NPR NEWS STATIONS: WRAS & KNPR HAVE BIGGEST WEEKLY LISTENER GAINS IN ONE YEAR PPM TRENDS

It looks like Georgia Public Radio’s venture into the Atlanta metro via a LMA with WRAS is beginning to pay off.  According to Nielsen Audio PPM data for Fall 2015 compared with Fall 2014, WRAS scored a 40% increase in estimated weekly listeners.  This is even more impressive when you consider NPR News is on less than 18 hours per day.  Congratulations to Tanya Ott and the crew at GPR!

KNPR, Las Vegas, also had a very impressive 35% gain in weekly listeners in the one-year trends. KVCR and WJCT continue to punch above their weight. The one-year trends also showed a weekly boost for Torey Malatia’s WLEH in Providence.

Overall, stations airing NPR News showed declines in weekly listeners.  We currently track listening in 59 PPM markets.  Scroll down to see all of them.

Not counting dual format and out-of-market stations, there are 45 “pure” NPR News stations. Twenty (44%) had one-year gains in weekly listeners; 25 (56%) had one-year losses of weekly listeners.  Note that two stations in both New York and Detroit had the biggest declines.  Ouch!

NPR NEWS STATIONS: TEN BIGGEST GAINS OF WEEKLY LISTENERS

NIELSEN AUDIO PPM MARKETS • COMPARING FALL 2015 & FALL 2014

RK	STATION	NIELSEN AUDIO MARKET	FALL 2014 WEEKLY LISTENERS	FALL 2015 WEEKLY LISTENERS	ONE YEAR TREND
1	WRAS	Atlanta	61,200	102,000	+ 40%
2	KNPR	Las Vegas	65,800	101,300	+ 35%
3	KVCR	Riverside/S Bernardino	36,000	52,600	+ 31%
4	WJCT	Jacksonville	94,800	123,000	+ 22%
5	KALW	San Francisco	84,800	103,500	+ 18%
6	WELH	Providence	31,700	36,900	+ 14%
7t	KERA	Dallas/Fort Worth	332,000	385,900	+ 13%
7t	KCUR	Kansas City	137,700	159,000	+ 13%
9	KXJZ	Sacramento	167,700	186,900	+ 10%
10	WFYI	Indianapolis	112,100	123,800	+ 9%

NPR NEWS STATIONS: TEN BIGGEST LOSSES OF WEEKLY LISTENERS

NIELSEN AUDIO PPM MARKETS • COMPARING FALL 2015 & FALL 2014

RK	STATION	NIELSEN AUDIO MARKET	FALL 2014 WEEKLY LISTENERS	FALL 2015 WEEKLY LISTENERS	ONE YEAR TREND
1	WPLN	Nashville	156,200	113,700	- 27%
2	WNYC-FM	New York	830,700	656,200	- 21%
3	WUOM	Detroit	181,100	144,200	- 20%
4	WYPR	Baltimore	162,900	130,200	- 20%
5	WLRN	Miami	294,500	239,800	- 18%
6	KWMU	St. Louis	220,000	186,200	- 15%
7	WABE	Atlanta	399,600	344,300	- 14%
8t	WNYC-AM	New York	263,200	228,500	- 13%
8t	WDET	Detroit	131,300	113,700	- 13%
10	WFAE	Charlotte	147,700	132,700	- 10%

