The Talk Radio Ratings Scoreboard

[Gregg.]

An article in Inside Radio last week listed the top All-News and News-Talk stations. But it combined stations with widely different formats, both commercial and non-commercial. And it left off the list WABC, which I guess it didn't consider News-Talk, even though WABC has an all-news hour at 5 a.m. and locally anchored newscasts throughout the day.

I posted an All-News scoreboard last week and I'll do non-commercial stations next week. Now here's a scoreboard of cume ratings for commercial Talk Radio stations. Stations that do all-news in AM and PM drive were included in the All-News ratings, not here. Stations that do all-news only in morning drive, such as WSB, KIRO and KOA, I include here. While cume isn't the ratings looked at by ad agencies, it's the best way I can compare stations in different markets. I added together the NYC and Philadelphia ratings for New Jersey 101.5 WKXW, the #3 Talk station.
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1. WSB (AM)/WSBB (FM)......Atlanta..........................Cox........................................626,200

2. WABC (AM)...........................New York.....................Big Apple............................503,700

3. WKXW (FM)...........................Trenton........................Townsquare.......................358,700 (NYC) + 131,300 (Philadelphia)

4. KFI (AM).................................Los Angeles................iHeart...................................447,000

5. WGN (AM)............................Chicago........................Nexstar................................362,700

6. KTRH (AM)............................Houston.......................iHeart...................................346,700

7. WOR (AM).............................New York.....................iHeart...................................294,900

8. KIRO-FM................................Seattle..........................Bonneville...........................282,200

9. WLW (AM).............................Cincinnati....................iHeart...................................272,100

10. KTAR-FM..............................Phoenix........................Bonneville...........................257,700

11. KOA (AM).............................Denver.........................iHeart....................................254,300

12. KMOX (AM).........................St. Louis.......................Audacy..................................218,800

13. WBAP-AM-FM....................Dallas...........................Cumulus...............................218,700

14. WCCO (AM)..........................Minneapolis..............Audacy..................................181,400

15. WMAL-FM............................Washington...............Cumulus...............................173,400

16. WJR (AM)..............................Detroit.........................Cumulus...............................165,300

17. WFLA (AM)...........................Tampa..........................iHeart....................................163,500

18. KXL-FM.................................Portland.......................Alpha.....................................161,900

19. KSFO (AM)............................San Francisco............Cumulus...............................150,500

20. KFYI (AM).............................Phoenix........................iHeart....................................148,600



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[davideduardo]

I'd suggest that "rating" and neither cume nor share be the best yardstick on this.

"Rating" shows the percentage of the market's population (or specific age ranges) that listen on average in the time period being analyzed. It does not vary according to market population, and is not subject to Persons Using Radio as "share" is (there are always 100 share points, but rating is based on the percentage of the market whether they are listening or not.

 

[Gregg.]

From what I understand, cume tells us how many people tune in to a given station for at least 15 minutes during the week. It's not a perfect way to gauge listening. WABC's listeners may hear that station hour after hour, day after day, while WSB's listeners might tune in for a short time, once in a while, then switch to a music station. But at least cume tells us that folks are tuning in and this station is part of their regular diet of radio.

I'm not sure if there's another yardstick for comparing stations in different markets for anyone who doesn't subscribe to Nielson. I think it's interesting that a station in Atlanta has the highest cume of all talk stations, ahead of NYC and Los Angeles.

 

[Huff]

You can always look at the national Top 50 in share and cume here every month, and sort by format:

Ratings Top 50

Average Quarter Hour Share for Persons 6+, Mon-Sun 6AM-Mid Top 50 Share Top 50 CUME All ratings are Copyright © 2005-2020 The Nielsen Company. All rights reserved. Nielsen radio audience estimates and data are federally copyrighted by and proprietary to Nielsen.

radioinsight.com

 

[davideduardo]

From what I understand, cume tells us how many people tune in to a given station for at least 15 minutes during the week. It's not a perfect way to gauge listening. WABC's listeners may hear that station hour after hour, day after day, while WSB's listeners might tune in for a short time, once in a while, then switch to a music station. But at least cume tells us that folks are tuning in and this station is part of their regular diet of radio.

The problem is that cume is as much a relationship with the market population as with the relative successful format of the station. The only cross market metric is rating.

And cume often shows lots of people who tune in just for traffic updates and then leave. Remember, on average, about 50% of the cume persons represent nearly 90% of the time spent listening.

I'm not sure if there's another yardstick for comparing stations in different markets for anyone who doesn't subscribe to Nielson. I think it's interesting that a station in Atlanta has the highest cume of all talk stations, ahead of NYC and Los Angeles.

The major talk stations in NYC and New York do not have FM signals and… very important… WSB has decades more of heritage than the leadintalk stations in the other markets, KFI and WABC.

 

[PTBoardOp93]

Even then, the individual market's makeup matters.

In Atlanta, WSB has no all-news competitor, and no major competitor in the conservative talk sphere. If you want local news and traffic on the radio in ATL, you go to WSB.

WINS and KNX have much higher cume than WABC and KFI, probably because of commuters wanting traffic and local news.