HOPE TO SEE YOU AT THE PRPD

Spark News is at the Public Radio Content Conference this week. We will return with PRPD news and new posts on Tuesday, September 3^rd.

Meanwhile, enjoy some blast from the past images

from past conferences

JARL MOHN PORTLAND 2014

DALE SPEAR & STEVE NELSON MINNEAPOLIS 2007

SPEAKERS LAS VEGAS 2012

FRED JACOBS LAS VEGAS 2012

 

DAVID BROWN EARLY 2000s

 

 

BRUCE WARREN MID 2000s

 

LAS VEGAS 2012

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.

JARL MOHN REVEALS A BIG REASON FOR HIS SUCCESS AS CEO OF NPR: IT IS ALL ABOUT THE MEMBER STATIONS

Jarl Mohn (image courtesy LA Times)

Today we have part two of our conversation with Jarl Mohn, President and CEO of NPR. You can read part one here.

There are many reasons why Jarl Mohn has been, in our opinion, the most successful President and CEO of National Public Radio (NPR). During our recent interview, Mohn summed it up in a single sentence:

“We can’t be successful unless the member stations are successful.”

Mohn is the eighth President/CEO of NPR in the network’s 48-year history. 

But he is the only one who came to the job with extensive experience in radio and electronic media. 

This matters because member stations are the essential  architecture of the public radio system.

NPR member stations are the source of the largest share of the organization’s revenue.   

NPR’s ratings are actually a compilation of the ratings of the stations.

Increasingly, NPR News is becoming a seamless mix of reporting by the network and local stations.

Some past Presidents of NPR never got past the lobby of a member station. Mohn drove to stations, rolled up sleeves and saw content created. Plus, he became acquainted with the people who make the magic on a daily basis.

Station leaders know his commitment and respect him for it. As we learned during our interview, Mohn has loved almost every minute he has spent at stations and his excitement is contagious:

Mohn: One the reasons I’ve got along with leaders of the NPR member stations is because I grew up in radio, I’m station people give me the benefit of the doubt because I was a radio guy. We’ve tried to get the mindset within NPR that our greatest single strategic advantage is the stations. The reason is, the stations are the way we reach people in their communities. I treasure the affinity NPR has now with its member stations.

Spark News: When did you realize the importance of the relationship between NPR and its member stations?

Jarl Mohn visiting WMKY in Kentucky

Jarl Mohn: “I spent 13 years at a member station, on the board of Southern California Public Radio. Early in my tenure I twice travelled the country to visit member stations. The second national trip was a “driving tour” and it was great fun. I think that seeing the world from their perspective is important. The people I met liked the fact that I took the time to talk with them, listen to them, engage with them, helped improve relations with stations.”

SN: Some people are dismissive about terrestrial radio’s future. Are you?

JM: “Unlike many of my predecessors, I still remain bullish on terrestrial radio. Some times when I give a speech, I talk about the history of predictions that radio will be killed by new competition. Think of all of the ways it has been said that radio was on the way out. Television, the 8-track tape, cassettes, CDs, Napster, Internet radio, Pandora and satellite radio were all expected to kill radio, but that didn’t happen.”

Jarl Mohn visiting West Virginia Public Radio

“For several years I was on the board of SiriusXM satellite radio. They offer good services but they are not ubiquitous like terrestrial radio. 

Public radio has unique advantages. It is noncommercial and easily available to listeners for free.”

“Certainly, any time there is a new technology it is going to take away some market share. But radio still reaches 93% of the entire US adult population every seven days.”

SN: Some observers say that podcasts will hurt radio. But NPR has had success with content that does well in both podcasts and on the air.  Why is this multi-platform approach important to NPR?

JM: “At NPR we have quite a few shows that began as podcasts and then transitioned to radio. They are doing remarkably well on both platforms.

“Podcasts are important to NPR’s brand and they are bringing people in the younger demos to NPR the radio. We are seeing that people are discovering spoken word programming because of podcasts.”

“I am very bullish on podcasts.  They are great source of revenue for us and the market is growing like crazy. Podcasts are a great doorway, an on-ramp, to our community service journalism”.

SN: You will be leaving your CEO job in the near future. What is next for you?

JM: “My contract ends at the end of June 2019, but I am going to stay in the job until the board finds my replacement. As you know, historically there have not always been smooth transitions of CEOs at NPR. I promised my management team and the board that until the transition is complete.”

Jarl Mohn at Wyoming Public Media

“Whoever replaces me as CEO needs to understand that we are a media organization and be aware of all aspects of the business.  It is important for the next CEO to have the desire to communicate with member stations and what there needs are.

“The board has given me the title of President Emeritus. NPR has its 50^th anniversary coming up in 2021 and I want to continue to raise money for the organization. I still see myself being deeply engaged with NPR.  I have a couple of ideas how I might be helpful to the whole system. Plus, I’d like to be helpful to some member stations.”

