TRUMP BUDGET AXES WWV & WWVH • WOMEN ARE LISTENING TO MORE PODCASTS • NIELSEN RATINGS FOR SAN DIEGO, PHOENIX & TAMPA

The WWV "antenna farm" near Fort Collins, Colorado

You might call it the war on time. 

An item has emerged from President Trump’s FY 2019 budget that has navigators, engineers and scientists concerned:  

 The National Institute of Standards (NIST) is eliminating funding for WWV in Colorado and WWVH in Hawaii that broadcast Universal Coordinated Time (UCT).  UCT is used time stamping and synchronization.

The Department of Commerce, which includes NIST, was cut almost 40% in Trump’s proposed budget. Eliminating the two stations will save $6.3 million. Administration officials say the funds may be used for Trump’s proposed wall between the United States and Mexico.

NIST officials say they cannot comment on budget matters. The White House has referred questions about NIST’s funding to the Office of Management and Budget.

In addition to scientific and engineering uses, NIST's standardization service is used by millions of consumer clocks and watches to re-set them to the current time. Neither the Department of Commerce nor NIST solicited any public comments before announcing the cuts.

Eliminating NIST time signals will leave GPS as the only wide area, wireless time source for the United States. However, GPS doesn’t do everything the NIST stations do. GPS devices must have an unobstructed view of a number of satellites in space to properly function. Indoor use is often impaired. Plus, if a catastrophic event zaps digital systems, NIST is an excellent backup for GPS.

SPEAK UP NOW TO SAVE WWV

Efforts are now underway to keep the NIST services. A petition drive has been set up by scientists, former NIST employees and bloggers.  More information is available here. 

SURVEY SAYS: INCREASED LISTENING TO PODCASTS BY WOMEN DRIVING PODCAST GROWTH

Advertising Age reports [link] that a new study suggests that women are the fastest growing demographic of podcast users. The gains are partly due to increased popularity of Smart Speakers. Westwood One, a podcast and radio program distribution company owned by Cumulus Media commissioned the study.

Although podcast listeners have historically been dominated by men, the new research indicates that time spent listening to podcasts significantly grew among women, from 4.6 hours per week in 2017 to 5.5 hours per week in 2018 - a 20 percent gain.

Roughly 55 percent of podcast listeners are men, which is flat year-over-year, according to the report. Time spent listening among men grew was 7.6 hours per week in 2018, the study said.

KPBS INCREASES NEWS RATINGS LEAD IN SAN DIEGO

NPR News/Talk giant KPBS continues to pull away from all other news stations in the San Diego market. 

In fact, KPBS has the highest AQH share of any station in San Diego.

KPBS’s 6.5 AQH share and 317,800 estimated weekly listeners in the August 2018 Nielsen PPM ratings are roughly double what commercial News/Talkers KOGO-AM and KFMB-AM have combined.

Jazz music station KSDS was not listed in the August book.

In the Valley of the Sun, KJZZ was down a bit from prior books. 

KJZZ now has a lower AQH share than News/Talk KTAR-FM and all-Talk KFYI-AM.

Classical KBAQ was also down in AQH share.

Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) WCIE leads all other noncoms in Tampa-St. Petersburg. WCIE is a live and local station with a strong street presence.

NPR News/Talk WUSF trails both commercial talk stations WFLA-AM and WHPT-FM.  However, WUSF is the sole News formatted station in the market.