WHY JARL MOHN IS SMILING TODAY • FEEDBACK ON NIELSEN’S CONTINUOUS DIARY MEASUREMENTS

Jarl Mohn

More than a few eyebrows were raised when          NPR CEO told us in an interview last March [link]:

“My personal belief is that there is no reason at all why every news-oriented NPR member station can’t be the number one news/talk station in every rated market in the country. This is our goal.”

As the data rolls in for Nielsen Audio’s Spring 2019 Diary markets, it appears NPR member stations are moving closer to Mohn’s goal.

Nielsen has released ratings for about half of the mid and small size markets that use Diary methodology. As of today’s count, there are 15 markets where the local NPR News station is the top radio news source.

The chart on the right tells the story. The red type indicates stations we have added to the list today. 

These stations now have larger average-quarter-hour share percentages (AQH) than News and Talk stations owned by the nation’s leading commercial operators.

It turns out this only the tip of the iceberg. 

We received an email from Mohn with additional details. He told us:

“One thing (an important one) that we’ve noticed is when we focus the demos to the one that is meaningful to us, 25-54 and look at morning and afternoon drive, NPR stations do even better.” 

This is important news because reaching people in the 25-54 demographic is vital for commercial broadcasters. 

The growth of NPR News stations, and the declines in listening to big commercial stations, is a national trend and we are proud to be telling the story.

THE TRUTH ABOUT NIELSEN’S CONTINUING DIARY MEASUREMENT

The Spring 2019 Diary market ratings are the first step of Nielsen’s new Continuing Diary Measurement (CDM) system.

CDM is Nielsen's response to complaints by ad agencies that Nielsen's quarterly reports are "stale."

Nielsen is making this change as cheaply as possible. Nielsen is now releasing 12 monthly reports instead of the current four. Nielsen is not increasing the sample size. Many stations are being charging more money for "reheated" information.

Truthfully, there are no new advantages for public radio stations with Nielsen's CDM changes. The public radio system commits substantial money to Nielsen (via RRC).  Are we seeing enhanced value of Nielsen's product?

We don't think so.

We will continue to publish Nielsen Diary and PPM data because it is the "common currency" of our industry.  We urge Nielsen to make their reports more useful and believable.

PUBLIC RADIO LOVES VINYL • SPRING 2019 NIELSEN NONCOM RATINGS FOR DAYTON, HARRISBURG & OMAHA

Nielsen Music just released their 2019 Mid-Year Report [link – registration required] detailing music consumption in the U.S. during the first six months of the year. The bottom line is that revenue and usage are up compared to the same period in 2018.

According to Nielsen, on-demand consumption of “Album Equivalent” audio and video files was 351.6 billion units between January 1 and June 30, up 15.7% compared to2018.

The news was even better about individual song streaming. On-demand streaming of audio files was up 27.8% and On-demand streaming of video files was up 39.6%. 

Fans of vinyl records know the "platters" have been around for over 100-years. Today their popularity continues because of their clear, rich sound, deep archives at labels and the experience of taking a disc out of its sleeve.

Overall consumption of vinyl was up almost 10% in the first six months of 2019 compared with 2018. 7.7 billion units were sold so far in 2019.

The Nielsen report cites these factors:

• Record Store Day 2019 scored an all-time high with a record 827,000 vinyl albums sold industry-wide during the week ending April 18. 733,000 vinyl albums were sold during the same period of 2018.

• Independent stores benefited from exclusive pressings of albums by iconic rock acts such as the Grateful Dead live in San Francisco, October 1980; a test pressing of Bob Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks, Green Day Live at Woodstock in 1994 and Pink Floyd’s groundbreaking A Saucerful of Secrets.

• Public radio “music discovery” stations also are adding music on vinyl to their secret sauce.

Stacy Owen, PD of WFPK in Louisville told Spark News:

“Our morning drive host airs a feature each morning called “Vinyl Lust.” 

I think vinyl is on the rise because there's a romanticism around owning a great LP that's attractive across all generations. 

The nostalgia for people over 40 and the curiosity for young music lovers who only grew up in the digital age.”

Bruce Warren, Chief of A lot of Stuff at WXPN added:

“We do play vinyl. Our hosts definitely make it a point of saying so when we do. Each Sunday afternoon one of our hosts, Julian Booker, does a feature called “Drop The Needle” on an album side or two that is very popular.”