SN: We have one last question. It used to be that many commercial radio broadcasters looked down on NPR but that seems to have changed a bit.  What is the perception of NPR and public radio by commercial broadcasters?

The Mohn Broadcast Center, home of KPCC in Los Angeles

JM: (laughs) “Thanks for bring that up. About a year and a half ago I attend a private industry confab that was attended by the managers and programmers of the leading commercial radio News/Talk stations. Someone asked me how things were going at NPR and I told them about all the markets where we are now the number one radio news source in the market.”

“Then I told them my goal for NPR – that in five years every news-oriented NPR station should be the top radio news source in every rated market.  There were gasps in the room.”

“As the meeting ended, a commercial radio programmer I have known for years told me 'It is amazing what is happening with NPR. I wish you good luck, but maybe not too much luck.’”

JARL MOHN: “EVERY NPR STATION SHOULD BE THE #1 NEWS/TALK STATION IN THEIR MARKET”

Jarl Mohn at NPR HQ (Stephen Voss/NPR)

Earlier this week, Spark News conducted a wide-ranging interview with NPR President and CEO Jarl Mohn. Today we have Part One dealing with ratings and best practices.

Next Friday, March 8^th, we will have Part Two, in which Mohn discusses the “state of radio,” the power of podcasts and what Mohn has learned after five years of leading NPR.

There is no doubt that Mohn is optimistic about the future of NPR and its member stations. During the first minutes of our interview, Mohn said what he thought NPR and stations can accomplish in the near future:

Mohn: 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.

Just a few years such a prediction would be disregarded as hyperbole but the results of the Fall 2018 Nielsen Audio PPM and Diary ratings indicate  that it not such a wild dream.

Over the past couple of weeks, Spark News published an in-depth review of full-time NPR News/Talk stations in Fall 2018 and a comparison to Nielsen ratings frpm Fall 2016.  This is important because during Fall 2016 many stations reached record high numbers of listeners, in part due to the November 2016 presidential election. There was considerable speculation at the time that the ratings NPR stations would fall back to pre-2016 levels.

In our analysis of the data for both years, many NPR News/Talk stations surpassed their results for Fall 2016 and are likely still increasing listening shares today. Spark News found:

• Full-time NPR News/Talk stations had the top average-quarter-hour (AQH) percentage of all news/talk stations in at least 26 markets.

• Seven full-time NPR News/Talk stations in PPM markets had more estimated weekly listeners than any other News/Talk station in their market in Fall 2018.

• 57% of the NPR News/Talk station in PPM markets had higher AQH shares in Fall 2018 than they had in Fall 2016.

• More then half (52%) of the full-time NPR News/Talk stations in PPM markets had more estimated weekly listeners in Fall 2018 than they had in Fall 2016.

Mohn at the How I Built This summit in

San Francisco in October 2018

(Larry Zhou / NPR)

Spark News asked Mohn if he and others at NPR expected these results:

Mohn: “I don’t think many of us expected after the election of 2016 that the audience growth would continue. So, we are delighted in many cases that the share, and in some cases the cume, has actually gone up.”

We asked Mohn why some stations didn't see continued audience growth since Fall 2016. Also Mohn told us what the prospects are like for the next election cycle:

Mohn: “We have seen in some markets a bit of ‘news fatigue’ about what is going on in Washington and it has caused ratings to go down. That said, as the election gears up for 2020 there is going to be more activity. I think we are going to see increases across the board. We are going to see continued growth.

Mohn began his career as

Rock DJ called Lee Masters

Spark News asked Mohn if the increases mean NPR is doing better or is the commercial radio news/talk competition getting worse:

Mohn:  “I do think we, and our member stations, are doing a better job. We are doing a better job on the journalism, we are doing a better job as programmers, and we are doing a better job as promoters. We haven’t promoted particularly well in the past but there have been major improvements.”

“It is also true that our commercial competitors in many markets are not investing in the local community coverage as they should. That represents an opportunity for us.”

We asked Mohn why folks in public media should care about commercial station’s rating performance?

Mohn and pals at KPCC in 2014

Mohn:  “It is a good question, Ken. When I took the job, I came from the commercial world and I cared greatly about ratings.  We did get pushback from some quarters, that, by itself, just looking at the ratings, is not a positive thing. I agree with that.” 

“But I do think the ratings are a measure of how many people are engaging with us. To me, if you are a NPR member station, the bigger your audience, the greater the likelihood you will increase your membership.”

“For us at NPR, we can’t do well and don’t do well unless the stations do well. Our ratings are nothing but a rollup of our member station’s ratings. We can’t do well unless the stations do well.”

