Nielsen Handicaps The PPM Ponies For Summer

With the second leg of the Triple Crown set to get underway this weekend in Baltimore, horse racing is once again enjoying its annual moment in the spotlight.

Over on the radio dial, Nielsen reports it’s also a big time of year for jockeying; that is, tracking the fortunes of major radio formats with summer right around the corner.

In March, Nielsen saw Pop Contemporary Hit Radio (CHR) and Classic Rock bolt out of the gate strong, and with the release of Nielsen’s April portable people meter (PPM) results, Hot Adult Contemporary (AC) and Country are also looking to show in the race for summertime success on the airwaves.

Historically, the crown of ‘format of the summer’ is awarded to the major format that sees the most audience growth during June, July and August compared to the first five calendar months of the year. There’s still a ways go around the yearly track, but as we head towards the first turn, let’s examine the pole positions for some of radio’s most popular formats.

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After a spike last month among all listeners aged 6 and over, Pop CHR dipped slightly in April (going from 8.7% to 8.5%) but is still ahead of its pace looking back over the past four years. The format held steady with 18 to 34 year olds since March (12.8%), and in the 25-54 demographic, the format trended down just a tenth of a share-point (9.5% to 9.4%).

However, the real headline story this month is the record-setting pace that Classic Rock. Nielsen says for the third straight month, the format went out and set new records for audience share. Classic rock is enjoying more than just a few hot monthlies.

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Speaking of a record-setting pace, Nielsen says Hot AC isn’t far behind Classic Rock this month. While we haven’t mentioned the format recently, it has been quietly having another great year and breaking records along the way. In April, Hot AC set new records for its best share under PPM measurement for both listeners 6 and older.

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Overall, April was a good month for Country, which saw positive share growth across all three age groups, posting its best month since last November.

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Note: Nielsen Audio officially has 48 measured PPM markets, but three of them (Nassau-Suffolk, Middlesex-Somerset-Union, and San Jose) are included in the larger New York and San Francisco metro areas. Therefore, the listening data from those markets are included in these results even though we did not break them out separately.