Brad Savage, PD of Alt Rock/AAA hybrid WAPS The Summit in Akron said vinyl records create excitement with their listeners:

YES - we do use vinyl. And we frequently see strong positive feedback about vinyl. I enjoy the "theater of the mind" that it creates. It is a powerful moment when you can say, "we're playing this Traffic deep cut off vinyl, I found it at a thrift store yesterday... it's a little scratchy but it's from 1971."

We definitely let some songs fly that have some surface noise. I think it makes the sound and experience more real and authentic. I love playing old 45's as well.

We usually do an "all vinyl day" during our Pledge campaigns.... where we literally only play vinyl selections.

The top 10 vinyl "albums' so far in 2019 according to Nielsen Music's 2019 Mid-Year Report

Sometimes we play new music and new indie releases off vinyl but I'd say that more of what we play on vinyl is library material, or unusual rarities and b-sides that only ever appeared on vinyl. But we have gotten good response to certain "Record Store Day" releases on vinyl too.

Interesting note: excitement over giveaway CD's at events or for members is waning. BUT, excitement over vinyl giveaways is at a frenzy level - and that includes turntables!

Chris Wienk, VP and PD at AAA WEXT The Exit and Classical WMHT in Albany said vinyl is one of the station’s most popular pledge drive premiums:

“While we don’t often play vinyl, we do give it away in contests. It has become more sought after than CDs we’d give out. So, for big events, we are doing that more than CDs. It’s quite interesting. While CDs were popular, we’d see mostly our older listeners get excited. Once we gave some vinyl, everyone got jazzed.” 

“It’s still mostly anecdotal for us, but it feels like in engagement opportunities, vinyl is a big deal.”

NPR NEWS STATIONS ARE STABLE IN SPRING 2019 RATINGS FOR DAYTON, HARRISBURG & OMAHA

WYSO continues to be the top noncom station in the Dayton area. 

Earlier this year WYSO formed its own 501c3 organization and left the governance of Antioch College.

WVXU’s repeater station WMUB is having trouble getting traction in Dayton. 

Maybe they would do better if WMUB had its own local, live presence. Hint, hint.

There is no “news fatigue” for the listeners of WITF in Pennsylvania’s capitol city.

WJTL is an excellent live and local CCM station that appears in the ratings for at least 3 Nielsen Audio markets.

NPR News and Jazz KIOS continues to lead Omaha’s noncom ratings. It is too bad Classical KVNO doesn’t subscribe to the Nielsen Ratings.

You gotta love the consistent performance of Alt Rock KIWR The River.

“SUPER GROUP” MUSIC SESSION AT PRPD19 • 3 MORE MARKETS WHERE NPR STATIONS ARE THE TOP RADIO NEWS SOURCE

The Public Radio Program Directors association (PRPD) has released the nearly final schedule for PRPD19 to be held August 26 – 29 in Minneapolis [link].   

The agenda includes panel descriptions and times for sessions and other conference events.

As we have done in the past, Spark News will feature sessions that are particularly notable. 

Today we start with a great looking session about music programming on public radio stations. Here is our first spotlight session:

The Sound of Public Radio Music

Wednesday (8/28) 4pm - 5:30pm

Nick Spitzer, host of American Routes

in 1972 at WMMR, Philadelphia

Music is part of public radio’s DNA. Whether a station airs a full-time music format or airs only a beloved weekly show, music is vitally important to American cultural life.  In this session, PRPD19 will take a close look at the impact that music programming has on audiences, artists, the music industry and our own local communities.

Five people who represent various genres will discuss the state of music on public radio stations today. Scheduled panelists include Nick Spitzer, the host and creator of American Routes; consultant

Mike Henry of Paragon Media Strategies; Brian Newhouse, Managing Director of MPR’s Classical Programming; and Anne Standley and Joni Duetsch from the Noncomm Music Alliance.

MORE MARKETS WHERE THE NPR NEWS STATION IS THE TOP RADIO NEWS SOURCE

We are continuing to track markets where local NPR News stations are the top radio news source, beating commercial radio News and Talk stations. There was a time when many of these historic stations seemed invincible to competition. Since then many of these commercial giants have been hobbled by budget cuts and lack of direction.

In May we reported that in 30% of Nielsen Audio’s non-embedded PPM markets, NPR News stations are now the top radio news source in the market. The chart on the right provides a summary.

Nielsen has released ratings estimates for about a third of the Spring 2019 Diary-methodology markets. So far we have seen eight markets where an NPR News station leads all commercial News and Talk stations.