We asked Mohn if NPR and member stations are doing better with the "basics of radio" now than they were when Mohn became NPR’s CEO in 2014:

Jarl and Pam Mohn

Mohn: “It is hard to make a broad statement, but I would say in general that across the system execution of the basics is much better than it has been.”

“That said, if I listen to almost any NPR member station, I can pick out things that can be improved."

“One example is there are so many stations that don’t give their dial position in every break.  My belief is that even P-1’s can’t tell you exactly where your station is on the dial.”

“There are stations that do it well. At KPCC during every single break they say ‘89 point 3, KPCC.’ In DC it is ‘WAMU 88 5’  during every break. But we still have stations in big markets that don’t do it. They could increase their cume by 10% at the snap of a finger and at no cost by saying their dial position.”

“Some programmers have said to me ‘With PPM, I don’t need to say the frequency.’ This blows my mind! PPM only picks up the station a person is listening to. It call tell yor where to tune in the station.”

“Another example is forward promotion. It takes a lot to get some stations to even do them.  I’ve heard some PDs say that promo liners make stations sound too commercial. But the stations that have a solid market position and use promo liners tend, on the whole, over time, tend to do better than those who do not.”

Tune in next Friday, March 8^th, for Part Two of our interview with Jarl Mohn.

MAJORITY OF NPR NEWS/TALK STATION RATINGS ARE UP FROM THE “ELECTION BOOK” OF 2016

Jarl Mohn (Photo by Ken Mills)

This post is dedicated to Jarl Mohn, the soon-to-leaving CEO of NPR. 

Mohn is the person who guided NPR News/Talk to record high Nielsen Audio ratings in Fall 2016 during the “Trump Bump” election. 

Now, in the Fall 2018 book, The Hits Just Keep on Coming!

One of our key questions is whether full-time NPR News stations could hold, or even surpass, their Fall 2016 showing when compared to the Fall 2018.

The answer is Yes, the majority of stations in PPM markets did beat their Fall 2016 numbers.

Spark News compared the Nielsen data for 54 full-time NPR News/Talk stations from Fall 2016 and Fall 2016 and we learned:

• 57% of the stations had higher AQH shares than they did in Fall 2016.

• 63% of the stations that had a 4.0% AQH share or higher in Fall 2018, increased their AQH share over Fall 2016.

• 52% of the stations increased their estimated weekly listeners from Fall 2016 to Fall 2018.

Tomorrow we will look at how NPR News/Talk stations in PPM markets are doing in comparison to commercial News/Talk stations.

AQH SHARE TRENDS

On the left are the full-time NPR News/Talk stations that had a 4.0 AQH or more in the Fall 2018 quarterly report.

Note that many of the stations that increased their AQH share had fewer estimated weekly listeners in Fall 2018 than they had in Fall 2016.  This is the “new normal” for radio.

As the competition for peoples’ time gets even more competitive, the action is all about super serving core listeners. Be grateful when the number of estimated weekly listeners goes up, but keep your attention on AQH share.

The five stations shown in the next slide had the largest increases in AQH share from Fall 2016 to Fall 2018. In some cases, such as KXJZ in Sacramento, AQH share was up substantially while KXJZ weekly cume was down by 17%.

Next are the six stations that had the biggest declines in AQH share. We have been reporting frequently about WAMU but we were surprised to see the AQH for WUSF and KWMU fall. They are both excellent stations and they will bounce back.

Scroll down to see the complete list of AQH trends for all of the NPR News/Talk stations.

WEEKLY LISTENER TRENDS

Some stations had major gains in estimated weekly listeners. On the left are the seven stations that added the most weekly listeners in Fall 2018 compared with Fall 2016.

Give a shout out to Torey Malatia at Rhode Island Public Radio (WELH) in Providence. A 39% gain in cume is totally awesome.

How about the performance by Dave Becker at Las Vegas Public Radio. KNPR’s estimated weekly listeners were up 23% in the past two years. And, Backer also programs Classical KCNV where weekly listeners were up 44%. Give the guy a raise!

But what goes up sometimes goes down. It looks like WJCT in Jacksonville is having some difficulties. Two years ago WDET was neck-and-neck with Ann Arbor rival WUOM. In Fall 2018 WDET isn’t even close to Michigan Radio.

You’ve heard enough from me today. Next, without free pithy commentary, is the complete list of estimated weekly listeners followed by the complete AQH share trends.

READER COMMENTS

COMMENT ONE: FOR THE LOVE OF DOYLESTOWN

Downtown Doylestown

We received a comment from Marlin Taylor regarding our coverage of NPR’s CEO Jarl Mohn’s decision to leave his job as of June 30, 2019. Readers might recall our profile of Taylor we published last March [link]. Taylor had just released his book Radio…My Love, My Passion. In that story we wrote:

“Taylor is one of the radio industry’s Greatest Generation, the men and women who built the stations and formats after World War II. Taylor has been called The Father of Beautiful Music because of his groundbreaking work creating and marketing the format.”

