Falling In Between

Michael Hedges March 8, 2013 Follow on Twitter

It is normal to scour survey data for patterns, trends and other means of simplification. We are, of course, looking for a picture drawn by numbers. When the passing snapshot jumps off the page we call it insight. Maybe there’s more.

Radio channels and stations in Germany continue to reach nearly 80% of the whole population. The Media Analyse survey (MA Radio 2013/I) for the second half 2012 showed 79.7% daily reach, up a shade year on year. In general, private broadcasters increased daily reach (Monday-Friday 06h00-18h00) by 12.1% and public radio channels lost 4.7%. There were a few big winners, a few big losers, many in between and no big trend.

Still at the top of the national daily reach rankings was local radio network NRW, off 1.6% in daily reach one year on. The North Rhine-Westphalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen) private broadcaster competes with public broadcaster Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), which had a few winners to its credit. Three of its channels made the top ten nationally; pop music youth channel EinsLive at number 4, up 9.3%, news channel WDR 2 at 6th place, up 10.2%, and oldies channel WDR 4, 9th place, off less than 1%. Within the State, NRW ranked number 1 in daily reach, EinsLive 2nd, WDR 2 3rd, WDR 4 4th and culture channel WDR 5 5th.

Private channel Hit Radio FFH, full service adult contemporary, ranked number one in daily reach in Hesse (Hessen) and 11th nationally with a 4% increase year on year. Channels of regional public broadcaster Hessischer Rundfunk (hr) followed. Adult contemporary hr3 dropped 2.3% in daily reach, ranking number 2 in the State and 15th nationally. News and Schlager music channel hr4 was 6.6% lower while easy listening channel hr1 was up 4.9%. “Youthful” public channel You FM gained 38.9% daily reach year on year after shedding the techno image. Pop-rock private station Radio Bob rose 42.2% but dance-music station Planet Radio, sister station to FFH, was off 20%.

Radio in Baden-Württemberg, southwest Germany, is dominated by public broadcaster Südwesterundfunk (SWR), which also serves neighboring Rhineland-Palatinate.  Pop music SWR3 ranked 3rd nationally in daily reach, up from 4th year on year with a gain of 2.5%. Schlager/oldies channel SWR4 offers separate programs for Baden-Württemberg, no change year on year, and Rhineland-Palatinate, off 6.7%. Similarly, the pop-rock SWR1 offering for Baden-Württemberg gained 4.3% in daily reach while the Rhineland-Palatinate SWR1 channel was down 13.1%. Private adult contemporary music channel Antenna 1, formerly Hit Radio Antenne 1, was off 15.8% in Baden-Württemberg. Adult contemporary competitor Radio Regenbogen moved into the top 20 nationally, gaining 15.3%, one of the biggest increases in daily reach of the bigger channels.

In the southern state of Bavaria, always competitive and radio-friendly, full service adult contemporary station Antenna Bavaria moved into 2nd place in the national rankings, gaining 17.9% daily reach year on year. Public channel BR Bayern 1 dropped to 5th place from 2nd on 9.1% daily reach loss. Pop music channel BR Bayern 3 fell to 9th rank from 7th, 3.7% daily reach loss. Other private stations in Bavaria and Münich had a bad day; Energy Münich down 57.7%, Radio Galaxy down 29.3%, Radio Arabella down 19.2%.

Berlin-Brandenburg is also highly competitive and filled with local stations, many of which change formats and marketing with the wind. Antenne Brandenburg, the Potsdam regional channel of public broadcaster Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (rbb) leads in the combined market though off 2.9% in daily reach year on year. Berlin-based hot A/C station 104.6 RTL placed second, gaining 7.6%. Hot A/C format BB Radio (Potsdam) and oldies format Berliner Rundfunk 91.4 dropped 31.1% and 22.5%, respectively. All-news public channel Inforadio rose 35.6% in daily reach while sister public channel radioeins dropped 20.8%. Tiny Berlin station JazzFM jumped a whopping 133.3% one year on.

The biggest winner among the bigger channels was NDR 2, the pop adult channel of public broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk that serves Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany. The channel boosted daily reach 35.1% to place 7th nationally, up from 9th one year on. “This is sensational,” said NDR Director General Lutz Marmor in the post-survey statement.

Another public channel to make a delicious jump was MDR (Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk) Jump. The pop music channel targeting 20 to 49 year olds gained 11.4% in daily reach year on year. Sister channel MDR 1 Radio Sachen, a regional general interest channel, gained 13.9% for overall 1st ranking in Saxony. Among private radio broadcasters dance music channel Ostseewelle Hit Radio, based in Rostock, gained 24.9% in daily reach one year on and the best showing in its 18 year history.

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