59% OF FULL-TIME NPR NEWS/TALK STATIONS GAINED LISTENING IN FALL 2019 NIELSEN DIARY MARKETS

Congratulations North State Public radio for having the

largest jump in AQH during the past year

According to Nielsen Audio, the majority – 59% - of full-time NPR News/Talk stations, in markets where Diary methodology is used, gained in AQH share between Fall 2018 and Fall 2019.

Spark News examined the Fall 2019 Nielsen ratings for 62 full-timenews/talk stations and determined the top 40 performers in AQH share and reputation within the community.

The ratings for these stations were then compared to data from a similar time period in Fall 2018. Data from 39 stations was used.

Twenty-three of the 39 stations (59%) had larger AQH share totals in Fall 2019 than in the prior year. Fourteen stations (36%) had larger AQH share in Fall 2018.  Two stations (10%) had the same AQH share both years.

Scroll down to see the complete list of full-time NPR News/Talk stations in an alphabetical order.

Spark News also examined 20 stations with dual-formats of NPR News and blocks of music. Scroll down to see the dual-format stations.

North State Public Radio (KCHO) had the largest gain of all of the full-time NPR News/Talk stations during the past year.

KCHO had a 2.5 AQH share in Fall 2018 and a 5.9 AQH share in Fall 2019. KCHO’s AQH share grew 42% in one year.

Other stations also saw big gains in AQH share.

Michigan Radio’s flagship, WUOM in Ann Arbor, is up 2.4 share points.  

In addition to the success of WUOM in Ann Arbor, has strong repeaters repeaters covering Grand Rapids and Flint, .

Hawaii Public Radio’s News channel, up 2.3 share points.

WFSU, Tallahassee, had the biggest drop in AQH share. They had a 7.2 AQH share in Fall 2018 and a 5.1 in Fall 2019, a loss of 2.1 share points.

MOST DUAL-FORMAT STATIONS LOST AQH SHARE IN ONE YEAR

The ratings performance by dual-format stations is different world.

As a group, dual format stations do not perform as well in the ratings of NPR News/Talk stations.

Only 4 of the 20 dual-format stations had a larger AQH share in Fall 2019 compared with Fall 2018. Fourteen dual format stations (75%) had higher AQH shares in 2018. One station had the same AQH share in both years.

KACU in Abilene had the biggest gain in AQH shares. In Fall 2019 they had a 2.7 share, up 0.6 from 2018.

Iowa Public Radio’s (IPR) WOI-FM had the biggest loss of ACH share between 2018 and 2019. WOI-FM airs IPR’s Studio One service that combines Morning Edition and ATC with Triple A-ish music. WOI-FM went from a 5.3 in Fall 2018 to a 3.5 in Fall 2019. By the way, WOI-AM has a full-time NPR News/Talk format.

AQH dropped 1.5 share points at WCQS in Asheville. The two Delmarva Public Radio stations both had major drops in AQH.

FULL-TIME NEWS/TALK STATIONS USED IN THE ANALYSIS