BEST NEW MEDIA SOURCE: “COLLEGE RADIO NEWS NETWORK” • MARCH PPM RATINGS FOR WASHINGTON, DC, BOSTON & MINNEAPOLIS

We’ve got good news today about college radio. Two ambitious college radio managers have established the College Radio News Network (CRNN), a portal for college stations to exchange content. Its goal is to strengthen news collaborations between college stations around the world.

CRNN’s primary platform is on SoundCloud [link]. It has recently been in the news for making available Covid-19 coverage produced by college broadcasters.

Anabella Poland

CRNN was first conceived by Anabella Poland, General Manager WMSC 90.1 FM [link], licensed to Montclair State University in northern New Jersey.

The project came to life in 2017 when Poland collaborated with Sean McDonald to create CRNN.

McDonald is the Director of Media at Neumann University in Aston, Pennsylvania and is the General Manager of WNUW-LP [link].

The original intention was to promote College Radio Day and Vinylthon, two annual events that have increased the visibility of college radio worldwide. Poland and McDonald decided to expand CRNN to offer stations the ability to distribute and acquire news, documentaries and interviews.

This is important because it is a way to encourage students to redefine collage radio in the increasingly fragmented world of digital audio. Also, CRNN has become a way college stations to work together on projects that are bigger than their own stations.

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Both Poland and McDonald bring experience and credibility to make certain CRNN succeeds in its mission.

Before coming to Montclair State in 2013, Poland was Director of Talent & Industry Relations at SiriusXM Radio. 

Before that, she a segment producer at ABC News and was the Community Advisory Board at WFUV. 

McDonald, a self-described “media guru” is a SBE-certified broadcast and studio engineer. His passion is to train future generations to become media specialists.

WAMU IS BACK AT NUMBER ONE IN THE DC NEWS RACE

WAMU, the flagship station for NPR in our nation’s capital, moved into first place in the “Covid-19 disrupted” March Nielsen PPM ratings. 

The March ratings were compiled February 27 through March 25, 2020, a time period when the virus spread and led to lockdowns, social distancing and (still) an unknown future.

The three big news stations – WAMU, WTOP and WMAL – finished #1, #2 and #3 in March PPM’s. 

WAMU led the pack with an 8.7 AQH share, up almost a full rating point compared to February.

Classical WETA was one of the few music stations that appeared to buck the  "news up/music dond" trend.

They increased their AQH share by 0.2.   

However, WETA’s estimated weekly audience went down 26% from the prior month.

The biggest gainer in audience was WAMU’s HD2 channel that features bluegrass music. The reason for the increase was likely the need to take a break from virus news. Or, perhaps it was because of the increased airplay of Drink Up and Go Home by Jimmy Martin. Lol

In the Boston March PPM ratings, both WBUR and WGBH increased their AQH shares and estimated weekly listeners. 


But, both stations trailed commercial news/talk station WBZ-AM and WRKO-AM.

If it were possible (which it isn’t) to add the AQH shares of WBUR and WGBH together, that combination would be the top news/talk station in the market.

Like WETA in DC, Classical WCRB maintained its AQH share but lost 27% of its estimated weekly listeners compared to February.

In the Twin Cities, NPR News/Talk KNOW had enormous gains in the March PPM’s. 

Their AQH share was up 1.1 and their number of weekly listeners increased by 8%.

If you want to see KNOW’s impact on radio listening, look at the comparison to the three commercial news or talk stations. Rush and his pals on KTLK and the female-oriented KTMY a/k/a myTalk 107.1 lost ground in March compared to the prior month.