NPR NEWS/TALK STATIONS IN TOP FIVE MARKETS HOLD WEEKLY LISTENERS

According to Nielsen Audio February PPM ratings most NPR News/Talk stations in the five markets are maintaining or exceeding their estimated cumulative weekly listeners from the 2016 election period. The results are being closely watched because after past hot news cycles NPR News/Stations have seen a decline of estimated weekly listeners of 10% to 20%. That does not appear to be happening this time.

KQED, San Francisco, shows how good it can be. They are now the number one station in the Bay Area market with a 7.7 AQH Share, topping longtime leader KCBS-AM & KFRC-FM (6.8).  KCBS/KFRC (1,194,700) leads KQED (981,600) in estimated weekly listeners. These two stations remind me of WAMU and WTOP in Washington, DC.

KQED leads commercial talk station KSFO by a substantial margin (2.8 AQH Share; 285,000 weekly cume). Noncom News/Talk KALW, lost listeners from the January book.

In New York City, WNYC-FM was off a bit but still has nearly a record high number of estimated weekly listeners. WQXR (Classical), WBGO (Jazz) and WFUV (Triple A) all were up from the previous month. Apparently Educational Media Foundation (EMF) is now subscribing to Nielsen Audio in more markets. Their K-LOVE repeater WKLV had the biggest one month gain in the market.

KPCC has an estimated 904,700 weekly listeners when streaming audio listeners are combined with listeners to the broadcast signal. KKJZ, perhaps the most successful jazz station in America, has nearly a record high number of weekly listeners.

In Chicago, WBEZ continues to build weekly listeners. 

It will be interesting to see is the program/content director now that Ben Calhoun is leaving Chicago Public Media.

 
Congratulations to WDCB on a nice bump.

EMF’s K-LOVE repeater KYDA again is the number one noncom in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Dallas is probably the most competitive CCM market in the country.  In addition to K-LOVE, there are two other rated CCM noncoms plus commercial giant KLTY, the market leader with 773,500 estimated weekly cumulative listeners.