Bill Virgin's Radio Beat - February 8, 2007

Includes archive of Bill Virgin's columns fromJ une 2006 - March 2009

Postby radiofan » Wed Feb 07, 2007 11:24 pm

Thursday, February 8, 2007

On Radio: Local public radio stations still rate

By BILL VIRGIN
P-I REPORTER


In the quarterly ratings battle among radio stations in the Seattle-Tacoma market, the contestants for the top spot are usually the country, soft rock, urban contemporary and news-talk stations.

And public radio.

That non-commercial stations are major players in the local radio market, and claim a sizable portion of listeners, was a point reinforced by the latest data from Arbitron Inc. and the Radio Research Consortium for the fall-quarter survey.

When Arbitron releases its quarterly ratings and rankings (reported in this space a few weeks ago), it doesn't include non-commercial stations on the list (although it has discussed doing so). But Radio Research Consortium, a research firm that serves the non-commercial market, compiles the data separately. By interpolating the two lists, it's possible to see how the non-commercials stack up competitively with commercial stations.

What that comparison reveals is that KUOW-FM (94.9), along with its Olympia-based AM outlet, was the second-ranked station among listeners 12 and older in the fall quarter.

KUOW finished one-tenth of a share point behind KRWM-FM (106.9), a soft-rock station that normally does well but got a particularly strong bump from its all-Christmas format in the quarter. And KUOW finished just one-tenth of a point better than KUBE-FM (93.3).

Other non-commercial stations did well too. KPLU-FM (88.5) finished, in the reconfigured list, in a tie for ninth with KZOK-FM (102.5) and KOMO-AM (1000).

Also on the list were KEXP-FM (90.3), KNHC-FM (89.5), KBCS-FM (91.3) and KVTI-FM (90.9).

Do ratings matter to non-commercial stations, since they're not selling air time to advertisers who want to know not just how many listeners they're reaching but some characteristics about them (such as age and gender)?

While the mission of non-commercial stations is to provide a public service of information, rather than making a profit, ratings do give an indication of "how effective we are at reaching people," says Jeff Hansen, programming director at KUOW.

Nationally, public radio has reached something of a plateau in audience, and Hansen says the same trend seems to be true for KUOW although "our share in the Seattle market is increasing."

That may be the result of the same trends commercial radio is dealing with -- the array of entertainment and information channels now available. "The more viable options you provide to people, the more they will use them, which fragments the audience," he says.

It also may be that "public radio has perhaps grown as much as it can, given what we do and the way we do it," Hansen adds, noting that non-commercial stations don't have much in the way of marketing budgets to test whether heavy promotion might increase the audience. "It's possible that for every format, there is a sort of natural capacity."

In other radio notes:

Don Riggs' guests on "Introspect Northwest" at 7 a.m. Saturday on KPTK-AM (1090) and KMPS-FM (94.1) include Taylor Branch, author of "At Canaan's Edge."

The Metropolitan Opera performs Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana" and Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci" at 10:30 a.m. Saturday on KING-FM (98.1).

Yann Novak performs on "Sonarchy" at midnight Saturday on KEXP-FM (90.3).

Lizz Sommars' guests on "Conversations" at 6 a.m. Sunday on KBSG-FM (97.3), KISW-FM (99.9) and KKWF-FM (100.7) include Jill Fredston, author of a book on avalanches, "Snowstruck."

The Sunday edition of Jim French's "Imagination Theatre," heard at 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday on KIXI-AM (880), includes a new Harry Nile adventure.

P-I reporter Bill Virgin can be reached at 206-448-8319 or billvirgin@seattlepi.com.

Bill Virgin's Radio Beat .. Thursdays in the Seattle P-I
Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who couldn't hear the music.
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