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April 2023 Bay Area Radio PPM Ratings

Here are the April 2023 San Francisco Radio PPM Ratings:

https://ratings.****************/content/arb009


And the April 2023 San Jose Radio PPM Ratings:

https://ratings.****************/content/arb215

Any thoughts or observations?
 
Covering the survey period from Thu. 3/30/2023 thru Wed. 4/26/2023, age 6+ overall:
San Francisco - RadioInsight (alternate view)
and San Jose - RadioInsight (alternate view)

Top 5+ demo rankings analysis for ages 25-54, 18-34 + 18-49:

25-54: 1. KOIT 2. KISQ 3. KYLD 4. KMVQ 5. KMEL 6. KIOI
18-34: 1. KOIT 2. KMEL 3. KYLD 4. KMVQ 5. KBLX 6. KIOI
18-49: 1. KOIT 2. KMEL 3. KYLD 4. KMVQ 5. KISQ
 
KEZR is incorrectly listed as a News/Talk station. It is an Adult Top 40 station! I wish radio-online could fix this.
 
Interesting that KCBS has been soundly beating KQED for several months now. Before that, they were usually neck-and-neck for #1 or #2.
 
Look at the oscillations in those numbers. KCBS goes from a 6.0 to an 8.0 in one month? More likely the 4 month average, ~7.0, is approximately right. (KCBS suddenly gains an additional 2 share points in March, a 33% increase overnight, and then loses a third of that increase in the April survey?)

KQED, whose schedule is heavy with NPR and NPR-distributed programming, as well as APM, PRI, PRX stuff, has a loyal listener base, so how likely is it to have dropped 25% from January to February, and then gotten back half that drop in March? What's much more likely is PPM panelist churn. This particular combo of panelists must prefer the "touch-and-go" approach to news (headlines, short actualities, brief canned pieces from their reporters, traffic & weather together and lots & lots of commercials), and is less friendly to the mighty 'QED's longform programming.
 
Look at the oscillations in those numbers. KCBS goes from a 6.0 to an 8.0 in one month? More likely the 4 month average, ~7.0, is approximately right. (KCBS suddenly gains an additional 2 share points in March, a 33% increase overnight, and then loses a third of that increase in the April survey?)

KQED, whose schedule is heavy with NPR and NPR-distributed programming, as well as APM, PRI, PRX stuff, has a loyal listener base, so how likely is it to have dropped 25% from January to February, and then gotten back half that drop in March? What's much more likely is PPM panelist churn. This particular combo of panelists must prefer the "touch-and-go" approach to news (headlines, short actualities, brief canned pieces from their reporters, traffic & weather together and lots & lots of commercials), and is less friendly to the mighty 'QED's longform programming.
April is a low panel churn month. The peak churns are November, December and July-August due to lifestyle issues.

News stations, including NPR, are highly variable, with the news cycle highly affecting them. And, yes, spot news coverage can change in opposite ways from longer form news analysis and talk.

There does not seem to be a huge change in cume for either stations... it's mostly about TSL.

KQED has been +/- 5% of its 500,000 cume average for the last 5 months. KCBS has wobbled by about 10% from its 680,000 level over last 7 to 8 months. In fact, it was on the lower side in April.

However, KQED had a higher average in August to December of last year, just under 600,000.

This is 12+ cume..
 
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Interesting downward trend for KDFC. I posted elsewhere that I was having problems picking up their signal in the heart of SF; maybe I wasn't the only one?
 
How do KBAY's 25-54 and 18-49 shares with country compare to those earned by KRTY during its final six months or so as an FM country station?
 
How do KBAY's 25-54 and 18-49 shares with country compare to those earned by KRTY during its final six months or so as an FM country station?
Haven't seen those breakouts, but it sure looks bad based on 6+. 11th place in San Jose with several consecutive months of decline. Way down to 23rd in SF? This is not where that station should be. (and not where they were as a Classic Hits.) This was a botched format change, with some bad decisions made. No local morning show, tracked jocks, dull presentation, clearly done "on the cheap." Nowhere near as local sounding or engaging as KRTY.
 
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Haven't seen those breakouts, but it sure looks bad based on 6+. 11th place in San Jose with several consecutive months of decline. Way down to 23rd in SF? This is not where that station should be. (and not where they were as a Classic Hits.) This was a botched format change, with some bad decisions made. No local morning show, tracked jocks, dull presentation, clearly done "on the cheap." Nowhere near as local sounding or engaging as KRTY.
They should’ve never flipped to country. How can skinny jean flannel wearing hipsters in the Bay relate to growing up on farms, $2 beer and being raised in baptist churches?
 
They should’ve never flipped to country. How can skinny jean flannel wearing hipsters in the Bay relate to growing up on farms, $2 beer and being raised in baptist churches?
Agreed. The last few months of KRTY it looked like they had some huge numbers in San Jose from a handful of meter holders, giving them some great looking short-term ratings. Alpha's mistake with KBAY was looking at those numbers and thinking that this was somehow a permanent change in taste or demographics. It was not; it was a typical Nielsen short-term fluctuation. So they dumped what has been a historically more successful format in the Bay Area and blew up a station that had been #1 in San Jose for much of the past several years. Strange move.
 
Agreed. The last few months of KRTY it looked like they had some huge numbers in San Jose from a handful of meter holders, giving them some great looking short-term ratings. Alpha's mistake with KBAY was looking at those numbers and thinking that this was somehow a permanent change in taste or demographics. It was not; it was a typical Nielsen short-term fluctuation. So they dumped what has been a historically more successful format in the Bay Area and blew up a station that had been #1 in San Jose for much of the past several years. Strange move.
It just doesn’t make sense. They would’ve been better off flipping to alternative
 
How do KBAY's 25-54 and 18-49 shares with country compare to those earned by KRTY during its final six months or so as an FM country station?
Thus far in 2023 (Jan-Apr), KBAY has averaged 0.2 shares below the average KRTY had in 2021 (Jan-Nov) prior to the anomalous few months it had to start off 2022.
 
My view on the KBAY switch is that a currents-based female-leaning format gets them access to a different advertiser base than a gold-based male leaning format. It fits better in this cluster.
 
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