Study: Public Radio Thrives

According to Arbitron, public radio continues to be a vibrant and relevant part of many Americans’ lives. The stations Arbitron evaluated for its Public Radio 2013 report broadcast  unique programming to over 32 million weekly listeners nationwide. Public radio is also meeting the challenges of a crowded media landscape by taking full advantage of technological innovations including podcasting, Internet streaming, and HD Radio multicasting.

Public Radio Today 2013 is an in-depth look at the listening activity to the nine most popular public radio formats representing the Fall  2012 Diary and October-November-December 2012 PPM survey periods: News/Talk/Information, Classical Music, News-Classical,  Album Adult Alternative (AAA), Jazz, News-AAA, News-Music, News-Jazz, and Variety Music.

Among the study’s findings:

• During the Fall 2012 rating period covered by this year’s study, over 32 million people, about 12% of the 12+ population, listened to a public radio station in an average week. Some 1,247 rated radio stations (AM, FM, streamed, and HD Radio) were evaluated for this year’s report.
• In an environment of increased media choices, time spent listening to public radio has held steady in recent years. For example, when compared to the prior year edition of Public Radio Today, time spent listening in this year’s study either remained thesame or improved in 11 of 14 key age/gender categories.
• Public radio’s popularity among younger audiences continues to grow—it reached record numbers of 18-24 Men and 25-34 Men in Spring 2012, and the medium reaches over 17% of older men.
• The public News/Talk/Information format accounts for more than a third of all rated public stations and now, for the first time this year, accounts for more than half of all public radio listening. The format is most popular in the PPM markets but it’s the No. 1 format in Diary markets as well. Listeners to this format are better educated and live in a greater number of high income households than the listeners to any other public or commercial radio format.
• Classical remains the second most popular public radio format. As public Classical stations assume the mantle from commercial stations, the format’s popularity continues to grow in PPM markets.
• Public radio’s most popular music format, Album Adult Alternative (AAA), along with News-AAA, continues to capture nearly 10% of all public radio listening.