleen Dunn Show
2pm – 3pm	Here & Now	Kathleen Dunn Show
3pm – 4pm	ATC	Central Time
4pm – 5pm	ATC	Central Time
5pm – 6pm	ATC	Central Time
6pm – 7pm	6:00pm: ATC 6:30pm: Marketplace	To the Best Of Our Knowledge Friday: On the Media

SATURDAY 6am – 3pm

	WUWM	WHAD
6am – 7am	Marketplace Weekend	People’s Pharmacy
7am – 8am	Weekend Edition	Garden Talk
8am – 9am	Weekend Edition	Zorba Paster On Health
9am – 10am	Best of Car Talk	Wait, Wait
10am – 11am	Wait, Wait	Whad’Ya Know?
11am - Noon	Ask Me Another	Whad’Ya Know?
Noon – 1pm	TED Radio Hour	Best of Car Talk
1pm – 2pm	On the Media	Zorba Paster On Health
2pm – 3pm	Marketplace Weekend	People’s Pharmacy

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?

We asked people in charge at both stations.  Here is the view from Michael Arnold, WPR’s Director of Content:

And the view from Dave Edwards, GM at WUWM:

Arnold says this appears to be a trend, not a wobble:

IS THIS AN ONLY IN MILWAUKEE PHENOMENON?

Michael Arnold says WHAD’s success is due, in part, to the uniqueness of WPR’s talk-based format on the Idea’s Network. But he also cites WGBH’s midday talk program as evidence that there are exceptions to notion that NPR News always trumps local talk:

MILWAUKEE LISTENERS ARE THE WINNERS

Dave Edwards agrees with Michael Arnold that the two stations are expanding the public radio news choices. Edwards put it this way: