KEXP-FM
90.5 FM in Seattle recently received one of the largest ever bequests to an
individual public radio station. An anonymous listener, identified only as
"Suzanne," left nearly $10 million to the noncommercial Triple A and Alternative
Rock station.
According
to a spokesperson from KEXP [link], the surprisingly generous donation will help
establish a permanent endowment, allow expansion of KEXP’s digital efforts and
fund a full-time education and outreach team.
The New York Times reported [link] that
Suzanne died in 2016. She was living out of state but frequently visited her
family who live in the Seattle area. Following her death, Suzanne’s estate
lawyers informed KEXP’s management of the gift in February 2017.
 |
| Kevin Cole |
Some
people at KEXP knew Suzanne and her taste in music. One of these folks is Kevin
Cole, KEXP’s Chief Content Officer and afternoon host. Cole celebrated Suzanne’s gift
with a handpicked 45-minute set of her favorite music on Monday
(4/16). Cole began the set with Leonard Cohen’s Suzanne followed by tunes by the English Beat, Sharon Jones and the
Cure.
After
the set, Cole talked about Suzanne and her gift:
“We are humbled and
honored [by her] incredible generosity. Suzanne’s love of music, her support
for artists, her sense of philanthropy and service to the community, and the
joy she found in exploration and discovery will live on in the programs and
services that are made possible through this amazing gift."
Suzanne was a listener since the
1990s. She described KEXP’s role in her life in a testimonial that she recorded
before her death. During the on-air tribute listeners heard Suzanne’s voice say:
“When I told my uncle
that my favorite radio station had just gone off the air, he turned me on to
KEXP. Music is one of the best ways to unite people globally, and I love an
organization which spreads that goodness.”
She
ended her taped remarks with KEXP’s frequently heard positioning slogan:
“I’m
Suzanne, and I power KEXP.”
Inspired
by the donation, KEXP has also created a new planned giving initiative, the Reverb
Society [link].
NIELSEN AUDIO PPM RATINGS
FOR SEATTLE-TACOMA, PLUS A CORRECTION
My
friend Chuck Singleton, GM of WFUV, New York, contacted me about a mistake in last
Wednesday’s post [link] about the station’s performance in the March 2018
Nielsen PPM ratings. In the post we combined WFUV’s weekly listeners in the New
York book with the weekly listeners in the Nassau-Suffolk (Long Island) book.
Singleton
told us that the Long Island data is already embedded in the New York numbers,
so we were double-counting them. We checked with RRC and Chuck is correct.
Listeners in the Long Island metro and the Middlesex-Somerset-Union (Northern
New Jersey) metro are embedded in the New York data.
The
chart on the left contains the correct information for WFUV and other New York
stations.
The
same arrangement is also found in northern California.
San Jose’s numbers are embedded in the San
Francisco PPM ratings.
KQED has 962,400 estimated weekly listens includes listeners in San Francisco
and San Jose combined.
In
the Seattle-Tacoma PPM ratings KUOW and KNKX increased their estimated weekly
listeners by significant amounts over March 2017.
KEXP
(featured above) also increased their weekly listeners, up 9% over the past
year.
Two
stations, noncom KUOW and commercial KIRO, are neck-and-neck.
KIRO leads in weekly listeners and KUOW leads
in AQH share.
KUOW
and KNKX lead Sinclair’s KOMO and KTTH in both weekly listeners and AQH share.
(An announcement for one of my consulting clients.)
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