WBEZ REFRESHES SCHEDULE • NPR NEWS/TALK STATIONS SHOW BIG GAINS IN 4 YEAR PPM TRENDS

Changes in the schedule of Chicago’s WBEZ are always closely watched by public radio programmers. WBEZ is the sole NPR News/Talk voice in the nation’s third largest market. In fact, WBEZ is one of only two CPB-qualified stations in Chicago.

WBEZ announced the changes in a message to station members last week [link]. The new weekday and weekend schedule reflects an even greater commitment to news. New programs on WBEZ as of May 14^th include:

• 1A Public radio’s biggest hit of the past five years will air twice each weekday at 10:00am and 10:00pm. Host Joshua Johnson has become NPR’s most visible journalist on other media. 1A has near universal carriage on NPR stations, surpassing its predecessor The Diane Rehm Show.

• The Daily The radio version of the acclaimed podcast from The New York Times continues to gain carriage on NPR News/Talk stations. 

The Daily will be heard Monday – Thursday at 7:30pm. 

Kudos to American Public Media (APM) for making this program available to stations.

• The Takeaway – on Saturday Until we saw this item, we didn’t know there was a weekend version of The Takeaway. Is it a rehashed “best of” or is it new content? Let’s hope it is fresh stuff. The show starts on WBEZ on June 2^nd at 3:00pm.

FOUR YEAR TRENDS: NPR NEWS/TALK STATIONS

Jarl Mohn is smiling today...

Jarl Mohn, CEO of NPR, will like this post because it clearly shows how well NPR News stations have done since 2014. 

Today we are looking at six major NPR News/Talk stations, comparing April 2018 Nielsen PPM ratings with data since April 2014. We are examining both estimated weekly listeners and Average-Quarter-Hour (AQH) share. 

All six stations have increased their weekly listeners and AQH share since April 2014.  Some of the gains are phenomenal.

Please let us know if you feel these four-year trend lines are of interest and value. You reach as at publicradio@hotmail.com.

At WBEZ estimated weekly listeners are up 16% since April 2014. The big story is WBEZ’s AQH, up 43% since April 2014.

WNYC-FM had its best book ever in April 2018. There has been dramatic growth in estimated weekly listeners and AQH share. WNYC-FM is now tied for tenth in the nation’s largest market, ahead of legendary stations such as all-news WCBS-AM, talker WOR-AM and right-wing talker WABC-AM in AQH share.

In Los Angeles KPCC scored its biggest number of estimated weekly listeners in recent memory. KPCC’s 2.6% AQH share puts it ahead of alt rocker KROQ, Spanish KLAX and urban/CHR giant Power 106.

KCRW has bounced around the Nielsen ratings quite a bit since April 2014. But, according to the four year trends, KCRW is up 12% in estimated weekly listeners and up 33% in AQH share.

No other Bay Area station is even close to KQED in AQH share. The closest one to KQED’s AQH of 8.4% is all-news KCBS/KFRC at 5.4%. This is an amazing performance.  Note the way KQED’s AQH goes up even when their number of estimated weekly listeners goes down.

KUHF, Houston is way up in both estimated weekly listeners and AQH share. KUHF now leads all other news and talk stations in AQH share.

TUNE IN TOMORROW FOR MORE FOUR YEAR TREND LINES.