Friday, March 13, 2015

RETRO FRIDAY: MY FIRST RADIO RESEARCH PROJECT

Ken Mills, age 10, with Research Radio and Research Telephone

KEN'S SUMMER 1960 SIOUX FALLS
RADIO RATINGS:

WHICH STATION IS YOUR FAVORITE?

KIHO  14
KSOO 12
KELO 2
KISD 1
Other (WNAX, Yankton) 2

In 1960 there were four radio stations in Sioux Falls:  

• KSOO at 1140am was the mom and dad station.  Rosemary Clooney tunes and a morning guy who had conversations with himself in high-pitched nasally voice.

• KISD at 1230am was automated, mainly featuring the voice of Jim Ameche, Don Ameche’s brother, playing what was then known as “beautiful music.”

• KELO at 1320am had talk shows, MOR music and hour after hour of NBC's Monitor.  

• And KIHO – my favorite station -- outlaw rock at 1270am.

KIHO, or KI’-ho, as it was known, played 24/7 rock n roll.  KIHO was owned by a company from Chicago. Having seen “The Untouchables,” my friends and I speculated  that the mob had something to do with the station -- a rumor that made KIHO all the more appealing to us.

KIHO, with jocks Smiling Jack Shafer, Dandy Dan, “The Morning Mayor KIHO Helgie” played the hits without regard for parental sensibilities.  I was in love with that skywave, particularly The Coke Show, a Saturday night request show where I had made my first on-air appearance answering a trivia question.

My dad and I had a disagreement about KIHO.  He didn’t like station.  I claimed KIHO had more listeners than any other Sioux Falls station.  He disagreed -- certainly KSOO had the most listeners, he bragged.  After all, KSOO was where he bought his political campaign ads.

So, on a Saturday afternoon in June 1960, my parents and my little sister went somewhere, leaving me home alone for a few hours. I decided that the only way to prove my dad wrong was to do a survey that would prove that KIHO was the most popular.
I got the phone book.  I marked every tenth phone number.  

Then, I started calling the numbers.

I’d say, “I’m taking a survey -- what your favorite radio station?”

Some of the people getting my call would say “who is this”? and “who do you work for?" But almost no one hung up on me and most gave me the call letters of their favorite station.

After three hours of calls, the final count was:
KIHO  14
KSOO 12
KELO 2
KISD 1
Other (WNAX, Yankton) 2

When my parents and sister got home, I could hardly wait to show my dad the “proof” of KIHO’s superior popularity.

To my surprise, when I told him about the survey he wasn’t pleased.

“You did what?”

I went through my methodology.

There was a quiet conference between my mom and dad.  My sister said I was in Big Trouble.

My telephone privileges were ended until further notice and I was sternly advised not to do this again.  But my dad never again said that KIHO wasn’t number one.

The lesson for me was that research works.

Thursday, March 12, 2015

CHRISTIAN RADIO: ONLY THE CHOIR IS LISTENING


According to a new report by LifeWay Research, 7 in 10 Americans age 18 and over have NEVER or RARELY heard Christian radio.  In fact, the majority of Americans have NO CONTACT with Christian media of any type.  Here is the topline chart from the LifeWay report:


The study by LifeWay is based on 2,252 online and 1,009 telephone surveys.  The online data was collected in September 2014; the phone surveys were conducted in January 2015.  The report was presented at the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) conference on February 24.

My reason for bringing this up is I am fascinated by the phenomenal of growth in audience by noncommercial Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) stations.  KSBJ, Houston, the most successful CCM FM, reaches the largest weekly audience in noncommercial radio broadcasting.

TOP TEN
CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN MUSIC STATIONS
JANUARY PPM
RANKED BY WEEKLY CUME LISTENERS

NIELSEN AUDIO PPM JANUARY 2015
Compared to November 2014
Survey Period: 1/1/15 – 1/28/15
Top-Line Estimates as of 2/13/15
Monday – Sunday 6am – Midnight, Persons 6+

#
CALLS
NIELSEN AUDIO MARKET
Mark
Rank
AQH %
WEEKLY CUME
WKLY CUME RTG
1
KSBJ
Houston
6
5.6
842,000
14.2
2
KTIS
Minneapolis/
St. Paul
16
5.7
456,900
14.5
3
WGTS
Washington DC
7
3.4
395,300
7.6
4
KLJY
St. Louis
22
6.5
342,100
13.5
5
KLDV
Denver
20
4.5
317,800
11.4
6
WCIE & WJIS
Tampa/
St. Pete
18
3.1
211,900
7.8
7t
KSOS
Las Vegas
32
3.5
169,900
8.9
7t
KSOS
Las Vegas
32
3.5
169,900
8.9
9
WAYF
West Palm Beach
(Miami station)
48
3.7
125,400
9.6
10
WPOZ
Orlando
33
5.7
118,900
16.8

DATA © NIELSON AUDIO
Provided by RRC, Inc. for use by subscribers only
© Radio Research Consortium, Inc. // www.RRConline.org // RRC@RRConline.org
Format designations are the sole responsibility of Ken Mills Agency, LLC. Contact us publicradio@hotmail.com



Wednesday, March 11, 2015

KPCC, WAMU, KUOW LEAD NPR NEWS GAINERS: NIELSEN AUDIO JANUARY PPM


KPCC Pasadena added over 150,000 weekly listeners in January versus November 2014. WAMU added over 40,000 new weekly listeners – 36,000+ and 4,000+ in the Baltimore metro. KUOW gained 46,000 weekly listeners in SeaTac.  My mind is numb from looking at all of these numbers!

