What is wrong with NYC?
You've no doubt heard that New York radio stations have been hard hit by a revenue decline blamed in part on major advertisers experimenting with new media alternatives. But there are also listening changes in play. Analysis of Arbitron Fall 2006 data for New York by Victor Miller and the team at Bear Stearns finds bad news for most, but not all of the publicly traded radio companies, with 12+ listening down 4% from a year earlier. CBS dropped the most, 19%, but much of that is still being attributed to the loss of Howard Stern, although Bear Sterns noted that other CBS stations also posted losses. "CBS Radio's share of listening among persons 12+ fell by 19% to a 13.5 share of listening, down from a 16.5 share of listening in Fall 2005. Share of listening fell by 63% at WFNY-FM, which used to carry Stern programming. However, 12+ share of listening declines were also registered at CBS's news stations WINS-AM (down 14%) and WCBS-AM (down 19%). CBS is also in the process of re-formatting WNEW-FM, where listening share fell by 0.3 share points or 17%," the note to investors said. While down 2% to a 21.9 share of listening, Clear Channel is still the most listened to cluster in NYC. "The strongest rating performance came from Spanish Broadcasting, whose 12+ share of listening increased by 22% vs. the Fall 2005 rating book. SBS may have benefited from Arbitron's 'race/ethnicity' and 'language usage weightings' ratings methodology that was implemented at the start of the year. However, these changes were not enough to help Spanish-language operator Univision's results in the market, as 12+ share of listening at UVN's NYC radio stations fell by 14%. A year ago, Spanish Broadcasting trailed #3 operator Emmis by 3.7 share points. In Fall 2006, SBS narrowed the gap, and is currently 0.8 share points from claiming the #3 position in the market," the Bear Sterns team said. The analysts noted that while the first numbers out were for 12+, most of its analysis will come when data is released in a couple of days for the 25-54 "money" demo.
View the Bear Sterns chart
New York City - 12+ Share of Listening
|
Owner
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Clear Channel
|
22.3
|
21.9
|
22.5
|
21.2
|
21.9
|
(2)%
|
|
CBS Radio
|
16.7
|
13.2
|
14.2
|
13.9
|
13.5
|
(19)%
|
|
Emmis
|
11.9
|
11.0
|
11.1
|
11.4
|
10.8
|
(9)%
|
|
SBS
|
8.2
|
10.1
|
9.1
|
10.1
|
10.0
|
22%
|
|
ABC Radio
|
6.3
|
6.2
|
6.5
|
6.6
|
6.2
|
(2)%
|
|
Univision
|
3.7
|
3.9
|
3.8
|
3.6
|
3.2
|
(14)%
|
|
Cox Radio
|
1.1
|
1.2
|
1.4
|
1.4
|
1.2
|
9%
|
|
All Others
|
13.8
|
13.2
|
13.8
|
13.9
|
14.2
|
3%
|
|
Total
|
84.0
|
80.7
|
82.4
|
82.1
|
81.0
|
(4)%
|
Source: Bear Stears; Arbitron Fall 2006 data
