Monday, August 10, 2015

CLASSICAL STATION REPORT CARD: TRENDS & DIARY MARKETS


Today we have the Spring 2015 Nielsen Audio ratings for all noncom classical stations that purchase the data.  The PPM Markets chart shows a one year trend of Weekly Cumulative Listeners.  To me, Weekly Cume is an important metric because it is an estimated headcount of the total listener base.

Scroll down to see the Spring 2015 Nielsen Audio Diary Markets.

FYI – I consider a station with 12 or more hours per day of classical music to be a “classical station.”  I always appreciate tips on stations I’ve missed.  Thanks.

NIELSEN AUDIO PPM MARKETS



Eleven of the 27 classical stations in PPM Markets gained weekly listeners between Spring 2014 and 2015; 16 lost weekly listeners.

WCRB and KQAC led the gaining stations. WETA had a nice bump. WQXR lost a quarter of its weekly listeners – the estimated listener base lost over 150,000 people in a year.

NIELSEN AUDIO DIARY MARKETS

TOP DIARY PERFORMER: WMNR, Monroe, CT
  
WMNR shows significant listening in three Connecticut markets: Bridgeport, New Haven and Danbury.

WMNR not only blankets these three markets, their repeaters and translators give them major clout in the suburbs and exurbs of New York:



WQXR draws Diary listeners in suburban New Jersey:

KUSC’s repeaters expand its presence in the Southland.  They now have an awesome reach in Santa Barbara:

 
Here are the other Spring 2015 Diary numbers:







1 comment:

  1. FWIW, KUSC *already* had excellent reach in the Santa Barbara market. Their old station was on 88.7FM (12.0kW, 2178ft AMSL from Gibraltar Peak) which is functionally identical to their current 93.7FM signal (12.5kW, 2198ft AMSL also from Gibraltar Peak).

    The difference is that, for good or ill, they've eliminated the competition from the old semi-commercial classical outlet KDB, and thus absorbed a lot...if not most...of KDB's listeners.

    Worth noting, though, is that despite some determined efforts by very smart people, KDB was unable to garnish enough actual financial support from that audience to be anywhere near self-sustaining. Granted, KDSC is (AFAIK) a 100% repeater of KUSC and thus is much, much cheaper to operate than KDB was. But my point is that just because KDSC is doing well in the audience numbers doesn't mean KUSC is seeing a commensurate increase in financial donations from the Santa Barbara area.

    Now it'd be interesting to know exactly how well/poorly KDSC actually *is* doing for KUSC, because Santa Barbara is *famously* provincial. To any proper Santa Barbaran, the world ends at Carpenteria and Los Angeles is the The Town That Dares Not Speak Its Name. But I've often wondered how true that really is when it comes to media, despite assurances to the contrary. For example, the only truly local non-commercial outlet is college/community-radio KCSB and it doesn't get one-twentieth of the listenership nor financial support that "out of towners" like KCLU (Thousand Oaks/Ventura) and KCBX (San Luis Obispo) get out of their repeater stations in SB. And the same was true for KDB; lots and lots of people SAID they just absolutely loved their LOCAL classical radio station, but when it came time for pledge drives, the wallets barely opened. (and this is a town with a LOT of capacity...and I mean a LOT, again, just look at KCLU and KCBX's drives!)

    ReplyDelete