Hartford Business Journal

12 Hartford Business Journal • March 5, 2018 • www.HartfordBusiness.com By John Stearns jstearns@HartfordBusiness.com R adio listeners have increas- ingly tuned into Connecti- cut public radio station WNPR for news and talk over the last couple years, helping it in recent months nudge past the Hartford region's longtime news- talk leader, WTIC-AM, according to industry data. WNPR, at 90.5 FM, edged past WTIC, at 1080 AM, for the first time in September in 24-hour overall market share ratings. WNPR has maintained that lead in four out of the previ- ous five months, through Jan. 2018, according to data from the Radio Research Consortium (RRC), which provides research to noncommercial stations based on Nielsen Inc.'s audio data. (WNPR is not No. 1 in overall market share when music stations are included.) While WNPR didn't gain its first overall lead until fall 2017, it had begun to edge ahead in morning and/or afternoon drive-time ratings, where the bulk of listening occurs, said John Dankosky, executive editor of the WNPR-based New England News Col- laborative, host of "The Wheelhouse" and regional news program "NEXT." "I would say up until 2017, they were the leader in market share for news listening, without a question," Dankosky said of WTIC-AM, "and starting in 2017 that began to change and now we're hopeful that that has changed even more moving forward." The ratings shift, media experts say, could be explained by several factors, including the current political envi- ronment and changing listener habits, in which people increasingly prefer commercial-free broadcasts — some- thing WNPR offers. While the membership-based public radio station doesn't use ratings to sell advertising, the numbers affirm listeners are responding to WNPR's programming, said Sarah DeFilippis, senior vice president of branding and marketing for Connecticut Public, the new master brand for Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network's radio, TV, educational and other offerings. Hartford-based WNPR has invested heavily in its journalism in recent years, including a state-of-the-art studio at Gateway Community College in New Haven that opened Feb. 14 and is in- tended to further engage students and the commu- nity with Con- necticut Public. WNPR has five local news programs — "Where We Live," hosted by Lucy Nalpathanchil; "The Colin McEn- roe Show;" "The Wheelhouse," hosted by McEn- roe and Dankosky; "NEXT," from the New England News Collaborative and hosted by Dankosky; and the "Faith Middleton Food Schmooze" — that De- Filippis said are helping fuel the ratings rise. They're complemented by NPR's national programming. Radio ratings for the Hartford-New Britain-Middletown metro area can be viewed different ways and ratings can fluctuate month to month and week to week based on stories, with the news competitors trading positions in over- all ratings and morning and afternoon drive times. WNPR, though, has nearly doubled its overall share of audience, reflected as the percentage of all people listen- ing in a month who are measured by Nielsen, from 3.3 percent in March 2016 to 5.9 percent in Jan. 2018 and more than doubled its morning drive share from 3.4 percent to 6.9 percent, with overall average weekly listeners rising from 106,000 to 113,700 over the same period. Both stations are heard well beyond the Hartford-New Britain-Middletown area, but that's the market for which ratings are compiled, meaning their total listenership is larger. "We're really just talking about a snapshot in one market that's easier to measure where these stations go head to head," Dankosky said. WTIC confident Steve Salhany, vice president of programming at Entercom-Hartford — which counts WTIC-AM among four of its holdings locally, including FM stations WTIC 96.5, WRCH 100.5 and WZMX 93.7, all acquired as part of En- tercom Communications Corp.'s merger with CBS Radio Inc. last November — acknowledged WNPR's recent monthly wins, but said he looks at average rat- ings over the course of a year, which he considers more accurate. WTIC-AM has Airwaves Battle Public radio station WNPR, for the first time, is region's news-ratings leader John Dankosky, Executive Editor, New England News Collaborative and host of "The Wheelhouse" and "NEXT" Sarah DeFilippis, senior vice president of branding and marketing for Connecticut Public — the new master brand for Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network's properties, including WNPR, CPTV and CPTV Spirit, reflected in the new logo behind her — said WNPR's rise in news ratings affirms listeners are responding to the station's programming. HBJ PHOTOS | JOHN STEARNS

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