We recommend Taylor’s book because it is a living history of the development and syndication of the format.  

The book also covers Taylor’s work as a programmer at SiriusXM.  

Radio…My Love, My Passion is available at Amazon [link].

In his comment Taylor told us something we didn’t know about Jarl Mohn:

Marlin Taylor

Taylor: Jarl’s first job in radio was at WBUX (AM) in his hometown ... Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania ... which lies a few miles north of Philadelphia.

Doylestown is also where an orphan boy named James would be raised by a lady named Michener ... this boy would go on to write "South Pacific" and numerous other great novels.

Just a few blocks away lived a man named Oscar Hammerstein II ... he would join with Richard Rodgers to write the Broadway play "South Pacific" as well as "Oklahoma, "Carousel" and several others.

It's even the hometown of current-day pop-rock star known as "Pink."

Yes, I'm proud to call Doylestown my hometown, even though I actually grew up a few miles to the south and now live in Silver Spring, Maryland.

COMMENT TWO: QUESTION ABOUT NIELSEN RATINGS FOR PACIFICA’S STATIONS

An anonymous reader wrote: New York and Los Angeles are the only markets where Pacifica subscribes to the Nielsen Audio ratings. Therefore, we don’t know what the audience numbers are for their other three markets. Am I correct in assuming the numbers for these markets are similar to NYC and LA?

KEN SAYS: You are correct that the PPM ratings for KPFA in the Bay Area, WPFW in Washington, DC and KPFT in Houston are not available from Nielsen. We combed our files to the most recent ratings that included those stations. The most recent report we found was from Spring 2007.

The chart on the left shows the data for four of the five Pacifica stations from Spring 2007 and New York and LA from November 2018. It is important to note that the 2007 numbers use Arbitron’s Diary methodology and November 2018 use Nielsen’s PPM methodology.

Since the November numbers show a 34% to 45% drop in estimated weekly listeners, use those percentages for a “ballpark” estimate for KPFA and WPFW in 2018.

Speaking of Pacifica, we’ve been watching the situation there since Maxie Jackson became the organization’s Executive Director. There hasn’t been much news which is probably a good thing.

Maxie Jackson

We heard a recording of Maxie at the Pacifica National Programming Committee meeting on December 4, 2018. We were impressed by what we heard.

The discussion concerned a resolution before the Programming committee to require Pacifica stations to say the station call letters several times per hour.

Jackson said this obviously should be done, but he said this type of operational matter should be handled by the Executive Director and qualified Program Directors at each station. Jackson said it is his responsibility to make certain that radio best practices are followed.

Jackson told the committee:

“For years Pacifica has used a “public access” model of programming. This is an outdated approach that is a major reason why Pacifica lies far behind other public radio broadcasts in audience.”

“What [public radio] is really about is public service – what is best for listeners. We are making a mistake when we cater to the whims of producers and forget the audience. To do things right, we need to adhere to best practices and use proven techniques to serve the public.”

COMMENT THREE: THE SATELLITE DISH WENT BOOM

We published a story on November 30^th about a satellite receiver dish near Anchorage that was allegedly demolished by KTNA-FM in Talkeetna, Alaska. We received this comment from Lowell Kiesow, Chief Engineer at KNKX in Seattle questioning the story’s accuracy:

KIESOW: From what I have read, the dish that was demolished had nothing to do with KTNA, other than it being a local news story. It was owned by AT&T. Satellite distribution of programming is still alive and well, both in public and commercial radio. While internet delivery of recorded content is growing, satellite is still the way live shows are delivered to large numbers of stations.

KEN SAYS: It appears that the source of our story was incorrect. Unfortunately we relied on a single source that wasn’t accurate. Thank you, Lowell for the correction. We have erased our report and we will be more diligent in the future.

COMMENT FOUR: YOU ARE BIASED!

We received a comment from a person who has contacted us several times in the past. We are not going to include this person’s name. Here is the comment:

I notice you like to use the term alt-right. It is such a loaded term and I doubt Sean Hannity and Ben Shapiro truly associate themselves with it. It the shows your bias towards them and who public radio’s audience really are. KEN SAYS: We call things as we see (and hear) them. We choose to live in fact-based reality, not in a hyperbolic world of opinions. Our perception is that talkers like Hannity and Shapiro are grifters who spread hate, stereotypes and dog-whistle “alternative facts” for financial gain. We are surprised that a Spark News reader is gullible enough to believe them. Senator Ben Sasse We agree with this comment made by Senator Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska) on Fox News Sunday recently [link]: “Language about enemies and treason, about policy and politics is pretty warped, and I think most Americans think it's weird. When you -- when you look at the small subset of people who put politics at the center of their lives, they tend to be really, really lonely.”