KUT & VERMONT PUBLIC RADIO LEAD WEEKLY CUME RATINGS • NPR CONTINUES TO DOMINATE PODCAST TOP 20

Consider today’s post to be educational because we learned a lot putting it together.  Spark News looked at the top performing stations in Weekly Cume Ratings in both PPM and Diary methodology from Fall 2018.

Weekly Cume Rating is a powerful but under appreciated metric. It shows the percentage of the total population that listens for a minimum of five minutes during the survey week. Nielsen’s official definition is shown on the left above.

Think of Weekly Cume Rating as "market penetration." KUT’s 13.3 Weekly Cume Rating means the 13.3% of the population age 6 or older listened to KUT during the survey period. In other words, one person in nine in Austin heard KUT during a typical week. This can be called the “significance” of the station in its metro area. KUT is very, very significant in Austin.

On the left are two charts showing the Top 30 Nielsen Audio rated stations in markets where the PPM methodology is used.

KUT leads the pack but all of these stations are significant players in their markets.

Of the 30 stations in PPM markets, 24 of the 30 (80%) are full-time NPR News/Talk stations.

Note station #3 – KSBJ in Houston.  

 It is the top Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) in the nation in Weekly Cume Rating. 

You would be correct if you said KSBJ is a very significant station in the Houston-Galveston area. 

There are two CCM stations (7%) in the top 30.

There are three Classical music stations in the PPM Top 30 (10%) and one AAA station (3%), 

KUT’s sister station KUTX. 

This means both stations are significant players in Austin.

In the Diary markets Vermont Public Radio – WVPR – has an amazing 21.5 Weekly Cume Rating.   

This means more than one of every five people in Burlington listen to VPR during a typical week.

One could say that public radio is extremely significant in New England because stations in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine take three of the Top five position.

Note: The difference between PPM methodology and Diary methodology is clearly shown in this analysis. 

Because of the ways the audience data are collected, the Weekly Cume Ratings for stations in Diary markets are higher than in the PPM markets.

Of the 31 stations listed in Diary markets, 19 (62%) are full-time NPR News/Talk stations. 

Nine (29%) are CCM stations; and 2 (6%) are dual-format stations with a combination NPR News Classical music. 

The list also includes a Pop Hits station in Pueblo, Colorado.

MEANWHILE, NPR CONTINUES TO SCORE BIG IN PODTRACS TOP 20 PODCAST RANKINGS

Everyone knows that the DNA of a podcast listener is very similar to a public radio station listener.

Podcasts with ties to public media occupy 12 (60%) of the Top 20.  NPR alone publishes 8 (40%) of the Top 20 podcasts.

Two commercial media companys, iHeartRadio and Barstool Sports continue to gain ground in the Podtrac rankings.