MOST CLASSICAL MUSIC STATION AUDIENCES LAG BEHIND PRE-COVID LEVELS • PEOPLE WORKING FROM HOME LIKE TO SLEEP IN

Classical Music Rising (“CMR”) was an initiative by the

Station Resource Group and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

to shape the future of classical music radio

Spark News has reviewed the June PPM ratings for 15 influential full-time Classical music stations and compared them to data from February 2020. 

The comparison shows that Classical stations will have to work hard to win back listeners.

Only 5 of the 15 stations we examined had a larger AQH share in June than they had in February, the last “pre-Covid” book. 

Not one of the 15 had more estimated weekly listeners in June than they had in February.

The “missing cume” should concern station programmers and managers because it means that Classical stations are reaching far fewer new listeners than they were before the on-set of the pandemic.

The chart on the right looks at the AQH shares for the 15 stations. Only five stations , KING in Seattle, KQAC in Portland, KUSC in LA, WDAV in Charlotte and WQXR in New York, had larger AQH shares in June than they had in February.

KING had the largest AQH share increase, up 2.2 rating-points in the June survey. 

KSJN in the Twin Cities had the largest AQH share decline, 0.9. WJBC in Baltimore and Pittsburgh both had 0.8 declines in AQH share.

It is important to keep in mind that “AQH share” is an artificial number. It is a percentage based on the size of “lake of listeners” at a given point in time. When the size of the lake is smaller, AQH shares often rise.

The metric we wish we had is AQH persons. It reflects the actual number of people listening, not a percentage.

The loss of estimated weekly listeners is a trend you should watch.

As you can see on the second chart on the right, all 15 Classical music stations we examined had fewer weekly listeners in June than they had in February.  

 Some of the losses are staggering.

WQED’s 63% loss of estimated listeners shows that many people stopped listening to the station after the on-set of the pandemic

Other stations thst had the biggest losses in weekly listeners included KDFC (down 47%), KSJN (down 36%) and KBAQ (down 40%).

The ‘missing cume” are real people who found other options to hear Classical music. Will they come back to radio? No one knows.

EDISON RESEARCH CONFIRMS THE PEOPLE WORKING FROM HOME OFTEN TEND TO SLEEP-IN

Sometimes research confirms the obvious.

Edison Research released a Share of Ear addendum study that found people who are working from home due to Cpvid-19  pandemic are starting their days later in the morning than when they went to the workplace.

Edison found that half of the survey sample, age 13 or older, now begin their audio day at 8:30am. Before the on-set of the pandemic, it was 7:15am.

Edison Research Director Laura Ivey, said in a press release:

“This finding challenges our thinking about how those in the U.S. listen to audio during traditional drive times.”