NPR NEWS STATIONS: JANUARY PPM
RANKED BY WEEKLY CUME LISTENERS

NIELSEN AUDIO PPM JANUARY 2015
Compared to November 2014
Survey Period: 1/1/15 – 1/28/15
Top-Line Estimates as of 2/13/15
Monday – Sunday 6am – Midnight, Persons 6+
* = dual format
#
CALLS
NIELSEN AUDIO MARKET
MARK
RANK
AQH %
WEEKLY CUME
1
KPCC
Los Angeles
2
2.5
773,900
2
WNYC-FM
New York
1
2.7
746,200
3
KQED
San Francisco
4
4.6
708,200
4
WAMU
Washington DC
7
7.9
608,300
5
KCRW*
Los Angeles
2
1.7
507,400
6
WBEZ
Chicago
3
2.3
494,300
7
WBUR
Boston
10
4.5
392,900
8
WABE*
Atlanta
9
3.2
352,900
9
WHYY
Philadelphia
8
3.3
337,900
10
KUOW
Seattle/Tacoma
13
5.2
335,900
11
KNOW
Minneapolis/St. Paul
16
5.0
333,100
12
KPLU
Seattle/Tacoma
13
3.2
321,000
13
KERA
Dallas
5
2.3
315,300
14
WGBH
Boston
10
2.9
311,000
15
KUHF
Houston
6
2.1
308,400
16
KPBS
San Diego
17
5.5
300,400
17
KCFR
Denver
20
5.4
296,600
18
KOPB
Portland OR
23
7.1
295,500
19
WLRN
Miami
11
2.3
260,500
20
WNYC-AM
New York
1
0.5
252,900
21
KJZZ
Phoenix
14
2.2
223,900
22
KUT
Austin
35
6.1
196,500
23
KWMU
St. Louis
22
3.7
186,500
24
KXJZ
Sacramento
27
3.6
180,900
25
WUSF
Tampa/St. Petersburg
18
2.3
154,000
26
WDET
Detroit
12
0.7
148,300
27
WYPR
Baltimore
21
2.0
144,200
28
WPLN
Nashville
45
3.6
141,600
29
KUER
Salt Lake City
29
3.6
136,000
30
KSTX
San Antonio
28
3.7
134,600
31
WFAE
Charlotte
24
2.7
134,200
32
WVXU
Cincinnati
30
2.8
126,300
33
KCUR
Kansas City
34
3.3
125,500
34
WCPN
Cleveland
31
2.6
122,700
35
WOSU
Columbus
37
3.3
115,600
36
WMFE
Orlando
33
2.8
114,000
37
WFYI
Indianapolis
40
3.0
108,100
38
WNPR
Hartford
52
3.3
107,900
39
WESA
Pittsburgh
25
2.3
99,800
40
WJCT
Jacksonville
50
2.8
98,300
41
WUWM
Milwaukee/Racine
38
1.6
80,700
42
WAMU
Baltimore (DC station)
21
0.9
78,700
43
KNPR
Las Vegas
32
2.0
77,600
44
KUNC*
Denver (Ft. Collins metro station)
20
0.5
77,000
45
KALW
San Francisco
4
0.3
72,300
46
WGBH
Providence (Boston metro station)
44
1.8
71,300
47
WFDD
Greensboro/WS/HP
46
2.1
66,300
48
WCBE*
Columbus
37
0.9
65,900
49
WLRN
West Palm Beach
(Miami station)
48
1.6
61,400
50
WPBI
West Palm Beach
(repeats WKCP Miami)
48
1.7
61,200
51
WKSU
Cleveland (Akron metro station)
31
0.8
57,500
52
WRAS*
Atlanta (GPB)
9
0.4
56,700
53
KVCR
Riverside/San Bernardino
26
0.6
48,000
54
WKNO*
Memphis
51
2.2
47,800
55
WUNC
Greensboro/WS/HP (Raleigh metro station)
46
2.0
46,400
56
WFCR*
Hartford (Springfield MA metro station)
52
1.4
30,700
57
WELF
Providence
44
0.5
23,100
58
KUOR
Riverside/San Bernardino (repeats KPCC Pasadena)
26
0.3
19,000
59
WPBI HD2
West Palm Beach
48
0.9
16,500
60
KQEI
Sacramento
(repeats KQED San Francisco)
27
0.2
13,400

DATA © NIELSON AUDIO
Provided by RRC, Inc. for use by subscribers only
© Radio Research Consortium, Inc. // www.RRConline.org // RRC@RRConline.org
Format designations are the sole responsibility of Ken Mills Agency, LLC. Contact us publicradio@hotmail.com