47% OF FULL-TIME CLASSICAL MUSIC STATIONS INCREASED AQH SHARE IN THE PAST YEAR • WHAT BBC “MODERNIZATION” MEANS FOR U.S. STATIONS

Classical music on the radio continues to draw large audiences in markets of all sizes. 

According an analysis by Spark News of Nielsen Audio ratings for full-tme Classical music stations in medium and small markets. 

Almost half of the stations gained in average-quarter-hour (AQH) shares in the past year.

Spark News compared the results from the October, November and December quarter in 2019 with data from a similar period in 2018. 

We tracked AQH shares for 22 full-time Classical music stations in 23 markets where Nielsen uses Diary methodology. We will post results from dual-format stations that air part-time Classical music later this week.

The chart on the left shows the Top Ten stations ranked by estimated AQH share. Gainers are highlighted in green,

It is difficult to compare stations from market to market.

Each metro has different circumstances. There are variations in population and the number stations that are measured by Nielsen.

We found data from both 2018 and 2019 for stations in 19 markets. 

There were nine (47%) that had a larger AQH in Fall 2019. KUSC had the largest gain (up 0.9) in Oxnard-Ventura. 

The AQH share for commercial station WFCC on Cape Cod, grew by 0.8. Hawaii Public Radio’s Classical channel and WFSQ, Tallahassee were both up 0.5.

Not all stations in big markets subscribe to Nielsen ratings in nearby Diary markets. 

KUSC does subscribe but others, such as WNYC, don’t. Their data was not available for our comparison.

Six of 19 stations (32 %) had a decline in Fall 2019 AQH share compared with Fall 2018. 

The stations with the biggest drops were Vermont Public Radio, down 1.1, and Iowa Public Radio in Des Moines, down 0.6.

Four stations (21 %) had the same AQH share in both years.

450 PEOPLE TO BE LAYED OFF DUE TO BIG BUDGET CUTS AT THE BBC NEWS

Last week, the Washington Post was the first to report [link] that the BBC News in London announced 450 jobs will be cut in a new “modernization plan.”

BBC News employs about 6,000 people, including 1,700 outside the U.K. The cuts will be made at all of BBC’s domestic and international news services.  The BBC World Service will be affected.

Approximately 2,000,000 people hear news from the BBC World Service via public radio stations each week. Many stations program BBC during overnight hours. A large percentage of NPR News/Talk stations air high-profile programs such as Newshour during key listening hours.

American Public Media (APM), the U.S. distributor of BBC News programming, has contacted stations that carry BBC News with more information that is now known. APM sent an advisory email to stations that said, in part:

Television and radio are still essential to people's news consumption, but other platforms like digital are also on the rise.

In order to streamline production on all these platforms, the BBC is making some changes to the way they produce news.

The BBC World Service will still provide you with live news programming throughout the day, but this means some changes to certain live news programs:

• World Update (fed 5:00-5:59 am ET) will be cut from the World Service schedule

• Newsday will be reduced to a half-hour program with one host. It will be fed at 10:06-10:29 pm ET and 11:06-11:29 pm. ET.  Other editions of Newsday will remain unchanged.

• There are no anticipated changes to Newshour or The Newsroom at this time.

The entire plan has yet to be approved by BBC’s senior management. Approval is expected.