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Three Top DC Stations Below 92.1

G

Gregg.

Interesting to note: Three of Washington's top stations are found below 92.1 on the FM dial.

#1 88.5 WAMU NPR News/Talk
#6 91.9 WGTS Christian Contemporary
#11 tie 90.9 WETA-FM Classical

Contrast this with NYC where no station in the "Educational Non-Commercial" part of the FM band is a major player in the ratings.
 
Gregg. said:
Contrast this with NYC where no station in the "Educational Non-Commercial" part of the FM band is a major player in the ratings.
Click to expand...

Because their non-com NPR News station (93.9), Classical station (105.9), and Christian station (95.5) are all in the commercial part of the dial. The non-com part of the dial has several college stations and a jazz station.
 
Gregg. said:
Interesting to note: Three of Washington's top stations are found below 92.1 on the FM dial.

#1 88.5 WAMU NPR News/Talk
#6 91.9 WGTS Christian Contemporary
#11 tie 90.9 WETA-FM Classical

Contrast this with NYC where no station in the "Educational Non-Commercial" part of the FM band is a major player in the ratings.
Click to expand...
Not WBGO? I would have thought that jazz had a good following in the NYC market. Or do New Jersey-based stations not count?
 
KeithE4 said:
Not WBGO? I would have thought that jazz had a good following in the NYC market. Or do New Jersey-based stations not count?
Click to expand...

They get a 1 share. The problem is their signal into parts of Queens and Westchester isn't too good.

They run 2500 watts at 883 feet from Times Square.
 
KeithE4 said:
Not WBGO? I would have thought that jazz had a good following in the NYC market. Or do New Jersey-based stations not count?
Click to expand...
WBGO averages around 25th in 12+ shares. WQXR is about 50% and about 6 rank positions higher. And WNYC is around 12th overall with around three times the 12+ share of WBGO. BigA's comment about the signal is part of it, but jazz is not an overperforming format.
 
The interesting thing about NYC's non-commercial band is that for the most part, the college stations that have been there for 50 or more years show no signs of being sold. Unlike other areas, where colleges have been selling their radio stations.
 
TheBigA said:
They get a 1 share. The problem is their signal into parts of Queens and Westchester isn't too good.
Click to expand...
No, their problem is that they play jazz. There's a reason that NPR stations/state networks that program jazz do so at night and/or on weekend specialty shows. The classical music on those stations during the daytime is the music that appeals more to the public radio demo, and that translates into listener donations.
 
CTListener said:
No, their problem is that they play jazz. There's a reason that NPR stations/state networks that program jazz do so at night and/or on weekend specialty shows.
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Or on an HD2, as KJZZ Phoenix does. But jazz is still on the main channel in NYC (WBGO), Chicago (WDCB), and LA (KKJZ). I have to guess they're still doing well enough to keep the format going.
CTListener said:
The classical music on those stations during the daytime is the music that appeals more to the public radio demo, and that translates into listener donations.
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Classical music is a fantastic cure for insomnia. But outside of stations located in college towns with music schools, or in Chicago with WFMT, I just can't see it being all that popular anymore.
 
CTListener said:
No, their problem is that they play jazz. There's a reason that NPR stations/state networks that program jazz do so at night and/or on weekend specialty shows.
Click to expand...

Those stations are not in NYC, where most of this music was recorded, and where there still is a very active jazz community. This is not a typical NPR station that plays jazz. There's a large listenership of WBGO who use its stream. They have paying members to the station all across the country. There was a time when WBGO ran NPR news in addition to jazz. They discovered that they could raise more money by just playing jazz. That's what they do. If you judge the listenership of WBGO by its Nielsen ratings, you're missing the bigger story.
 
TheBigA said:
Those stations are not in NYC, where most of this music was recorded, and where there still is a very active jazz community. This is not a typical NPR station that plays jazz. There's a large listenership of WBGO who use its stream. They have paying members to the station all across the country. There was a time when WBGO ran NPR news in addition to jazz. They discovered that they could raise more money by just playing jazz. That's what they do. If you judge the listenership of WBGO by its Nielsen ratings, you're missing the bigger story.
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I was one of those paying members for several years, until WBGO developed serious technical issues with their stream about 10 years ago. Now, since I bought an HD radio, and KJZZ-HD2 airs jazz 24/7, I don't need to listen to WBGO, although I still do on occasion. Same with KKJZ in LA.
 
KeithE4 said:
I was one of those paying members for several years, until WBGO developed serious technical issues with their stream about 10 years ago. Now, since I bought an HD radio, and KJZZ-HD2 airs jazz 24/7, I don't need to listen to WBGO, although I still do on occasion. Same with KKJZ in LA.
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And now you can listen to former WBGO host Rhonda Hamilton on KKJZ.
 
KeithE4 said:
Classical music is a fantastic cure for insomnia. But outside of stations located in college towns with music schools, or in Chicago with WFMT, I just can't see it being all that popular anymore.
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No. 3 here in Market 221. But yes, Hanover's a college town and Dartmouth has a fine school of music.

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TheBigA said:
Those stations are not in NYC, where most of this music was recorded, and where there still is a very active jazz community. This is not a typical NPR station that plays jazz. There's a large listenership of WBGO who use its stream. They have paying members to the station all across the country. There was a time when WBGO ran NPR news in addition to jazz. They discovered that they could raise more money by just playing jazz. That's what they do. If you judge the listenership of WBGO by its Nielsen ratings, you're missing the bigger story.
Click to expand...
Great points. And that's the thing about public stations playing jazz or classical; an increasing percentage of their donor base comes from outside their primary market via streaming. In-market cume and TSL mean that much less to a rated station.
 
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