MAJORITY OF NPR NEWS/TALK STATION RATINGS ARE UP FROM THE “ELECTION BOOK” OF 2016

Jarl Mohn (Photo by Ken Mills)

This post is dedicated to Jarl Mohn, the soon-to-leaving CEO of NPR. 

Mohn is the person who guided NPR News/Talk to record high Nielsen Audio ratings in Fall 2016 during the “Trump Bump” election. 

Now, in the Fall 2018 book, The Hits Just Keep on Coming!

One of our key questions is whether full-time NPR News stations could hold, or even surpass, their Fall 2016 showing when compared to the Fall 2018.

The answer is Yes, the majority of stations in PPM markets did beat their Fall 2016 numbers.

Spark News compared the Nielsen data for 54 full-time NPR News/Talk stations from Fall 2016 and Fall 2016 and we learned:

• 57% of the stations had higher AQH shares than they did in Fall 2016.

• 63% of the stations that had a 4.0% AQH share or higher in Fall 2018, increased their AQH share over Fall 2016.

• 52% of the stations increased their estimated weekly listeners from Fall 2016 to Fall 2018.

Tomorrow we will look at how NPR News/Talk stations in PPM markets are doing in comparison to commercial News/Talk stations.

AQH SHARE TRENDS

On the left are the full-time NPR News/Talk stations that had a 4.0 AQH or more in the Fall 2018 quarterly report.

Note that many of the stations that increased their AQH share had fewer estimated weekly listeners in Fall 2018 than they had in Fall 2016.  This is the “new normal” for radio.

As the competition for peoples’ time gets even more competitive, the action is all about super serving core listeners. Be grateful when the number of estimated weekly listeners goes up, but keep your attention on AQH share.

The five stations shown in the next slide had the largest increases in AQH share from Fall 2016 to Fall 2018. In some cases, such as KXJZ in Sacramento, AQH share was up substantially while KXJZ weekly cume was down by 17%.

Next are the six stations that had the biggest declines in AQH share. We have been reporting frequently about WAMU but we were surprised to see the AQH for WUSF and KWMU fall. They are both excellent stations and they will bounce back.

Scroll down to see the complete list of AQH trends for all of the NPR News/Talk stations.

WEEKLY LISTENER TRENDS

Some stations had major gains in estimated weekly listeners. On the left are the seven stations that added the most weekly listeners in Fall 2018 compared with Fall 2016.

Give a shout out to Torey Malatia at Rhode Island Public Radio (WELH) in Providence. A 39% gain in cume is totally awesome.

How about the performance by Dave Becker at Las Vegas Public Radio. KNPR’s estimated weekly listeners were up 23% in the past two years. And, Backer also programs Classical KCNV where weekly listeners were up 44%. Give the guy a raise!

But what goes up sometimes goes down. It looks like WJCT in Jacksonville is having some difficulties. Two years ago WDET was neck-and-neck with Ann Arbor rival WUOM. In Fall 2018 WDET isn’t even close to Michigan Radio.

You’ve heard enough from me today. Next, without free pithy commentary, is the complete list of estimated weekly listeners followed by the complete AQH share trends.