Colorado Public Radio (CPR) this week announced
that it is accelerating a multi-year vision to grow the organization’s newsroom
with the addition of nine new positions, increasing CPR News staff to nearly 40
journalists.
CPR’s
investment in regional news is certainly impressive. The reason CPR is moving
quickly to expand the depth of its statewide coverage is, in part, the
perceived weakness of The Denver Post. In addition to the challenges of
operating a print based business during a time of media disruption, the Post
seems to have lost its regional mojo.
The Post and CPR are the only two news providers with a statewide
presence.
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| Colorado Public Radio covers almost the entire state |
CPR
is staffing up in two key out-state Colorado markets: Grand Junction and
Colorado Springs. Grand Junction is the only major city on Colorado’s Western
Slope, an area rich with energy, tourism and culture. Donors based in Grand Junction
have been important to CPR since it was founded.
Colorado
Springs, known locally as “The Springs” is the state’s second largest city with
a population of more than 500,000. The
Springs is internationally known as the home of the Air Force Academy, NORAD
and as a US Olympic training center.
Try
as they might, CPR has had little success becoming a primary news source in the
market. There are lots of theories why success
in The Springs has eluded CPR but the factor most observers agree upon is hometown
NPR News/Talk station KRCC.
The
situation has similarities to Northern Colorado where CPR’s growth has been
stymied by KUNC, a dynamic organization that offers two stations: one NPR
News/Talk (KUNC) and the other plays Triple A music (KJAC a/k/a The Colorado Sound).
Spark
News decided to examine the recent audience trends for KRCC and CPR News
outlets.
The chart on the left shows
KRCC’s estimated weekly listeners and average-quarter-hour (AQH) listeners
since Spring 2015.
As you can see, audience growth has been strong.
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| Tammy Turwelp |
Ironically,
KRCC just had its worst ratings performance in recent memory. But one “book” doesn’t make a trend.
We
spoke with KRCC’s GM Tammy Turwelp who is keeping the Spring ratings in
perspective:
“When I arrived as the new
GM of KRCC less than three years ago, the station had a smaller news
presence. The
work the team was doing (and winning awards for) in the years before I arrived
was substantial with a very (very) small news and content staff.
I am proud of what has been accomplished since then. We have the greatest respect for CPR but we live in southern Colorado and the people here are who we serve.”
Compare
KRCC’s market penetration with CPR News during the same three year period
(second chart on the left).
CPR upgraded their overage of The Springs when they
debuted, with great fanfare, a new full-power FM repeater that signed on June 23, 2017.
In the next Nielsen Audio ratings period, the number estimated weekly listeners to CPR News went down –
not the result CPR was expecting.
Moving
forward, there is plenty of news in southern Colorado and both KPCC and CPR
News are positioned to report. Just as the competition CPR has provided has made
KRCC better, we hope KRCC’s good work will improve CPR’s news coverage.
MEANWHILE, IN ALBANY,
MADISON & ASHEVILLE
The
Albany market consists of a huge geographical area – from mid-state to almost
Canada.
The result is that a lot of stations show up in the ratings but only
three stations dominate the core metro area: WAMC, WMHT and WEXT.
All three dipped a bit in the Spring 2018
Nielsen Audio Diary ratings compared with Spring 2017.
In Madison,the
number of estimated weekly listeners to all of the hometown stations was down
but Public Radio Talk WHA (The Ideas
Network) increased its AQH listeners – so some people were likely listening
longer.
Rumor
has it that Christian Talker WNWC-AM was way up because of one of the disciples
was in town doing live remote from a local water park. The walking-on-water drew
huge crowds. (I am joking, folks)
In
Asheville, it is a mystery why WCQS’s sister station WYQS isn’t doing better.
WYQS is 24/7 news/talk and dual format stations like WCQS have been sliding.
Also, it is nice to see Triple A WNCW doing well in its home market.
KUNC just hired Catherine Welch to run their news department, too. She's a veteran of public radio news, having done the same job at WMFE in Orlando and Rhode Island Public Radio previously. I'm sure she'll bring more success there, too!
ReplyDeleteWNWC-AM actually pays for itself. The programs that air on the station pay the station to air them. Not infomercials but Christian teaching programs. As long as the letters and email come in and money from doners...that is what matters. That is the oldest way Christian Radio operated. CCM struggled as a radio format in the 1970's and 80's. I get the joke, just FYI on that.
ReplyDeleteI really want to talk about KRCC since I live in CS. KRCC only kept its daily music blocks for as long as they did because it was making money for them i.e. their was an audience giving them money to keep that going. So a duel format was working for for them. Their still is music but regulated to the evenings, so the music program was cut back but not gone away completely, and it will not be full blown NPR News/Talk until someway somehow they can sign on a frequency that will do music full time like KUNC did.
Tammy Turwelp has been good at beefing up NPR stations that were focused on music in the past. First in Pittsburgh after being sold off (the previous owners would not let go of the Jazz), and now in Colorado Springs.
Only drawback for The Colorado Sound (not really) is that it is not as eclectic as it used to be...its much more disciplined, but not as tight as a commercial station, and yes TCS is under a consulting firm. Paragon is great but still incorporates some discipline. One thing for sure, you will not hear any Smooth Jazz or Classical mixed into the rock which KUNC did back in the day.