WEEKLY LISTENERS UP 6.8% IN TOP 20 NONCOMMERCIAL STATIONS • MORE ABOUT THE VANISHING IOWA NEWS LISTENERS

According to Nielsen Audio PPM ratings for Fall 2018, the number of weekly listeners to the Top 20 noncommercial stations was up 6.8% compared to Fall 2016. Spark News is paying special attention to the changes between 2016 and 2018 because many NPR News/Talk stations had record high ratings during the “election book.”

PLEASE NOTE: Carl Nelson from RRC sent this message: "RRC may not have been able to provide complete estimates due to Nielsen reporting changes."

Next week we will provide Nielsen PPM data for 55 fulltime NPR News/Talk stations; 27 full-time Classical music stations; 13 fulltime Jazz music stations; 16 fulltime AAA music stations; plus the top Americana, Alternative Rock, Urban Hits and Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) stations.

These are the key questions we will attempt to answer with the Nielsen PPM data:

1. How are NPR News/Talk stations doing in Fall 2018 compared to Fall 2016? How many stations are better off in Fall 2018 than they were in Fall 2016?

2. Will AAA music stations remain the number three public radio format behind News/Talk and Classical music? Has the audience for Jazz music stations increased or decreased?

3. Will Classical music stations keep defying demographic gravity by adding new listeners and/or maintaining their current listening base?

4. Are more people listening to public radio and other noncommercial stations in Fall 2018 than were in Fall 2016? Which formats are performed the best?

THE TOP 20 NONCOM STATIONS

On the left are two charts that show the top 20 noncommercial stations in Fall 2018, based on their estimated weekly listeners during the rating period. 

PPM data for the same stations from Fall 2016 and two year trends are also shown. 

We did not have 2016 data for one station, CCM KKLQ in Los Angeles. KKLQ signed on in 2017.

We added the estimated weekly listeners for the remaining 19 stations and tabulated the hypothetical number of weekly listeners for Fall 2018 and Fall 2016. In Fall 2018 there were 11,295,400 weekly listeners to the 19 stations, up 6.8% from 10,527,100 weekly listeners in Fall 2016.

Common wisdom is that fewer people were listening to radio in 2018 than 2016, but this is not true for the 19 top stations.

Of the Top 20 stations, 12 (60%) had a NPR News/Talk format, 4 (20%) had a CCM format, 3 (15%) had a Classical format and 1 (5%) had a Jazz format. 13 of the 20 stations (65%) had more estimated weekly listeners in Fall 2018 than Fall 2016.

THE VANISHING NEWS LISTENERS IN IOWA

Yesterday we reported about the dramatic drop in estimated weekly listeners and AQH share to Iowa Public Radio’s (IPR) two channels that provide NPR News in Cedar Rapids. 

We have re-posted the Cedar Rapids data on the left.

The number of weekly listeners to IPR fulltime news/talk format in Cedar Rapids dropped 58% in Fall 2018 compared to Fall 2016. Dual format Studio One (NPR News & AAA) fell 46% during the same period.

We said yesterday that we would examine other markets with IPR stations to see if their two-year trends were different than Cedar Rapids.

We also contacted representatives of IPR for their comments, Unfortunately, they had not yet seen the Fall 2018 Nielsen ratings and therefore couldn’t comment.

On the left are the numbers for Waterloo-Cedar Falls, the smallest of the four Iowa markets served by IPR.

The pattern was the same as what we observed in Cedar Rapids.

The estimated number weekly listeners in Waterloo-Cedar Falls was down by 55% and weekly listeners to Studio One dropped by 17% in Fall 2018 compared with Fall 2016.

We found these changes to be almost beyond belief, particularly for IPR’s Studio One. The local signal for both Waterloo and Cedar Rapids, KUNI-FM is perhaps the most powerful signal in the state.

In Des Moines, Iowa's largest market, the results were somewhat different. 

IPR’s Studio One was down in both AQH share and estimated weekly listeners. WOI-FM is the flagship station of IPR’s Studio One channel.

But, fulltime IPR News increased its AQH share and weekly listeners remained stable. WOI-AM is the flagship of IPR’s NPR News/Talk format.

The top performer in Des Moines was the University of Northwestern’s CCM station KNWS-FM. Northwestern had the top station in three of the four markets where IPR competes.

Billy Graham founded Northwestern’s radio service in the 1940s and 1950s. To learn more about Graham and the Northwestern stations, please see our February 2018 post [link]. We consider it one our best essays.

The Quad Cities (Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa and Rock Island and Moline in Illinois) is a difficult market to evaluate. 

IPR’s Studio One channel was up in both AQH share and weekly listeners. IPR’s fulltime News/Talk channel is not a significant factor in the market.

The top noncom station in the Quads is WGVV-LP, an Urban Hits community phenomenon with a big audience footprint.   

It is one of a handful of LPFM stations supported by CPB and has, perhaps, the largest audience of any LPFM station in the nation.

KALA is an outlier. The station, licensed to St. Ambrose University, has a “stealth” format. We could not find a program schedule for KALA anywhere on the station’s website or social media pages. The slogan for the station might be “KALA: Where We Keep You Guessing.”