KCRW IS A STAR PERFORMBER IN FEBRUARY PPM TRENDS

Nielsen Audio and the Radio Research Consortium (RRC) have begun releasing results for February in PPM markets. Not all subscribing stations are shown because RRC is finalizing paperwork with some clients because of RRC's new four-year deal with Nielsen.

Today we have estimated results for six of the nation’s largest radio markets. Below we compare February 2016 results with February 2015 and look at one-year trends in Weekly Cumulative Listeners.

Something amazing is going on at KCRW in Santa Monica. In the past year KCRW has added over 200,000 weekly listeners – up 33% in the always competitive Los Angeles market.  How are they doing it? It appears KCRW is providing more news programming from NPR and other sources.

Weekdays from 3:00am to 8:00pm KCRW is solid news and talk. The one exception isf Morning Becomes Eclectic with Jason Bentley which still airs from 9:00am to Noon.

KCRW’s Triple A-ish music mix continues overnight 8:00pm to 3:00am. KCRW has made a considerable investment in the program Press Play with Madeline Brand.  It airs twice daily at Noon and a rollover at 7:00pm.

Other stations making notable gains include KERA, Dallas (up 26%) and WXPN, Philadelphia (up 14%).  Scroll down to see results for all six markets and further analysis.

MARKET SUMMARIES

 Jazz continues to perform well in the largest markets.  WBGO added 11% more weekly listeners in the past year. WFUV was down a bit but still reaches a substantial number of weekly listeners. WNYC-AM had the biggest decline, 28% fewer weekly listeners in one year. Perhaps it is a reflection of AM in general.  Maybe WNYC-AM should get a FM translator.

Jazz continues to perform very, very well at KKJZ – estimated weekly listeners are up 13% over the past year. KPCC held its own versus KCRW.

KQED came back strong after recent declines in estimated weekly listeners. NPR News stations typically draw more listening during competitive political campaigns, so this may be responsible for part of KQED’s gains.

This is another awesome performance by KERA.  They added over 100,000 weekly listeners from February 2015.

There appears to be an interesting Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) battle happening in the Metroplex. The stations are competing: Locally owned KCBI is the traditional leader. KVRK is satellite delivered Way FM. 

KJRN is a very sophisticated operation.  I love the brand name.  The Adventists are doing some great radio.

This is the last book for Classical KUHA.  KSBJ brought the frequency and it is re-emerging with a Christian Hip Hop station. Good luck with that...

Nice gains by WXPN. WHYY may have gotten a “political bump.