COLORADIO PUBLIC RADIO IS UPGRADING CLASSICAL MUSIC IN VAIL • COMPARING TECHSURVEYS FROM 2020 & 2016

Like No Place on Earth

Vail, Colorado Town Slogan

In its quest to become a statewide presence in Classical music, Colorado Public Radio (CPR) has purchased a full-time repeater station in Vail.

Last week, paperwork was filed to transfer the license of KVJZ from Rocky Mountain Public Media to CPR for $150,000. Both companies base their programming out of Denver. KVJZ has been a repeater of Jazz KUVO.

Once the deal receives FCC approval (which is expected), CPR can replace its 62-watt translator with a 5,000-watt station.

Vail, which has a year round population of around 5,500, is important to CPR because their Classical music translator (K206EM) competes with a 250-watt translator (K207CK) that repeats Classical KCME, based in Colorado Springs.

TECHSURVEY 2020 TAKEAWAY: PYRAMID COMPARISON 2020 & 2016

Each day this week we are highlighting a different factoid from Jacobs Media’s Techsurvey 2020 (TS 2020) that you might have missed. Today we are focusing on The Pyramid, the summary chart of the Techsurvey reports. It puts usage of devices and platforms into perspective.

TS 2020 looks at the media consumption and perceptions of 46,008 people who are listeners to 504 commercial radio stations in the U.S. and Canada. The survey was conducted 
January 7 - February 9, 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic was widely known in the U.S.

You can download TS 2020 here.

We compared the Pyramids from TS 2020 with the Pyramid from TS 2016. 

There were a few surprises. 

The chart on the left shows changes over the four-year period between to two Techsurveys.

You can see the two Pyramids side-by-side at the bottom of this post.  Please keep in mind that there may be differences in the methodology and the sample.

To us, one the most important change is the rise in the use of Streaming Video, up 12% between 2016 and 2020. Video platforms such as YouTube have changed the rules for music discovery. An online video is now essential and expected by core radio listeners.

We were also amazed at rapid increase in the use of Smartwatches. We haven’t kept track of Smartwatches due the fact that our low-vision eyes prevent us from using the device.

Another surprise was that usage of Podcasts appeared to have dropped slightly. We expect it to rise.

Use of old-school AM/FM radio remain steady.