Results for all of
Nielsen Audio’s April 2017 PPM markets are now available. The question on most
people’s minds is: Are stations holding their estimated weekly listeners now
that the 2016 election is five-months in the rear view mirror. The answer is:
Generally yes!
Today we are
looking at the top 30 NPR News stations ranked by their April 2017 estimated
weekly listeners compared to Fall 2016. The chart on the left has the summary
stats and individual stations are below.
Between Fall 2016
and April 2017 half (50%) of the 30 stations maintained their weekly listeners
from an election season where many records were broken. We are defining “maintained”
as a change of plus or minus 3% or less.
According to the
Nielsen data, six stations (20%) gained estimated weekly listeners by more than
3%. WBUR, KUHF and WFAE were the top performers, up 10% each.
However, 9 (30%) of
the top 30 stations had losses of estimated weekly listeners greater than 3%.
WNYC-AM lost the most listeners in the five-month comparison, down 27%. KNKX in
Seattle-Tacoma lost 19%.
WGBH, WAMU, WUSF & WYPR
SHINE IN FIVE-YEAR COMPARISON
There is no doubt
that the majority of the top 30 NPR News stations increased their estimated
weekly listeners between Spring 2012 and April 2017. More than seven in ten
increased their number of weekly listeners by greater than 3%. The summary chart is on the right.
This is
validation that the number of listeners to NPR News stations has continued to
grow in PPM markets despite overall radio trends that are down slightly every
year. I don’t know of another radio
format that has done this well.
WGBH is by far the
top gainer in the five-year comparison, up 47% since 2012. Other top performers
were WUSF (up 46%), WYPR (up 32%), WAMU (up 27%), KUHF (up 26%), KERA, KCFR and
KCFR were all up 24%.
WNYC-AM and KNKX
(formerly KPLU) had the biggest losses of estimated weekly listeners since
2012.
Overall, public
radio folks should be proud of their audience building!
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