“105.5 THE COLORADO SOUND” NOW HAS MORE WEEKLY LISTENERS THAN KUNC

89.3 THE CURRENT MAINTAINS PRINCE LISTENING BUMP

Folks have been eagerly awaiting the Nielsen Audio June PPM estimates to see whether 89.3 The Current’s historic May boost in listening continues a month after the coverage of Prince’s passing. As we reported [link} on June 10^th, the number of weekly listeners to The Current (broadcast signal & streaming audio) jumped to over 411,000 in the May PPM.  It appears The Current is maintaining many of these listeners.

The number of estimated weekly listeners to The Current (broadcast signal & streaming audio) in June was down only 7% in May, a much smaller drop than some observers expected. The number of weekly listener’s to The Current’s streaming audio continued to rise. It is now the top streaming audio source in noncommercial radio.

Also notable are the gains in weekly listeners by 105.5 The Colorado Sound – aka KJAC – in the Denver/Boulder metro. According to June PPM estimates, 105.5 now has more weekly listeners in Denver than NPR News KUNC. Who would have thought that in less than four months The Colorado Sound would top its 40-year heritage cousin KUNC. But that is what is happening in Northern Colorado. The folks in Greeley must be very, very pleased.

Soon we will see the full numbers for The Colorado Sound and KUNC. Spring 2016 Nielsen Audio data for Diary markets will be released over the next few weeks. Traditionally KUNC has as many weekly listeners outside of the Denver metro as it does in Denver.

105.5 The Colorado Sound is succeeding because it is filling a need, engendering passion for music discovery and was flawlessly launched by consultant Mike Henry and everyone at KUNC. The Colorado Sound is an example of increasing public service that hopefully can be replicated elsewhere.

Overall, 10 Triple A stations (63%) increased their number of weekly listeners; 6 (37%) declined. Top performers also included KRCL, Salt Lake City, up 15%.  KVOQ, Denver was down 10%.

ALSO THIS WEEK ON SPARK! –

TOMORROW: NPR NEWS STATIONS

THURSDAY: CLASSICAL STATIONS

KMBH & KSDS SET THE PACE FOR JAZZ STATION LISTENER GAINS

The June Nielsen Audio PPM brought terrific news for Jazz noncoms, particularly compared with results from June 2015. We have comparable data for 11 Jazz stations in PPM Markets. Nine (82%) of these stations increased the number of weekly listeners; only 2 (18%) declined.

KMBH, Portland and KSDS, San Diego increased their number of estimated weekly listeners by 22% over one-year.  WBGO, New York and KBEM, Minneapolis were both up 21%. The biggest percentage gainer was WNCU, Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill up 23%.

The biggest decline in weekly listeners was at WUCF, Orlando, down 11% from June 2015.

DON’T BET AGAINST THE DRAWING POWER OF CCM

I recently made an informal bet with a reader in Colorado Springs who asked not to be identified because he works in the radio biz. My Colorado friend said that CCM has more weekly listeners than Triple A.  I said “no way.”  It turned out that my friend was right and I was wrong.

To determine a par value comparison between the two formats, I tabulated the weekly cumulative listeners for all of the CCM and Triple A stations. Then I divided the total for each format by the number of in-tab stations.   

According to this very unscientific study, the average number of weekly listeners to CCM stations in June 2016 was 186,900.  The Triple A average was 176,800.  So the God-squad wins this one!

Of course this doesn’t take into consideration the listening to CCM and Triple A on commercial stations.  Many CCM and Triple A noncoms don’t subscribe to Nielsen, so their numbers are also unknown. Still, I was surprised.

June 2016 PPM results for CCM stations, compared to June 2015, were a mixed bag. Twelve (50%) of stations increased their number of weekly listeners; 11 (46%) declined; one station was the same both years Top performers included CCM Rocker WBVM, Tampa, up 49%; Moody’s WMBI, Chicago, up 29%; and WGTS, Washington, DC, up 17%.

WRMB, Miami was down 25%. CCM powerhouse KSBJ, Houston – the leading CCM station in the nation – was down over 6%.