Nielsen: Classic Hits Claims Summer of 2018 Format Honors

The release of the August portable people meter (PPM) results has allowed Nielsen to call Classic Hits the winner in the race for "format of the summer," as this format garnered the biggest listener boost when comparing January through May trends to June through August.

The format achieved the same feat-winning the annual "format of the summer" race -- in both 2014 and 2015. In other words, over the past five years, Classic Hits has seen the biggest upswing three times during the summer.

To Nielsen, it seems clear that music preferences on the radio during the summer turn toward the classics -- rock and pop music written during the past half-century, which form the foundation for the Classic Hits and Classic Rock formats. The differentiator is that Classic Rock focuses on rock-based music, while Classic Hits infuses more pop music and plays more songs from the 1980s. Nielsen Music's BDSradio airplay data reveals that 40% of the songs played on Classic Rock stations were written in the 80s, and another 40% were from the 70s. For Classic Hits stations, 52% of the songs aired come from the 80s, while another 33% come from the 70s.

Summer 2018 was unique because the movement among these major formats during June, July and August was smaller than in years' past. Only a few tenths of an average quarter-hour (AQH) share point made the difference this summer for Classic Hits, Classic Rock and Urban Contemporary, which were the three formats that grew their listening the most.

The final chart tracks the three-month summer progression in 6+ audience share for Classic Hits, Classic Rock, Urban Contemporary and Country -- the four formats that Nielsen focused on this year for the 'format of the summer' race. Classic Hits started out strong, setting an all-time PPM record for share in June at 5.9%. It then dipped slightly in July, and rebounded in August with the best August numbers that Nielsen has seen for the format at 5.8%.