MORE ON CLASSICAL STATIONS & READER COMMENTS

THE STATE OF CLASSICAL RADIO

Earlier this week [link] we published recent audience data and comments from Tom Thomas from the Station Resource Group (SRG). Tom’s data shows that most of the classical music stations in the top markets are keeping, and in some cases increasing their listener base. Compared to some other noncom formats, classical is doing pretty well. 

Tom said that the recent announced sales of WKCP, Miami, and KUHA, Houston were mainly caused by over-eager financing for the purchases of the stations.

I saw another chart in the SRG report that provides a useful overview the performance of many large market classical stations. This chart shows Nielsen Audio Spring 2015 metro Average Quarter Hour shares:

 Here is listening data for some of blank spots on the SRG chart:

Commercial station WFMT, Chicago had a 1.0 AQH share in the July Nielsen Audio PPM report.  I consider WABE, Atlanta, to be a dual-format station because they still carry 12 or more hours a day of classical music.  WABE had a 2.4 AQH share in July report. WRTI, Philadelphia and WRCJ, Detroit are also dual-format stations.

Noncom WQED, Pittsburgh does not currently buy Nielsen Audio PPM data. According to the most recent data I could find (Fall 2013), WQED had a 0.8 metro share.

I could find no audience data for WRR, Dallas, a station I haven’t paid much attention to since British host John Ravenscroft was playing Beatles tunes back in the 1960s when WRR had a fling with contemporary music.

WRR looks like it is doing very well.  The station’s annual budget is around $2,000,000 and not a dime comes from Dallas taxpayers. Not owing anyone money is the best way to be sustainable. And look at WRR's awesome coverage map:

CONFIDENTIAL FROM A HIGHLY-RESPECTED FORMER PD IN THE BOSTON MARKET

I’ve been finding what you’ve been writing about the Boston market very interesting, though closer to the ground, those of us in the biz see things quite differently. But that’s for another time.

Have you been watching WCRB’s numbers? They are dismal, and getting worse (this started with the frequency swap some number of years ago). I’m wondering how you’re defining success. Hope you don’t mind me asking.

KEN: By success I mean sustainable. I don’t have any inside info on WCRB, so I can’t comment on anything but the numbers. To me WCRB is doing pretty well in recent Nielsen Audio PPM data.  You can see the Spring 2015 data at link.

ANONYMOUS COMMENT REGARDING MY REFERENCE TO WGMS, A FORMER COMMERCIAL CLASSICAL STATION IN WASHINGTON, DC

Correction: The WGMS story is more complicated than a simple format change. WGMS, along with WTOP (then on AM 1500), were owned by Bonneville. Bonneville opted to move WTOP to the FM position previously occupied by WGMS (103.5)--which says more about the demise of AM than of classical music. WGMS couldn't flourish in its new, weaker spot on the FM dial and was eventually sent under. The classical load was then shouldered by WETA which continues to do very well with the format! WGMS still exists in spirit and the call letters themselves are preserved in the Hagerstown, MD repeater of WETA (89.1FM).

KEN: Good point. Bonneville also owned WTOP until they sold it to Hubbard Broadcasting.  Jim Farley was the genius that moved all-news WTOP to FM.  It is now the #1 station in revenue in the nation.

FROM AARON READ REGARDING WPRB AND OTHER COMMERCIAL COLLEGE RADIO STATIONS

One of the things I enjoy the most about writing this blog are the new things I learn.  I learned a lot from this comment from radio guru Aaron Read:

FYI, Ken. WPRB is not unique. WBRU at Brown University is another commercial licensee that's owned by an independent non-profit entity. Ditto for WHRB at Harvard University, WVBR at Cornell University, WYBC AM & FM at Yale, WFRD at Dartmouth (and I believe WDCR was like that at Dartmouth, too, but they handed in the license a few years ago).

I don't know why so many Ivy League school stations were set up that way...a nonprofit, independent-from-the-college entity that holds a commercial radio license...but they did. There's also WPGU-FM at the Univ of Illinois/Urbana-Champaign, which is owned by Illini Media Company. I think there's a handful of others out there, but the call letters are escaping me.

There's also a few commercial radio licenses held directly by the parent college, too. I think WFRD at Dartmouth either is or was like that (when they turned in WDCR I think things changed at WFRD as well). And of course WHCR at Howard University.

Also, things are fuzzy about who's the first "college FM radio station." Because what we think of "college radio" as a FORMAT didn't really exist until the late 70's/early 80's, and many ways didn't exist until the early 1990's. The "underground" or "basement" radio that's block-formatted was kind of the norm at a lot of commercial FM radio stations in the 70's and even 80's.

That said, WBUR at Boston University dates back to March of 1950, WOI at Iowa State University started in December of 1949, and WERS at Emerson College beats that by a few months; they went on air in November 1949. I believe these are the first college-owned stations in the non-commercial FM band.

But it's a fuzzy definition; there's several college-based broadcasting facilities that date back to the 1920's. Many didn't "survive" WWII and came back to the air much later (the 1960's, 70's and 80's) in their current form of NCE FM's: WRUC at Union College and 1XE at Tufts University come to mind.

There's also many, many stations that started as AM stations...either licensed or carrier-current...and were quite successful as such at the time (FM really wasn't popular nor commercially viable for most stations until the early 70's) and later added an FM license at the nadir of the FM band (the mid-60's) or during the rise of the NCE band in the early 70's.

ANOTHER INFORMATIVE COMMENT CAME FROM BRIAN SANDERS OF ARIZONA PUBLIC RADIO

I enjoy seeing your posts and enjoyed reading about WPRB.  It reminded me a lot WPGU in Champaign, Illinois which also operates (or at least did when I was there in the ‘70s) as a commercial station operated by a non-profit, Illini Publishing. We had first-class equipment, a mixed format and let jazz geeks like me a chance to play in the FM band.

Thank you for the comments, folks!