This is an important trend because many of these commercial stations were once considered the “station of record” – a powerful position in a city of any size. The chart on the right is a work-in-progress tally of the new number one stations.

Stations owned by iHeartRadio seem to be the most vulnerable to slipping behind NPR News competitors, but this trend effects all commercial station owners.  Here are the markets we are featuring today:

In Birmingham, WBHM tops two local News and Talk stations including iHeart’s WERC (AQH: 3.5) and Cumulus’ WZRR (AQH: 3.4) 

Birmingham is Alabama’s largest city.

We are now listing WBHM as a full-time News/Talk station. They still air Classical music but have moved it to late nights.

Here is some big news. KRCC is now the top news station in Colorado Springs. 

They have a growing lead over Cumulus’ KVOR (AQH: 3.9). 

KVOR had been a top station in the Springs since the 1950s.

KRCC also shutout Colorado Public Radio’s News channel. CPR purchased a local FM repeater station in 2017 and expected that listening would grow. But, that hasn’t happened.

Another shocker is happening in Madison, Wisconsin’s state capitol. Dual formatted (News and Classical) WERN now has more than twice the AQH share than iHeart’s WIBA (AQH 3.9).

CAPITAL PUBLIC RADIO & NORTH STATE PUBLIC RADIO CONSIDER A PARTNERSHIP TO EXPAND LOCAL NEWS CONTENT • NIELSEN RATINGS FOR AKRON, ALBUQUERQUE & SPOKANE

NSPR turns 50 in 2019

Two well-established northern California public radio broadcasters are exploring ways to work together to expand local journalism and tell more  Northern California stories.

Capital Public Radio (CapRadio) and North State Public Radio (NSPR) in Chico have hired Public Media Company to explore ways the two shops can save money and increase news content.

The partners seek to  share the cost of programming, engineering, management and other services. 

If the partners like what they are seeing, a Public Service Operating Agreement (PSOA) will formalize the plan.

Phil Wilke

Though both stations will be sharing resources, Phillip Wilke, General Manager of NSPR said the PSOA is not merger of the two organizations.   

Wilke told Spark News in an e-interview:

“We will not -- repeat NOT -- be a CapRadio simulcast. Part of the PSOA negotiations is that we will be keep autonomy in programming decisions. I don't anticipate changes to our programming, except that we plan to ADD journalists for more robust news coverage.” 

CapRadio [link] and NSPR [link] have a number of things in common. Both operate their own mini-networks. Both licensees are part of the California State University system. Chico is about an hour north of Sacramento.

However, the two shops have some differences.

CapRadio operates two full-time programming channels – NPR News/Talk KXJZ and Classical music KXPR. 

CapRadio’s annual budget is more than $13 million. 

Approximately 2.5 million people live in CapRadio’s service area.

KXJZ’s newsroom has more than a dozen full-time staffers. The station produces Insight With Beth Ruyak, a daily one-hour news and talk program.

NSPR operates a single program stream, a dual format of NPR News and Classical music. NSPR’s annual budget is around $1.6 million. Roughly 500,000 people live in Chico and Redding, the two major cities in NSPR’s service area.

NSPR has around half a dozen  people creating news programming including full and part timers.

WILL KHSU BE PART OF THE PARTNERSHIP?

According to Wilke, KHSU in Arcata was included in early discussions but there are too many unresolved issues for them to commit at this time. You may recall that KHSU was in the news this spring when the university fired the entire staff on April 11, 2019 (see our coverage here).

The President of Humboldt State University (HSU) left shortly after the mass termination and left future decisions to the next President. A new President of HSU has been hired. He is Tom Jackson, the former President of Black Hills State University. It will take time for Jackson to establish HSU’s new leadership team and deal with the future of KHSU.

Wilke confirmed that KCHO has occasionally provided its on-air programming KHSU. Wilkie described the situation:

"North State State Public Radio is providing our simulcast stream [to KHSU] only in a pinch. Since mid-April, CapRadio engineers have set up a protocol to broadcast only syndicated national programming with no local content, except legal IDs. We've provided our simulcast when that dedicated stream has had technical problems or, as was the case in early July, was hit by a ransomware attack."

Arcata is over 150 miles from Chico and even farther from Sacramento, complication their participation in the partnership.

