THREE OUT OF FOUR NPR NEWS STATIONS MAINTAIN WEEKLY LISTENERS FIVE MONTHS AFTER NOVEMBER ELECTION

Today we are examining the track records of six more NPR News stations in Nielsen Audio PPM markets. We now have examined 20 of the top NPR News stations in PPM markets – roughly a third of the stations.

Using just released ratings estimates from April 2017 we are comparing performance in April with Fall 2016 to detect trends since the elections. To bring additional context to the discussion, we are also comparing April 2017 numbers with Spring 2012 to establish a five-year trend.

On the left is a chart showing estimated weekly listeners in Fall 2016 and April 2017. Of the 20 station’s PPM ratings we have examined so far, 75% have either gained weekly listeners, or stayed about the same, between Fall election and April 2017. Five stations (25%) have lost weekly listeners during the same period.

The chart on the right shows estimated weekly listeners over a five-year period between Spring 2012 and April 2017. Three out of four of the 20 stations examined so far have increased their number of weekly listeners more than 3% from Spring 2012 to April 2017. Four stations (20%) had more estimated weekly listeners in Spring 2012 than April 2017.

 

Let’s look at each of the six stations, listed by market rank: