NPR LEADS PODCAST PUBLISHER RANKINGS • PROGRAM ECONOMICS FORCES CHANGES IN HAWAII • TEAC RELEASES NEW CASSETTE DECK

According to Podtrac’s January rankings [link], NPR continues to be the leading domestic publisher of podcasts by a wide margin. NPR’s current portfolio of 42 active shows had more than 16 million Unique Monthly Listeners, down one-percent from December 2017.

Podcasts from HowStuffWorks had the biggest monthly gain, up 20% from the prior month. Commercial publisher Wondery also had double digit grows in January compared to December. This American Life and PRX led noncommercial publishers with gains of 7% and 3%.

Podtrac’s rankings continue to be the defacto chart-of-record for the podcast industry. However, Podtrac’s methodology continues to be a work in progress. Podtrac had to eat their November 2017 data when an independent blogger found major problems with the way iHeartMedia’s listeners were tabulated. iHeart returned to the chart in January after Podtrac corrected the problem.

Still iHeart’s estimated 612 active podcasts seems out of place compared to other publishers who have far-fewer shows in distribution. We wish Podtrac would make data available for individual podcasts.  Podtrac says they have that data but don’t release it for proprietary reasons.

Also according to Podtrac, total Global Downloads and Streams for the Top 10 Publishers in January 2018 increased by 112% over January of 2017.

SIGN OF THE TIMES: KEILLOR REPLACEMENT DROPPED IN HAWAII

Adapted from an article in the Honolulu Star Advertiser 2/22/18 [link].

HawaiI Public Radio is ending local syndication of Live from Here with Chris Thile” at the end of February. 

The program, had been airing Saturdays from 6pm to 8pm. 

American Routes will take over the time slot on Hawaii Public Radio’s primary network HPR-1. [Disclosure: American Routes is one of my clients. This is a promotional message.]

American Routes had been on HPR for more than 20 years before it was cancelled in 2017. José Fajardo, Hawaii Public Radio’s General Manager said in a press release:

“The decision to drop “Live from Here” was a financial decision. We could not justify purchasing what was in essence a new show for the same $25,000 we had paid (annually) for the iconic ‘Prairie Home. By bringing back proven listener-favorite, American Routes, we are saving $22,000 a year.”

THIS IS NOT A FLASHBACK: NEW TEAC CASSETTE DECK 

UPDATE 2/18/18: NOTE THESE COMMENTS FROM A READER WHO BOUGHT THIS DECK

Hi Ken. I bought this unit and was very disappointed to discover that the USB records at 128 kbps stereo. [This is] very harsh compression that degrades the audio a great deal. I don’t know why TEAC didn’t use at least a 256 sample rate, especially on such a pricey unit. I wrote them requesting a firmware upgrade [but] I haven’t heard back from them.

Like many of you, I have several boxes of analog cassettes I need to organize. I know there is some amazing audio in my cassette collection. Now TEAC’s new AD-850 Cassette Deck [link] may be just what I need, if I can afford it.

The AD-850 combines a CD player and cassette deck with MP3 recording and playback a USB Memory Stick. The integrated cassette deck also supports playback of CD-R/CD-RW discs containing MP3 files.

Price may be an issue for some potential consumers. The AD-850 costs $349 on Amazon.