Recently we’ve been posting news about radio station battles
between two NPR News stations competing in the same market. In Boston WBUR and WGBH are going
head-to-heard with very similar programming.
In Santa Cruz/Monterey Bay KAZU may soon the only local NPR News voice
in the market.
There are a few more situations where two stations compete
for the NPR News audience. Sometimes
both stations, and their listeners, win.
In a few cases, one station dominates the market by such a wide margin
you have to wonder if the lesser station folks even care.
Below are six markets (all Nielsen Audio PPM markets) with
competing NPR News stations. For comparison we are using Winter 2015 data.
We are also using a nifty metric called NFFS. That stands for Non Federal Funding Sources
(“NFFS”). It is the total revenue
received by each station NOT including CPB grants or money from other federal
sources. I like this metric because it demonstrates each station’s ability to
generate revenue from listeners, underwriters and local sources. The NFFS was
compiled by CPB for fiscal year 2012.
SPECIAL BLENDS – WHERE
THE LISTENERS ARE THE WINNERS
Perhaps you’ve heard the programming theory that competitive
situations increase listening to both stations.
These two examples back that notion.
MARKET #2 – LOS
ANGELES
STATION
|
AQH SHARE
|
WEEKLY CUME
|
NFFS
|
KCRW
|
1.3
|
488,200
|
$17,846,000
|
KPCC
|
2.0
|
662,000
|
$17,970,000
|
MARKET #13 –
SEATTLE-TACOMA
STATION
|
AQH SHARE
|
WEEKLY CUME
|
NFFS
|
KPLU
|
3.1
|
299,600
|
$6,648,000
|
KUOW
|
4.2
|
302,400
|
$10,788,00
|
YOU CAN DO BETTER
MARKET #37 – COLUMBUS
STATION
|
AQH SHARE
|
WEEKLY CUME
|
NFFS
|
WCBE
|
1.2
|
79,500
|
$1,612,000
|
WOSU
|
3.1
|
135,500
|
$4,331,000
|
WOSU is NPR News 24/7; WCBE combines the major NPR shows
with Triple A. WOSU continues to pull
away from WCBE. In a perfect world, WCBE
would go Triple A 24/7. But this is not a perfect world and WCBE is owned by a
school board. These stations are sometimes run by clueless bureaucrats.
MARKET #9 – ATLANTA
STATION
|
AQH SHARE
|
WEEKLY CUME
|
NFFS
|
WABE
|
3.4
|
399,600
|
$8,408,000
|
WRAS
|
0.3
|
61,200
|
$6,136,000
|
WRAS, Georgia Public Broadcasting’s NPR News station for 14
hours a day, has been increasing audience since they began the operation via an LMA in 2014. But the tasty College Rock that airs the remaining hours isn't pleasing news listeners or alt music fans. WABE seems to be waking up.
MARKET #12 – DETROIT
STATION
|
AQH SHARE
|
WEEKLY CUME
|
NFFS
|
WDET
|
0.8
|
131,100
|
$3,739,000
|
WUOM
|
1.7
|
181,100
|
$6,664,000
|
To me, WDET lacks focus and momentum.
WUOM serves much of southern Michigan, branding itself Michigan Radio. Smart move!
MISSING AN
OPPORTUNITY
MARKET #4 – SAN
FRANCISCO
STATION
|
AQH SHARE
|
WEEKLY CUME
|
NFFS
|
KALW
|
0.3
|
84,800
|
$9,150,000
|
KQED
|
5.1
|
733,300
|
$25,781,000
|
I’ve written about KALW’s lameness before. I’ve been hoping that someone from KALW can
tell me WTF they are doing. My theory is they don’t care and like the way
things are now: Insignificant and almost irrelevant.
DATA © NIELSON AUDIO
Provided by RRC, Inc.
for use by subscribers only
© Radio Research Consortium, Inc.
// www.RRConline.org // RRC@RRConline.org
Format designations & trends
are the sole responsibility of Ken Mills Agency, LLC. Contact us publicradio@hotmail.com
I can't speak TOO much for KALW, but I can say that you're underestimating three important factors as to why they "underperform" so much.
ReplyDeleteFirst is signal reach. The Bay Area is almost as bad as Seattle with its terrain. It's damn hard to reach all the areas that matter...from the San Jose market up to Marin County...with a single FM license. And even if you've got that honkin' huge an outlet, it's still tough to overcome all the mountains...and there are pretty serious mountains out there. With lots of accompanying valleys that're packed full of houses. KQED's grandfathered 110,000w flamethrower gives them a huge edge here...and even they still need a couple translators and even an on-channel booster. KALW, on the other hand, has a vastly inferior (to KQED, I mean) Class B1 with only 1900w (!!!!) and from a LOWER height than KQED. That's a huge disadvantage. It doesn't reach the southern end of the Bay (i.e. Silicon Valley) at all, and that's a massive competitive disadvantage both in terms of targeting high-value listeners AND getting people to listen during SF's hideously long commutes.
Second is competition. It's easy to think there's a zillion public radio listeners in the Bay Area, but it's not that simple. Granted, there's probably more "left end of the dial" listeners per capita there than any other market, but that doesn't mean they're all "public radio" listeners. Many fall into the Pacifica camp (even if they don't actually listen to Pacifica). And unlike a lot of the country, people actually pay attention to the high school/college/community stations in SF. Besides KALW and KQED, and KPFA + KPFB, there's several other non-comms...all of which nibble, even bite, away at the audience: KECG, KCEA, KARC, KPOO, KCSM, KALX, KFJC and now KOSC (formerly KUSF).
As a side note on competition, KQED also has the TV outlet which gives them even more staff/resources to really monopolize the high-value listeners out there. It's tough to crack the nut they've put around that crowd.
Third is ownership. KQED is independent. KALX is owned by a school district. Again, I don't want to speak too much here, but I'm sure they have to answer to a lot of politics. Knowing what I know of how nutty Californians can be, too, I'll bet there are many people in that school district that would be offended if KALX actually tried to compete with their beloved KQED too much. But more to the point is that if KALX is doing well enough to keep the boat afloat, I suspect there's not much incentive for them to go far beyond that.
Oh, and it's too soon to apply that kind of analysis to WRAS. They *just* did that switch away from college rock less than a year ago...and made a LOT of enemies in the Atlanta market in the process. Plus GPB/WRAS is still learning how to program to both the entire state AND to the city of Atlanta at the same time.
ReplyDelete