EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION NOW OPEN FOR 18th ANNUAL NON-COMMvention • WXPN’S “KIDS CORNER” TURNS 30 • WRTI TAKES ANOTHER DUMP

It is hard to believe that the 18^th Annual NON-COMMvention is only a month away. May 15-18 several hundred Triple A station folks, artists, managers and representatives of music companies will converge in Philadelphia for public media’s most enjoyable conference.

The  NONCOMM starts on Tuesday night (5/15) with an opening party and music showcase and continues through a Free at Noon concert at Noon on Friday (5/18). 

All of the events happen at World Cafe Live, adjacent to WXPN offices and studios.

The folks at WXPN have produced a “must-see” video about the NON-COMM for YouTube:

Registration, hotel information, featured artists, guest speakers and conference sessions are available here.

WXPN’s KIDS CORNER IS NOT A KID ANYMORE

Dr. Demento

WXPN’s award-winning radio show Kids Corner is celebrating its 30^th anniversary with a concert on Sunday, April 22^nd at World Cafe Live featuring the legendary Dr. Demento. 

Other artists who will perform include Kids Corner favorites Trout Fishing in America, Lard Dog, The Band of Shy and The Philadelphia Boys Choir.

Kids Corner is heard Monday through Thursday at 7:00pm on WXPN.  

Kathy O’Connell

The show is America’s longest-running, daily call-in radio show just for kids. 

During the program, host Kathy O’Connell (known as just “Kathy” to her listeners) has lots of fun music and a lively mix of stimulating topics she discusses with kids.

A program of this type is unusual for a full-time music station. Rather than considering Kids Corner a programming “speed bump,” WXPN’s General Manager Roger LaMay feels the show enhances the station’s commitment to independent music. LaMay said in a press release:

“Kids Corner has sparked the imaginations and provided safe harbor for a generation of children who have grown up and have kids of their own who are now tuning in. Kathy is a national treasure, and all of us in the XPN community applaud her impact.”

The anniversary concert is being held in conjunction with KindieComm [link] a biennial professional gathering of people who work with independent kids’ music scene. KindieComm [link] begins on April 20^th.

More information about the anniversary concert is available here.

PHILLY NIELSEN RATINGS: WHAT IS HAPPENING AT WRTI?

Today must be “WXPN Day” at Spark News. According to Nielsen Audio’s February 2018 PPM ratings, WXPN has increased its estimated weekly listeners by over 12% compared to data from February 2017. 

WXPN also has a large number of listeners in Harrisburg and Allentown, Nielsen Diary markets.

Dual-formatted, Classical and Jazz station WRTI continued to lose weekly listeners in the February book. Nielsen reports that the number of estimated weekly listeners fell by 26% since February 2017. I know that some people at WRTI read Spark News. Please let me know (off the record) if you know the reasons for this loss.

We’ve written quite a bit lately about Educational Media Foundation’s (EMF) two national formats K-Love and Air1.  Philadelphia stations with these formats lost large numbers of weekly listeners in the past year.