Hartford Radio: Non-Com WNPR Becoming Region’s News Leader

Radio listeners have increasingly tuned into Connecticut public radio station WNPR 90.5 FM 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 Hartford Business.

WNPR edged past WTIC 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 previous 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 Collaborative, 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 environment and changing listener habits, in which people increasingly prefer commercial-free broadcasts — something WNPR offers.

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 intended to further engage students and the community with Connecticut Public.

WNPR 90.5 FM (18.5 Kw) Red=Local Coverage Area

WNPR has nearly doubled its overall share of audience, reflected as the percentage of all people listening 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.

Steve Salhany, vice president of programming at Entercom/Hartford acknowledged WNPR's recent monthly wins, but said he looks at average ratings over the course of a year, which he considers more accurate. WTIC-AM has led in that measure since at least 2011, he said, and he's confident it will retain that lead at the end of 2018.

"I've been here at the TICs for almost 30 years and numbers kind of go up a little bit and down some," he said. "At the end of the day, providing consistent information and local content, being part of the community and being part of our listeners' lives are really the most important thing for us."

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