“THE SLOW DOWN” NAMED PODCAST OF THE YEAR, MOVES TO RADIO • WBUR & VPR MAKE IMPRESSIVE MOVES IN FALL 2018 NIELSEN RATINGS

American Public Media’s (APM) Slow Burn, conceived and performed by U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith continues to make news. Last Friday evening (1/18) The Slow Down was named Podcast of the Year at the first annual iHeartRadio Podcast Awards in Los Angeles.

Also last week APM announced that The Slow Down is being distributed to public radio stations as a five-minute, five-time-a-week feature. In a press release, APM said The Slow Down has already secured clearances in seven markets: San Francisco (KALW); Honolulu (Hawaii Public Radio); Spokane, (Spokane Public Radio); Lexington, KY (WEKU); Toledo, OH (WGTE); Long Island, NY (WPPB); and Charleston, WV (West Virginia Public Radio).

Things have moved quickly for The Slowdown since the podcast debuted in November. The show is funded by the Poetry Foundation [link]. The Library of Congress appointed Smith to be the nation’s 22^nd poet laureate.

Strangely, The Slowdown was the only podcast with ties to public media to win a category at the iHeartRadio Podcast Awards. NPR was named the Podcast Pioneer of the Year. You can see a complete list of the winners and nominees here. 

Though more than a dozen public media shows were nominated in 22 categories, the top honors almost always went to commercial ventures. You might say the big winner at the iHeartRadio Podcast Awards was iHeartRadio. 

The "missing" public media winners brings up a question: Are these awards sincere or self-promotion for iHeart?

It appears that iHeart podcasts won at least five categories. Other commercial providers such as Gimlet Media, Art19 and Wondery won multiple categories. 

It is hard to say how many publishers won because iHeart doesn’t provide much information about other podcast companies.  The judging process is also not transparent.

The winners in two categories may cause people to wonder about the veracity of the the iHeartRadio Podcast Awards:

 BEST NEWS PODCAST WINNER: The Ben Shapiro Show

Other nominees included The Daily, Pod Save America, Today, Explained and Up First.

BEST MUSIC PODCAST WINNER: Bobbycast

Other nominees included All Songs Considered, Cocaine & Rhinestones: The History of Country Music and Disgraceland.

WBUR PULLS AWAY FROM WGBH IN BOSTON • VPR NEWS RISES TO A HISTORIC HIGH SHARE IN BURLINGTON

WBUR made a very impressive showing in the Fall 2018 PPM ratings. 

The heritage NPR News/Talk station increased its AQH share from the 4.0% in the “election book” of Fall 2016 to 5.4% in Fall 2018. WBUR’s estimated weekly listeners also grew slightly during the same period.

It appears that WBUR has pulled away from crosstown rival NPR News/Talk station WGBH. Nielsen ratings. 

The two stations have been close in the PPM's during the past two years. 

While WBUR was up in the Fall 2018 “book.” WGBH was down in both AQH share and weekly listeners. Elsewhere in Boston, Classical WCRB dropped in both metrics.

In Burlington-Plattsburgh, a Nielsen Diary market, Vermont Public Radio’s News channel reached what may be a record high AQH share, 12.7%, in Fall 2018. VPR News also gained in estimated weekly listeners.

Albany NPR News/Talk WAMC was also up slightly. 

WAMC has a full-time repeater station on the Plattsburgh side of Lake Champlain. This makes the geographical area of the small market quite large. 

The Total Survey Area covers the entire state of Vermont. New Hampshire Public Radio (NHPR) shows up in the TSA but not the metro. The listeners probably live near the New Hampshire border.