NPR NEWS STATIONS ONE-YEAR TRENDS

NIELSEN AUDIO PPM MARKETS • FALL 2015 & FALL 2014

Monday – Sunday 6am – Midnight, Persons 6+

Ranked by 2015 weekly cumulative listeners

RK	STATION	NIELSEN AUDIO MARKET	FALL 2014 WEEKLY LISTENERS	FALL 2015 WEEKLY LISTENERS	ONE YEAR TREND
1	KQED	San Francisco	733,300	715,100	- 2%
2	KPCC	Los Angeles	662,000	708,300	+ 6%
3	KCRW*	Los Angeles	448,200	661,800	+ 32%
4	WNYC-FM	New York	830,700	656,200	- 21%
5	WAMU	Washington DC	589,100	614,800	+ 4%
6	WBEZ	Chicago	497,800	525,500	+ 5%
7	WBUR	Boston	446,000	434,100	- 2%
8	KERA	Dallas/Fort Worth	332,000	385,900	+ 13%
9	WABE	Atlanta	399,600	344,300	- 14%
10	KUHF	Houston/Galveston	317,000	330,500	+ 4%
11	KUOW	Seattle/Tacoma	302,400	325,100	+ 7%
12	WHYY	Philadelphia	341,100	322,400	- 5%
13	KNOW	Minneapolis/St. Paul	348,200	321,300	- 7%
14	KPLU*	Seattle/Tacoma	299,600	313,500	+ 4%
15	WGBH	Boston	296,100	311,500	+ 4%
16	KPBS	San Diego	301,200	309,000	+ 2%
17	KCFR	Denver/Boulder	298,400	281,500	- 5%
18	KOPB	Portland	319,100	272,900	- 14%
19	WLRN	Miami	294,500	239,800	- 18%
20	WNYC-AM	New York	263,200	228,500	- 13%
21	KJZZ	Phoenix	225,700	206,500	- 8%
22	WUNC	Raleigh/Durham	192,200	202,600	+ 5%
23	KUT	Austin	200,100	195,500	- 2%
24	KXJZ	Sacramento	167,700	186,900	+ 10%
25	KWMU	St. Louis	220,000	186,200	- 15%
26	KCUR	Kansas City	137,700	159,000	+ 13%
27	WUSF	Tampa/St. Petersburg	147,600	156,500	+ 5%
28	WUOM	Detroit	181,100	144,200	- 20%
29	WVXU	Cincinnati	143,500	140,700	- 1%
30	KSTX	San Antonio	144,300	140,200	- 2%
31	KUER	Salt Lake City	137,000	138,500	+ >1%
32	WOSU	Columbus	135,500	136,400	+ >1%
33	WFAE	Charlotte	147,700	132,700	- 10%
34	WYPR	Baltimore	162,900	130,200	- 20%
35	WFYI	Indianapolis	112,100	123,800	+ 9%
36	WJCT	Jacksonville	94,800	123,000	+ 22%
37	WCPN	Cleveland	125,100	116,200	- 7%
38t	WDET	Detroit	131,300	113,700	- 13%
38t	WPLN	Nashville	156,200	113,700	- 27%
40	WMFE	Orlando	116,300	112,600	- 3%
41	WAMU	Baltimore (DC metro station)	72,700	108,000	+ 32%
42	KALW	San Francisco	84,800	103,500	+ 18%
43	WRAS	Atlanta	61,200	102,000	+ 40%
44	KNPR	Las Vegas	65,800	101,300	+ 35%
45	WFDD*	Greensboro/WS	61,800	89,600	+ 31%
46	WUWM	Milwaukee	91,000	86,700	- 4%
47	WESA	Pittsburgh	104,100	82,700	- 20%
48	WCBE*	Columbus	79,500	74,500	- 6%
49	WLRN	West Palm Beach (Miami metro station)	64,300	69,700	+ 7%
50	KANU*	Kansas City (Topeka metro station)	52,000	65,100	+ 20%
51	WHAD**	Milwaukee	75,600	64,400	- 14%
52	WGBH	Providence (Boston metro station)	74,300	61,200	- 17%
53	WUNC	Greensboro/WS (Raleigh/Dur metro station)	52,900	60,700	+ 12%
54	WKSU	Cleveland (Akron metro station)	57,200	55,600	- 2%
55	KVCR	Riverside/S Bernardino	36,000	52,600	+ 31%
56	WKNO*	Memphis	53,500	49,600	- 7%
57	WELH	Providence	31,700	36,900	+ 14%
58	KQEI	Sacramento (repeats (KQED San Francisco)	20,600	23,500	+ 12%
59	WFCR*	Hartford (Springfield MA metro station)	31,800	23,400	- 26%

* Dual format station

** WHAD, Milwaukee does not air NPR newsmagazines.  It repeats Wisconsin Public Radio’s talk programming

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Definition of “Weekly Cume Persons” – “Cume” means cumulative listening – a measure of the total number of different persons in the designated metro area exposed to an encoded station for at least five minutes in a quarter-hour during an average week in a survey period.