Non-commercial news-formatted stations have enjoyed a three-month uptrend even before the election book, triple-As have remained strong even with the recent surge in election news, and classical stations have held steady.
These are some of the findings from Radio Research Consortium’s analysis of five public radio formats’ average quarter-hour persons 6+ delivery, based on data for stations in Nielsen’s 44 PPM markets from October 2023-September 2024.
“The last five years have presented us with a lot of challenges for programming a radio station,” RRC’s report says. “This snapshot [shows] how our most popular non-commercial radio formats have been performing over the last year. Please use these benchmarks to see how your station is doing by comparison.”
From July to October, full-time public news stations’ AQH persons has steadily increased, seeing a 16% lift. Throughout the year, these 48 stations have seen two tentpoles in weekday delivery, led by “Morning Edition” 7-9am and afternoons 4-6pm. On weekends, stations see a peak in listening from 9am to noon, while overall, stations achieve their highest daypart shares in weekday AM and PM drives.
The 16 triple-A formatted public stations in PPM markets have maintained an average AQH persons delivery of 42,500 from last to this October, with September and October 2024 numbers even higher in spite of the increase in election-related news during those months. For triple-A, weekday listening peaks in PM drive, with weekend delivery highest during middays.
RRC’s analysis shows the 26 classical stations in PPM markets steady at AQH persons — between 98,400 and 106,700 — with weekday delivery consistent between 9am-5pm. Weekends’ peak listening period is narrower, from 11am-2pm, with weekends and weeknights at a higher AQH than weekdays 6am-7pm, suggesting stations need to better recycle non-prime listening into prime listening.
While public radio’s jazz-formatted stations in 13 PPM markets saw a holiday decline in 2023, their AQH persons have held steady for most of the past year, topping out at 31,700 in May. Weekday listening peaks from 2-5pm, and weekends from 10am-5pm, the latter with higher AQH.
The trends have not been as good for the 23 contemporary Christian stations on public radio, where AQH persons have sharply decreased since a May peak, with election news having the strongest impact since July. Weekday evenings and weekends are the best performance times for these stations, with both significantly higher than weekdays 6am-7pm.
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