NIELSEN AUDIO SPRING 2019 RATINGS FOR AKRON, ALBUQUERQUE & SPOKANE

WKSU remains the top noncommercial news station in the Akron-Kent area just south of Cleveland. They also have a considerable number of listeners in the Cleveland metro.

One noncom station that is not listed is Alt Rock/AAA hybrid WAPS, a really fine station led by our pal Brad Savage.

As we have written before about Albuquerque, there are two part-time NPR News stations serving the market. 

In a perfect world, either KANW and KUNM would shift to all News/Talk and own the market.   

But this hasn’t happened because both stations have unusual local concerns that prevent them making a logical move.

This is likely Classical KHFM’s first appearance as a noncommercial station. It was a commercial Classical station for many years. The owner,  Rogers Brandon, the CEO of American General Media, created a non profit organization to keep Classical music on the air in Albuquerque. Bravo!

Would someone please tell us what is going on at Spokane Public Radio. There three local stations – KPBX, KSFC and KPBZ, all seem to be having problems.

DON’T WORRY ABOUT “NEWS FATIGUE” • MORE MARKETS WHERE NPR NEWS STATIONS BEAT ALL COMMERCIAL COMPETITORS

(The New Yorker)

We are getting tired of hearing about “news fatigue.” (lol)

It is true that some NPR News/Stations are not seeing the audience growth they experienced during the 2016 election and the months that followed. 

But, public radio is well positioned for the inevitable upcoming “news rush.”

You see, “news fatigue” is actually just a bad mood. Like most moods, it will pass. We are seeing the other side of the “Trump Bump.” Now it is the “Trump Slump.” The cumulative effect of the toxic news of the day is numbness. 

We are bored and want something new to talk about. 

Some folks are trying to cheer us up, such as PRPD CEO Abby Goldstein and MSNBC’s Chuck Todd.

Goldstein was quoted in Current [link] saying:

 “We all know it’s happening” with public radio listeners, she said, but no hard data connects news fatigue to a decrease in public radio’s audience.”

Todd offered a fictional new mood enhancer called Oblivia [link].

Recently NiemanLab published [link] the chart on the right from a UK study of people who avoid news content. 

As you can see, the top two reasons people say they avoid news are “Negative impact on my mood” and “There is nothing I can do about it.” 

Both are subjective and subject to change by unforeseen future events.

Compare the desperation in the UK study with the next chart from the Public Radio Tech Survey 2018. Respondents said the top five reasons they listen to news on public radio is the purposeful way the content is presented. We believe the core values of public radio are not based on moment-to-moment moods, they are based on the value they provide listeners every day.

FIVE MORE MARKETS WHERE NPR NEWS STATIONS BEAT ALL COMMERCIAL COMPETITORS

In early July we raised a ruckus with some commercial radio folks when we said the following about NPR News stations in PPM markets [link]:

What do heritage commercial News and Talk stations WBAP, KIRO-FM, KOGO and WBT have common? Not so long ago, each was the leading radio news source in their market. According to Nielsen Audio May 2019 PPM ratings, they were replaced in the top spot by a local NPR News/Talk station.

Now we are seeing the same pattern in Nielsen Audio’s medium and smaller sized markets where listening is measured by Diary methodology. Consider these examples:

In Anchorage, KSKA is not only the top radio news station in the market, it is the top station of any format. KSKA (9.4 AQH share) beats iHeart News/Talk KENI by three share points (6.4 AQH share). Alpha’s talk KFQD (2.6 AQH share) trails both of them.

In Asheville, North Carolina, dual format WQCS (9.8 AQH share)  has more than three times to AQH share as iHeart’s conservative talk WWNC (3.0 AQH share). WQCS’s sister station, full-time News/Talk WYQS (2.0 AQH share) also does well.

WGCU in Fort Myers (3.8 AQH share)  is the top radio News/Talk station in the market, beating commercial talk stations WGUF (0.5 AQH share) and WJBX (0.5 AQH share).

In Honolulu, Hawaii Public Radio’s news channel (4.9 AQH share)  has more than three times the listening as it’s closest competitor, iHeart’s conservative Talk KHVH (1.8 AQH share). A trend we are seeing nationally is that NPR News/Talk stations most often beat iHeart stations.

In Sarasota, Tampa’s WUSF (3.4 AQH share) is the top News/Talk station leading commercial WSRQ (1.1 AQH share) by a wide margin.

Nielsen Audio has released only around 25% of the Diary market ratings so far. We will continue to monitor the numbers.