31 Jan 2006

New WVXU Has Big Audience Gain

The Cincinnati Post

It would seem the Cincinnati market appreciates having a public radio station dedicated mainly to news and talk from National Public Radio.

That's the trend in the fall ratings report released this week from Arbitron for the newly formatted WVXU-FM (91.7) covering the late September to early December listening period. It is the first ratings book for the station that switched to the news/talk format last August after being purchased by Cincinnati Public Radio Inc., owners of classical station WGUC-FM (90.9).

WVXU showed a jump of 35 percent in weekly audience compared to the fall of 2004, reaching some 142,000 listeners a week.

"I don't think any of us expected such a great start for the new WVXU," said Richard Eiswerth, president and general manager. "Our records show this is the highest listenership for WVXU in its storied history."

WVXU posted a 2.8 share of total listeners, Monday-Sunday. Arbitron issues a separate ratings report for the area's public stations. If that share were to be put into the commercial radio mix, WVXU would rank a respectable 14th in the market out of 32 stations rated in total weekly listeners. Unlike commercial radio ratings, Arbitron does not provide demographic breakdowns for public stations.

It is an impressive showing for WVXU just five months after it switched formats in a move that caused lament in some quarters when Xavier University sold the station. The new owners dropped the unique block programming mix of local public affairs, information shows and eclectic music.

Usually such radical format changes take months and even years to find an audience. The WVXU fall numbers show that there is something to be said for streamlining a station with a focused sound and presentation. In this case, the programming may not have been totally new to long-time National Public Radio fans. The station added or expanded some long-running public radio news shows that had not been heard in the market, such as "This American Life," and "Talk of the Nation."

"We do have an attractive lineup of known entities. NPR and its personalities have a lot of name recognition," said Kevin Reynolds, WVXU marketing director.

The news was more mixed at sister station WGUC, which moved all of its talk and news shows to WVXU in the consolidation, becoming a 24/7 classical music station. It saw a slight drop of 4 percent in total audience from a year ago.

While enjoying the initial WVXU numbers, Eiswerth cautioned it takes a full year for new formats to average out, but said he was encouraged by the initial trend.

"This first quarter has certainly proven that Greater Cincinnati wants and will support strong, non-commercial radio," he said.