UPDATED NPR NEWS/TALK STATION OF THE YEAR: MPR NEWS • WEEKLY LISTENERS DROP 5.2% IN ONE YEAR

Minnesota Public Radio News in the Twin Cities keeps growing in AQH share and estimated weekly listeners. According to Nielsen Audio, KNOW – the flagship of MPR’s news network – increased its estimated weekly listeners by 11% in the 2019 November PPM ratings compared to November 2018.

KNOW also increased its AQH share from 4.5% in November 2018 to 6.3% in November 2019. KNOW is, by far, the leading radio news source in the market.

Folks in Minneapolis-St. Paul know why this is happening. MPR News has positioned itself as “the news of record.” MPR’s reporting and analysis is essential to life in Minnesota. Their coverage of politics and state government is particularly notable.

We looked at the November 2019 Nielsen Audio PPM ratings for 47 stations in 45 markets and compared them to Nielsen PPM data from November 2018. Overall we found the results to be a mixed bag for NPR News/Talk stations.

Estimated weekly listeners dropped 5.2% in November 2019 compared to November 2018. According to Nielsen, in the November book, the 47 NPR News/Stations had an estimated 12,796,000 weekly listeners, down from 13,946,500 in November 2018.

Though some stations increased their AQH share, 52% of the 42 stations we examined had a larger AQH is November 2018 than November 2019. 48% of the stations increased their AQH share.

NOTE: Spark News will have one-year comparisons of full-time Classical and Jazz music stations tomorrow. Yesterday we looked at the ratings for noncommercial Adult Alternative, Alt Rock and Americana stations.

Lets do the numbers…

NOTE: Data from three stations was missing from our charts:

• WUOM, Detroit: In November 2019, WUOM had a 2.0 AQH share and 196,800 estimated weekly listeners compared to November 2018 when WUOM had a 1.8 AQH share and 199,600 estimated weekly listeners.

• WDET, Detroit: In November 2019, WDET had a 1.5 AQH share and 164,000 estimated weekly listeners compared to November 2018 when WDET had a 1.5 AQH share and 161,600 estimated weekly listeners.

• KCUR, Kansas City: In November 2019, KCUR had a 4.7 AQH share and 178,400 estimated weekly listeners compared to November 2018 when KCUR had a 3.5 AQH share and 147,400 estimated weekly listeners.