THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING THE TOP RADIO NEWS SOURCE IN WATERLOO • 37 MARKETS WHERE NPR IS THE NEWS LEADER

Across the United States a major change is happening in radio news. In market after market NPR member stations are challenging – and often beating – commercial radio news and talk stations that once ruled the market.

This trend is only moving in one direction: NPR News stations are moving up and heritage commercial stations are sliding down. This trend is important because being the top radio news source is essential in any city, particularly with the decline in local newspapers.

A case in point is Waterloo-Cedar Falls, Nielsen Audio market #235. Not only is Iowa Public Radio’s KUNI leading longtime hometown news station KXEL, KUNI also has more listening than WMT from Cedar Rapids and WHO from Des Moines.

KXEL [link] is not a small time operation. Since it signed on in 1942, it has often been the top station in the market.  KXEL switched to mainly news/talk in 1958 after trying several music formats.

The ownership of KXEL has changed frequently in recent years. Local owners operated the station until the late 1950s when it was sold to chain owner Bahakel Broadcasting. As commercial radio experienced hyper-consolidation in the 1990s and early 2000s, KXEL was sold several times to ever-bigger corporate chains.

Today, KXEL is owned by Iowa-based NRG Media LLC. It is now part of a “cluster” of stations and runs syndicated talk shows such as Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin.

Meanwhile, KUNI airs IPR’s Studio One [link], a dual-format channel with a heavy emphasis on news and talk. Studio One also airs AAA music.

Spark News recently examined ratings from Nielsen Audio’s Spring 2019 Diary markets.   

We found 37 markets where the local NPR News station had a larger AQH share than all commercial news and talk stations.

There are likely more markets where NPR member stations are doing the same as IPR in Waterloo.   

But, many noncom stations in medium and small markets don’t subscribe to the Nielsen ratings so their listening data is not available.

Studio One also does well in the other Iowa markets served by IPR.  In Des Moines, IPR’s fulltime news/talk WOI-AM also pulls a decent share of news and information listeners.

We’d love to see the listening data for AAA KFMG [link], one of the best LPFM stations in the U.S.

In Cedar Rapids (which includes Iowa City), KUNI blankets the area with Studio One.  

IPR’s Classical music channel, based in Iowa City at KSUI, has its best ratings performance in the state.

Cedar Rapids is also the home of fulltime Jazz music station KCCK.

KCCK consistently performs well in the Nielsen ratings.

IPR’s three program streams are less of a factor in the Quad Cities, an amalgamation of Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa and Rock Island and Moline across the Mississippi River in Illinois.

Urban Contemporary WGVV has perhaps the highest ratings for any LPFM station. They are also one of a handful of LPFM stations that receive support from CPB.