“THE COLORADO SOUND” COMES TO SUMMIT COUNTY • NPR NEWS SOARS IN DENVER, SEATTLE & MINNEAPOLIS

SUNSET IN BRECKENRIDGE, COLORADO

Summit County in Colorado is a wonderland for skiing, hiking and healthy living.  According to the American Medical Association, residents of Summit County have the longest life expectancy in the nation: 86.3 years. But, locals will tell you it is a tough place to get over-the-air radio and TV signals.

The mountainous terrain around Breckenridge, the county seat, and other communities prevents most residents from receiving most Front Range electronic media. 

So residents developed a unique way to get FM and TV signals into the county: Summit Public Radio & TV (SPRTV).

SPRTV [link] is a non-profit cooperative that operates an “antenna farm” on Bald Mountain (elevation 13,690’) east of Breckenridge.  From this high peak, SPRTV receives distant signals and rebroadcasts them on translators. SPRTV specializes in bringing public broadcasting into the county. Listeners can hear NPR News from KUNC, Greeley, Classical music from KCME, Colorado Springs, and Jazz music from KUVO in Denver.

Stacy Towar

Now Summit County residents can hear The Colorado Sound, Triple A KJAC based in Greeley. According to a report in the Summit Daily News [link], Breckenridge residents can now hear one of their own on The Colorado Sound: Stacy Towar.  Leigh Girvin, outreach coordinator for SPRTV, told the Summit Daily [link]:

"We're kind of bringing her home [to a station that] features and promotes Colorado- based music, a growing part of the local economy.”

Meanwhile on the Colorado Front Range, Colorado Public Radio’s (CPR) KCFR continues to add new weekly cumulative listeners. The NPR News station had 10% more estimated weekly listeners in the June Nielsen Audio PPM ratings compared with June 2016. All three of CPR’s Denver stations (KCFR, Classical KVOD and Triple A KVOQ) increaded their number of weekly listeners in the past year.

One final Colorado note: Aspen Public Radio is looking for Chief Operating Officer.  The search is being handled by Livingston Associates.  For more information, check here.

KUOW LEADS COMMERCIAL NEWS COMPETITORS IN SEATTLE

In the Seattle-Tacoma June 2017 PPM ratings NPR News KUOW is now the top news voice in the radio market. KUOW’s 5.8 average-quarter-hour (AQH) share was significantly higher than much-hyped KIRO (3.6%) and Sinclair’s KOMO (3.0%). KUOW’s 400,700 estimated weekly listeners also topped KIRO (398,200) and KOMO (378,800).

NPR News and Jazz station KNKX had 2% more weekly listeners than predecessor KPLU had in June 2016. KEXP was up 16%.

KNOW, MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL, HITS ALL-TIME HIGH OF 462,900 WEEKLY LISTENERS

NPR News station KNOW added almost 20% new estimated weekly listeners between June 2016 and June 2017 according to Nielsen Audio. KNOW’s broadcast signal and streaming audio reached 177,000 more estimated weekly listeners than CBS’ WCCO-AM in the June sweeps. KNOW had a 5.6% AQH share; WCCO had a 3.7% AQH share.

WCCO’s decline is notable because of the station’s legacy as the top News/Talk station.  WCCO-AM once had a 50% share of the markets’ listening. I wrote about WCCO’s sad decline about a year ago [link] in a post called The Night WCCO Gave Up on Radio.  New owner Entercom has its work cut out for it in Minneapolis.