Rough Holiday? Nielsen and History Say You Weren't Alone

Once again the trades have been awash with news about big Holiday books for stations that went all-Christmas. 

Early on, Inside Radio reported on the impact of the over 500 stations that went all-Christmas this year: 

The Christmas format supremacy in Nielsen’s holiday ratings survey cannot be overstated, with the format ranking first in 11 of 12 PPM market reports released yesterday. Double-digit 6+ shares were the norm, as were declining ratings at non-holiday stations.  Many Santa stations doubled their December numbers and, more often than not, exceeded their Holiday 2014 performance.

Meanwhile, today, Tom Taylor at Now reported that all Christmas ruled the holiday books in 2015 and...

...broke the records for the first- and second-highest all-time high Nielsen age 6+ total-broadcast-week average-quarter-hour PPM share in any market at any time. This year AC “K103” KKCW in Portland, Oregon soared to a 21.4 share, a new all-time high in PPM. And Friday, we got the second-highest PPM share ever, Jacksonville’s WEJZ at a 19.7.

If all-Christmas wasn’t your strategy and your December or Holiday monthly looked far more like a lump of coal than a hover board, you’re not alone.

Here are five, 6+ month-by-month AQH graphs that Nielsen’s Jon Miller was kind enough to supply.

The good news for many is that your format’s peaks likely lie ahead and have at least some degree of predictability.

This allows you to get to work now on planning how you’ll capitalize on an influx of listeners in the upcoming months.

Related: Keep Summer Listeners Coming Back: 5 Retail Tactics for your Station