WBUR & WGBH ARE REIMAGINING LARGER AUDIENCES AGAIN • WPLJ ALUMNI PARTY LIKE IT IS 1979

Scott Fybush

We hope you had the opportunity to read Scott Fybush’s op-ed in the June 4 edition of the Boston Globe [link] about WBUR and WGBH reimagining public radio. Fybush is a knowledgeable radio writer because of the years he has spent as a broadcast consult and as editor of the trade publication NorthEast Radio Watch [link].

We recommend Fybush’s Globe article because it provides an excellent summary of two great stations and what may lie ahead for both. The big news is that WBUR and WGBH are in the process of hiring new leaders.

Charlie Kravetz

Charlie Kravetz left WBUR last March and Phil Redo will soon be retiring from WGBH. 

Over the past few years both Kravetz and Redo have had incredible success building audience, generating new revenue and sharpening their station’s brand.

Fybush highlights many of the changes we have also written about recently including:

Phil Redo

• Since WGBH went head-to-head with WBUR with a NPR News/Talk format, the audience for both stations has grown exponentially. 

When the audiences of the two stations are combined, Boston has one of the nation’s largest NPR News/Talk audiences.

• Fybush describes how both stations have differences with similar program schedules.  WBUR is focused on national coverage, particularly with their syndicated programs Here & Now and On Point. WGBH is all about local, local, local. WGBH also puts an emphasis on personalities such as morning host Joe Mathieu, a Boston hometown favorite from many years at WBZ-AM.

• Fybush also talks about how WBUR and WGBH have been challenging Boston radio news leader WBZ, a task once thought to be impossible.

Unfortunately, Fybush’s narrative hits a speed bump when he wrote:

“In the most recent Nielsen Audio ratings, WBUR was neck-and-neck with its big commercial competitor, WBZ, with WGBH not far behind.”

This simply isn’t true.

Spark News looked at Nielsen Audio PPM trends from the past four years (chart on the left) and both stations have lost listening (“AQH”) and estimated weekly listeners (“cume”) in the past 12 to 18 months.

WGBH has lost ground in both metrics. For instance, in the PPM ratings for April and May 2019, WGBH’s AQH share has fallen to some of the lowest levels in the past four years. WGBH has also lost over 135,000 estimated weekly listeners, down 30%, when comparing Mary 2019 to a high point in October 2017. Ouch!

Both statIons were at their high points in 2017 and early 2018. Back then, they were challenging WBZ.

Now, In the May 2019 Nielsen PPM ratings, WBZ beats both stations significant margins in AQH and cume.  

 In fact, in May “book” WGBH is even trailing WRKO-AM, a station that airs “B-list” conservative talk hosts.

Elsewhere in the Boston May PPM ratings Classical WCRB and AAA WUMB were up a bit.  

Alt Rock WERS had a small decline.

GEEZER ALERT: THE WPLJ REUNION PARTY

WPLJ PD & Morning Host Scott Shannon

This story is for a limited audience.  If even the thought of listening to a bunch of Boss Jocks reviving memories of their younger days turns you off, then please move on.

But, if you ever worked in Top 40 and/or “big tent” AOR radio, or listened to WPLJ, you will get a chuckle watching a YouTube video of the WPLJ Reunion Party in late May just before the ‘PLJ vanished from the airwaves.

Commercial radio archivist Art Vuolo, a/k/a Radio’s Best Friend, produced the video. As you probably know, the legendary ‘PLJ was sold to Educational Media Foundation (EMF) and became K-Love repeater as of May 31.

A crowd of several hundred people with ties to WPLJ gathered at NYC’s Cutting Room to relive their glory days. We had forgotten that ‘PLJ had so many formats in its 30+ years, including some clinkers.

In our opinion WPLJ had two greats eras: The 1970s progressive rock years with personalities such as Tony Pigg and Carol Miller; and, the Rock 40 years of the late 1980s and 1990s with Scott Shannon.

So, polish your mood rings, put another load in the bong and bring in the “plaster casters” while you enjoy the party: