Nielsen Audio
ratings for Fall 2015 Diary markets are now pouring in via the Radio Research
Consortium (“RRC”). Most NPR News and Classical stations subscribe to the data. Fewer Triple A and CCM stations subscribe and
their listening is not available. The majority of the Diary Markets are
measured twice a year – Spring and Fall. Today we have comparisons from Fall
2015 and Fall 2014.
RICHMOND • Nielsen Audio Market #54
|
STATION
|
FORMAT
|
2014 WEEKLY LISTENERS
|
2015 WEEKLY LISTENERS
|
TREND
|
|
WCVE
|
NPR News & Classical
|
105,800
|
108,200
|
+ 2%
|
|
WFFC
|
NPR News
|
16,700
|
29,900
|
+ 44%
|
|
WJYJ
|
CCM
|
66,600
|
51,400
|
- 22%
|
|
WNRN
|
Triple A
|
Na
|
16,800
|
Na
|
|
WVTW
|
NPR News & Classical
|
15,100
|
29,700
|
+ 49%
|
Despite the fact
that WCVE remains the top NPR News station, two out-of-market repeaters continue
to gain ground in Virginia’s capitol city. WVTF must be doing something right
particularly with 24/7 NPR News WFFC aka Radio
IQ. Good to see WNRN subscribing to the ratings again. They appear in
several Virginia markets. Look for our
Diary market Triple A summary.
LOUISVILLE • Nielsen Audio Market #55
|
STATION
|
FORMAT
|
2014 WEEKLY LISTENERS
|
2015 WEEKLY LISTENERS
|
TREND
|
|
WFPK
|
Triple
A
|
64,300
|
62,400
|
-
<1%
|
|
WFPL
|
NPR
News
|
105,700
|
110,100
|
+ 4%
|
|
WUOL
|
Classical
|
38,500
|
31,700
|
- 17%
|
Two of the three
Louisville Public Media stations saw gains in weekly listeners but Classical
WUOL declined a bit. WCHQ 100.9 FM, a new LPFM station – Crescent Hill Radio – is an up-and-coming noncom that concentrates
like a laser on the local music community. Keep this station on your radar
[link].
OKLAHOMA CITY • Nielsen Audio Market #50
|
STATION
|
FORMAT
|
2014 WEEKLY LISTENERS
|
2015 WEEKLY LISTENERS
|
TREND
|
|
KGOU
|
NPR News & Jazz
|
69,700
|
58,500
|
- 14%
|
|
KLVV
|
CCM
|
10,900
|
15,200
|
+ 28%
|
|
KOSU
|
NPR News & College
Rock
|
64,300
|
55,500
|
- 13%
|
|
KUCO
|
Classical
|
45,300
|
38,400
|
- 15%
|
|
KXTH
|
CCM
|
32,700
|
30,800
|
- 5%
|
All three public
radio stations in OKC had declines in weekly listeners. KGOU should own this
market but they haven’t taken the initiative.
This has given KOSU, another compromised station from Stillwater, the
ability to take about half of the NPR News listening. KLVV, part of a regional
network of CCM stations based in Ponca City keeps building momentum.
ROCHESTER • Nielsen Audio Market #58
|
STATION
|
FORMAT
|
2014 WEEKLY LISTENERS
|
2015 WEEKLY LISTENERS
|
TREND
|
|
WEOS
|
NPR News
|
4,200
|
7,500
|
+ 44%
|
|
WRUR
|
NPR News & Triple A
|
31,700
|
33,700
|
+ 6%
|
|
WXXI-AM
|
NPR News
|
58,700
|
42,400
|
- 27%
|
|
WXXI-FM
|
Classical
|
57,400
|
68,500
|
+ 16%
|
WXXI operates all
of these stations. WRUR simulcasts NPR
News magazines from WXXI-AM. Wouldn’t be
nice if WXXI-AM could take advantage of the FCC’s move-your-AM-to-FM ruling.
Maybe then WRUR could become fulltime Triple A.
|
These data are provided for use by Nielsen Audio subscribers
ONLY, in accordance with
RRC's limited license with Nielsen Audio.
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Monday-Sunday 6AM-Midnight Persons 12+
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Data Copyright Nielsen Audio.
Format
designations are the sole responsibility of Ken Mills Agency, LLC.
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Being the former GM of WEOS, I can assure you that the situation is, well, "complicated".
ReplyDeleteArguably WXXI should've put their news product on 91.5 ages ago, back when the suburbs centered in and around Victor, NY started getting more filled-in with wealthy folks. That's squarely in a null of 1370's pattern, esp at night. But that ship has sailed; to move the classical off 91.5 would badly hurt major donor cultivation...something WXXI GM Norm Silverstein is a bloody genius at. And Rochester is unlike much of upstate NY in that it was a strong tradition of major giving philanthropy thanks to the Eastman/Kodak empire and a comparatively strong higher education, healthcare, and biomedical research industries.
The relationship with WRUR is also complicated; it's still owned by the University of Rochester (a private college) and the LMA dictates certain programming restrictions. But really it's more that the news/talk product is their big moneymaker and their only realistic FM outlet for it is WRUR. To say this has led to massive confusion on the diary reporting is an understatement.
It gets worse: WXXI-FM-HD2 is a simulcast of WXXI-AM. While HD Radio penetration isn't big there ARE at least a few (and passionate) HD2 listeners out there; I know that when the HD2 goes down, the engineers hear about it from listeners pretty fast.
This partly explains why WXXI AM's ratings continue to drop; people are instead listening to ME & ATC on WRUR instead. Robbing Peter to pay Paul, so to speak.
And to top it off, WEOS was on 89.7 for many years, with a big directional null towards Rochester to protect WITR 89.7 in Henrietta (a suburb just south of Rochester proper). Back in 2012 they finally moved to 89.5 and an omni signal (also boosted from 4000 to 6000 watts) and now WEOS covers a lot of those wealthy suburbs centered around Victor that I was talking about before. Plus Canandaigua NY which is a major summertime tourist destination for Rochester folks. And when the LMA happened WXXI paid to have a local news anchor for Morning Edition. Between all that, it's no surprise WEOS's ratings have climbed, too.
Anyways, I'm sure WXXI would like to have an FM translator in the abstract but it's not really a solution to the core problem that WXXI's directional signal doesn't cover some key neighborhoods that have appeared over the last 60 years, nor does it solve the problem of pubradio listeners migrating to FM over AM in general. There's no way a single FM translator can cover the entire market well enough for that...not when the core programming (ME & ATC) are already available on a vastly superior signal on WRUR 88.5.
Strictly speaking, what would make more sense is to put WXXI-AM's news/talk on 91.5 and put the classical programming on 91.5-HD2 and 1370 w/an FM translator. I'm sure there'd be howls of protest but likely you could just buy all the complainers an HD Radio receiver and still come out ahead financially.
Of course, this assumes there's room on the dial, which I don't think there is...not for a good translator signal, anyways. Although there are a few existing translators already in town that have quite good signals but I doubt they're for sale.