The blessing and the curse of panel-based measurement is that there are rarely large swings in the monthly PPM format shares. But there was still some movement, and during June it led to an uptick for CHR stations.
Nielsen reports the young-skewing CHR format’s share of 6+ listening was 5.5%. That was up from 5.3% in May. It was CHR’s best month since last September. The gain came not just from the 18-34 demo where CHR is king and its share rose to a 9.0% in June, up from 8.7% in May. But the format also got a bump in the 25-54 segment, where its share rose 6.5% to 6.8% month-to-month.
The news-talk format remains one of radio’s biggest. Nielsen says it accounted for 10.3% of overall 6+ listening during June. But as the news cycle slows and reopenings turn Americans’ attention away from pandemic updates and political chatter, news-talk had the biggest drop of any format last month. Its share had been 10.9% in May and 11.3% in April. In the so-called “money demo” of 25-54 year olds, Nielsen says news-talk’s June share was 6.9%. That was down a half point from May.
The urban AC/adult R&B format has been on a tear in recent months, but Nielsen said it held steady month-to-month in June with a 5.2 share 6+. It was also flat in the 25-54 year old demo.
The country format’s shares slipped a tenth of a point 6+ in June versus May. But the format is down from the 7.0 share it had in June 2020.
Meanwhile, classic hits lost one tenth of share from May (5.8-5.7) while classic rock rose by the same amount (5.2-5.3). Hot AC also gained ground in June, rising 4.5-4.6.
Recapping the top 10 most listened to formats in Nielsen’s June 2021 PPM survey: news-talk is No. 1 (10.9-10.3), AC is No. 2 (7.5-7.5), country and new country is No. 3 (6.4-6.3), classic hits is No. 4 (5.8-5.7), CHR is No. 5 (5.3-5.5), classic rock is No. 6 (5.2-5.3), urban AC/R&B is No. 7 (5.2-5.2), hot AC is No. 8 (4.5-4.6), sports is No. 9 (4.2-3.9) and Mexican regional is No. 10 (3.1-3.1).
All numbers quoted are Mon-Sun, 6am-12 mid, 6+ AQH shares.
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