Nielsen Crowns Classic Hits As The Radio Format Of The Summer

Listeners Love The Oldies

The passing of LABOR DAY and the annual shifting of perspectives toward the close of the year brings another opportunity to reflect on the trends that shaped the SUMMER media landscape. And with the release of NIELSEN’s AUGUST PPM ratings, it’s also time to judge which major national format saw the most lift in audience between JUNE and AUGUST compared to the first five months of the year (JANUARY through MAY).

This annual race to crown the “format of the SUMMER” is now in its fifth year, and for the first time, NIELSEN has a repeat winner: Classic Hits takes home the title in 2015 and becomes the first format to win the race twice and the first to win in back-to-back years.

This year, Classic Hits faced some stiff competition from a number of other formats, including Hot AC and Country, both of which also had strong showings. But in the end, the audience share for Classic Hits jumped by nearly 10% (9.7%) this SUMMER, the most of any major format.

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