WUOM LEADS TOP 10 NPR NEWS STATIONS IN COLLEGE TOWNS

Folks have told me the best place to work in public media is a college town with a great NPR News station.  Today we have 10 great places in Nielsen Audio Diary markets as listed in Spring 2015 reports.

Here are the top ten stations ranked by Cume Rating – the percentage of people age 12+ who heard the station in the sample week:

TOP PERFORMER: WUOM, ANN ARBOR

It doesn’t get much better than a 19.9 Cume Rating. One in every 5 adults in Ann Arbor hear WUOM each week.  But wait, there is more.  WUOM has huge listening in Detroit and Grand Rapids.  They’ve earned the name MICHIGAN RADIO.

CHALLENGING SITUATIONS

Not every college town is fertile for a NPR News station.  This chart shows five stations with very low Cume Ratings:

A friend of mine used to work at KEDM in Monroe, Louisiana.  She told me that listeners appreciate public radio more there than in many bigger markets.  NPR News is a rare and precious resource that truly lives the mission of public media.

Then there are stations like WGVU in Grand Rapids that draw such small audiences you wonder if they are still on the air.  WUOM cleans house in GR because WGVU just lets them have it.