PUBLIC RADIO CONTEMPORARY MUSIC STATION OF THE YEAR: ‘INDIE 102.3’ • ONE-YEAR TRENDS FOR 27 STATIONS

On Monday, July 1, 2019, Colorado Public Radio’s (CPR) Adult Alternative station Open Air morphed into Indie 102.3.

At the time, we said [link], the success of the newish station could be a heavy lift. 

Denver-Boulder is the best and most crowded contemporary music market in the country. 

By our count there are seven stations competing in Adult Alt, Alt Rock and Americana niche.

Now the focus is on Indie 102.3 [link], perhaps the fastest growing progressive rock station in the nation. In just five months Indie 102.3 has increased its estimated weekly audience by over 50%.

Willowbee Carlan

Credit a great team, many of whom transitioned from Open Air. 

The leader of the team is Willowbee Carlan, Indie 102.3’s Program Director. 

Carlan and Mike Henry of Paragon Media Strategies planned the strategy, engaged with community and choose the right tunes to make it happen.

Now the challenge is to keep the upward momentum going. 

Because of ndie 102.3's suucess, everybody wants a taste of Carlan’s “secret sauce.”

NOTE: Spark News will have more one-year comparisons this week. On Wednesday we will look at NPR News/Talk stations. On Thursday we will focus on Classical and Jazz music stations.

Indie 102.3 is one of several progressive music stations to gain estimated weekly listeners when the November 2019 Nielsen Audio PPM ratings are compared to November 2018.

Other stations the gained impressive ground included KEXP in Seattle-Tacoma (up over 20%), WFUV in New York (up 11%) and KKXT in Dallas-Fort Worth (up 10%).

The biggest decline in weekly listeners was KUTX in Austin, down 17% in November 2019 compared with November 2018.

In the second ten, the station that added to most estimated weekly listeners was KTBG The Bridge, in Kansas City. The Bridge increased its weekly audience by almost 30%.

Americana WMOT in Nashville and WUMB in Boston also added weekly listeners.

We are also tracking seven progressive rock music HD channels.

Looking at the weekly listeners for the HD channels, it is no wonder that “HD” stands for “Hardly Doing It.” Let’s hope the FCC gives all HD channels a place on the FM dial – where people actually do listen.