KFI Is The #1 Talk Station in the U.S.

[Gregg.]

For TV, yes. Definitely not for radio.

No, the is separate "Trenton" market ranked 147 and 330,000 12+ persons where that station is very dominant. They also get numbers from the Atlantic City market ranked 149. The station also appears in the Allentown, PA, market which includes part of NJ and in the Sussex survey.

A recent market map is at https://www.worldradiohistory.com/A...t-Maps/Nielsen-Radio-Market-Map-Fall-2022.pdf

Or, this close up

View attachment 8687


Check the map. There are a whole lot of NJ counties not in either Philadelphia or NYC ratings books.

Then WKXW is easily the #3 commercial talk station in the U.S., ahead of WABC. As David says, it has plenty of uncounted listeners in Mercer, Hunterdon, Warren and Ocean Counties, all of which are neither part of the NYC or Philadelphia metros.

Nassau and Suffolk Counties are an embedded market, fully part of the NYC metro, even if NYC FMs can't be heard on Eastern Long Island. You'd think counties in NJ like Mercer and Ocean Counties, where listening to New York FM stations is widespread, should be too. But I guess they have to draw the dividing lines somewhere.

 

[kevtronics]

Mercer and Hunterdon Counties, including Princeton and Trenton, are about 40 miles north of Philly, 50 miles south of NYC. The Philadelphia FM stations are easy to hear there and the NYC FMs are mostly available. But are Mercer and Hunterdon not in either metro ?

In clear terrain, you easily get both, as well as stations from the Lehigh Valley (PA) and the Jersey shore.

Here's an FM band scan from Toms River, NJ. Nearly every frequency is occupied by a listenable signal:

 

[Jean Luc]

I am left of center. But I view NPR stations as a different format. I also view All-News stations as a different format. Just as we consider Classic Rock, Alternative Rock and Active Rock as different formats, even if some artists are common among all three.

I specified commercial talk stations in my remarks.

Nielsen lists the public radio stations on my top 10 list as news/talk. They do news blocks in morning and afternoon drive plus talk shows in between (Here & Now, On Point, 1A, Fresh Air, local shows). How are these stations not news/talk? Yes, Nielsen does list all news stations as all news (even when they deviate from the format on weekends or overnight). No, it does not list "Active Rock" as a format.

So, if you don't want to consider any public radio station airing news and talk programs all day as news/talk, what are they? Don't say "public radio" because other public radio stations are jazz, classical, adult alternative or variety.

 

[davideduardo]

Nielsen lists the public radio stations on my top 10 list as news/talk. They do news blocks in morning and afternoon drive plus talk shows in between (Here & Now, On Point, 1A, Fresh Air, local shows). How are these stations not news/talk? Yes, Nielsen does list all news stations as all news (even when they deviate from the format on weekends or overnight). No, it does not list "Active Rock" as a format.

Nielsen, purposely, gives stations a limited number of formats they can have attached to their listing in the ratings reports. This is because the purpose of those names is to give broad guidance to ad agency buyers.

I'll guarantee you that most agency buyers do not know the difference between alternative rock and active rock and the other variants.

So, if you don't want to consider any public radio station airing news and talk programs all day as news/talk, what are they? Don't say "public radio" because other public radio stations are jazz, classical, adult alternative or variety.

And since ratings are principally produced for ad buyers, those differentiations on non-commercial stations are superfluous.