ARE THE RUMORS TRUE ABOUT THE REVIVAL OF CMJ? NIELSEN PPM RATINGS FOR LONG ISLAND, NORTH JERSEY & SAN JOSE

Image on the CMJ website

College station programmers and music company executives are excited about the possibility that College Media Journal (CMJ) will re-launch the CMJ Music Marathon. 

The Marathon was an influential gathering from 1978 until 2016.

But are the rumors true? If so, who will be driving the bus?

According to a report in Pitchfork [link], speculation began with a tweet by the “new CMJ management” to reach potential sponsors at the CMJ Music Marathon in 2020.

The news is important because the CMJ Music Marathon has been an incubator for rock artists such as REM, The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Soundgarden.

CMJ ended operations in 2016 amid charges of financial improprieties. In 2018 a judge ordered Adam Klein, the former CEO of CMJ, to pay more than $500,000 to former employees who sued him.

The “new CMJ management” promo tweet stresses that Klein is no longer part of CMJ. The tweet also said that information would be available “ASAP.” But, things remain murky because no one knows who the new management is.

CMJ 2007

When Pitchfork asked for details, CMJ replied:

“We cannot wait to be back… and we are really looking forward to explaining everything … but we’re sorry to say that, right now, we can’t lift the lid any further. We promise to let you know, as soon as we can, what is going on and what we have planned.”

The message was signed by The Mystery New CMJ Management People.”

We hope that the CMJ Music Marathon returns. They will need to build trust with potential customers. So far, this has not happened.

NOVEMBER PPM RATINGS FOR “IMBEDDED MARKETS"

Nielsen Audio has three markets where ratings data is a portion of a larger metro area: Nassau-Suffolk, Middlesex-Somerset-Union countries in northern New Jersey and San Jose.

We haven’t often published the PPM numbers for these markets because the focus on the bigger adjacent markets. But, we found some interesting differences.

Long Island is 120 miles long from west to east. There are two counties: Nassau and Suffolk. 

Nassau is primarily a New York City suburb. 

Suffolk is much larger and many places are closer to Connecticut than NYC.

On Long Island there is substantial listening to the major NYC noncom stations.

 

The highest AQH share for a  noncom station on Long Island belongs to Radio Cantico Nuevo. 

The station is WLIM, a Spanish-language Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) station.

Radio Cantico Nuevo [link] is a 501c3 organization founded by three Catholic Priests. According to its 2018 IRS filing, it reported annual revenue of around $268,000.

It is great to see WUSB in the book. They are one of the nation’s best college stations.

In the Northern New Jersey suburbs all the usual players are present.

CCM station WAWZ is based in the metro.

We are listing WNJT separately even though they are a repeater of WNYC-FM. 

They may also be airing New Jersey content.

From a noncom radio point of view, San Jose is a suburb of San Francisco.