It's been a good year for Spanish contemporary and Spanish hot AC, according to Nielsen's share trends, which are up for the combined formats in key demos. Since January 2022, in PPM markets, the two have gained three-tenths of a share point among persons 18-49 (3.8-4.1) and 0.2 among 25-54s (3.6-3.8), while for 18-34 they made a 0.4 share gain from September to October (3.3-3.7).
The stories are even stronger, of course, for stations performing best among the Hispanic 18-49 core demo. The 10 Spanish contemporary stations with the highest AQH share among this group are the focus of this week's “By The Numbers” report, based on Nielsen data exclusive to Inside Radio. Nielsen ranks and provides the audience composition of the top 10 stations in the format, based on average-quarter-hour audience, Monday-Friday 6am-7pm, in PPM markets during the spring 2022 measurement period.
Half of the top 10 Spanish contemporary stations deliver double-digit shares among Hispanics 18-49, including two of iHeartMedia's four stations in Nielsen's ranking, Philadelphia's “Rumba 106.1” WUMR and West Palm Beach's “Mia 94.3” WRLX. Topping the list is Beasley Media Group's “92.5 Maxima” WYUU Tampa, followed by Audacy's “El Zol 107.9” WLZL Washington, DC, with Univision's “Love 106.7” WPPN Chicago rounding out the double-digit-share top five.
Six of these stations are in top-10 markets, including, in addition to those in Chicago, DC and Philadelphia, Univision's “La X 96.3” WXNY New York, Audacy's “Mega 101 FM” KLOL Houston and iHeart's “Rumba 97.7” WZRM Boston. With listed outlets in Miami and Tampa, eight of the 10 are from top-20 markets, with the remaining two stations also from Florida markets, in Orlando and West Palm Beach.
While iHeart claims the most stations in the top 10, both Audacy and Univision place two stations, with one each for Beasley and Cox Media Group.
Averaging demo delivery of the 10 stations, persons 18-49 account for 53.4% of total Hispanic listening, passing the 70% mark at DC's “El Zol” and in the 62-64% range at Houston's “Mega 101,” Tampa's “Maxima” and West Palm Beach's “Mia.” “Maxima” is the only station to significantly overdeliver Hispanic persons 12-24, nearing 20% vs. the 12% average, while “Mega” outperforms with 18-34s, where they account for 30% of Hispanic listening vs. the 19% average.
Hispanics 50+, meanwhile, make up an average 33.4% of listening, coming in much higher – in fact, representing more than half of the audience composition – at Philly's “Rumba” and CMG Spanish hot AC “Éxitos 96.5” Orlando.
It's a nearly even male/female split for Hispanic 18-49 listening across the ten stations, averaging out at 49.3% men and 50.7% women. Women take the lead with between 60-66% of listening at Philly's and Boston's “Rumba” and Orlando's “Éxitos,” while men tip the scales with 60-69% at New York's “La X,” DC's “El Zol” and iHeart's “Tu 94.9” WZTU Miami.
Station favoritism is strong at these Spanish contemporary and hot AC stations, with P1s accounting for an average 70.5% of Hispanic 18-49 listening, although that's far higher, between 90-92%, at DC's “El Zol” and Boston's “Rumba.” Average daily listening occasions for the core demo average at 4.0, up to 4.9 for P1 listening. Those numbers move closer to 5 and 6, respectively, at Chicago's “Love” and West Palm Beach's “Mia,” with P1 occasions also at 6 for New York's “La X.”
Hispanic persons 18-49's average share of away-from-home listening exceeds either Nielsen's PPM metros or total U.S. figures, at 80.2%. That share goes up to 93.1% of listening at DC's “El Zol” and 88.3% at West Palm Beach's “Mia.” For at-home listening, the lower-than-usual 19.8% average share jumps up to 35.2% at Tampa's “Maxima” and 30.1 at Chicago's “Love.”
Full-time workers account for an average 62.9% of Hispanics 18-49 listening to the 10 outlets, up in the 73-77% range for Chicago's “Love” and West Palm Beach's “Mia.” Part-timers' share of listening depends on the market, for even as it averages at 19.3%, it's as low as 5.4% at those two stations, while as high as 47.8% of listening at Orlando's “Éxitos.” The “Other” work category comprises 17.9% of listening for the 10, hitting 26-27% at Houston's “Mega” and Philly's “Rumba.”
While Hispanics' total share of persons 18-49 listening not surprisingly falls in the 91-98% range at eight of these 10 Spanish contemporary or hot AC stations – with highs of 96-98% at Chicago's “Love,” DC's “El Zol” and West Palm Beach's “Mia” - it's quite lower at both of iHeart's “Rumbas.” At Philly's, where Hispanics' share is 79.0%, Black listening accounts for 12.2% (in a market where Blacks represent 20.8% of the total population), while it's 84.3% at Boston's, where the “Other” category makes up 10.4% of listening.
– Rich Appel