Good News For Public Radio

An alternative to this

Many people-- other than folks in rural areas and hipsters in a few big cities-- think of "public broadcasting" as "college radio." That started changing in the 1940s and the whole genre took a great leap forward with the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 and the subsequent founding of National Public Radio (NPR) in 1970. The bill passed the House 266-91 (with 51 "present" votes), conservatives already opposed. 55 Republicans and 35 Democrats (primarily right-wing Dixiecrats who hadn't yet migrated to the GOP) voted against it. (The only 2 current Members who voted back then, John Dingell and John Conyers, both of Michigan, both voted "Present.") At the time I was a student volunteer for NYC Congressman Bill Ryan, who voted yes. So did Houston Congressman George H.W. Bush.

In recent years, public broadcasting hasn't quite lived up to the expectations set for it when LBJ signed it into law. After a good start, it's endured some real body blows from conservatives, starting with Newt Gingrich's "Contract on America." Due primarily to a campaign to undermine the entire concept by conservatives, there have been some very discouraging reports lately. But this week the Tom Taylor Now newsletter has some positive news, at least for the news/talk sector of public radio (as opposed to classical, jazz adult alternative and variety formats).

News/talk listenership keeps growing, says Arbitron-- for public radio stations.

About a third of all public radio stations are news/talk/information, but Arbitron’s new edition of Public Radio Today says that "for the first time, that format accounts for more than half [51.7%] of all public radio listening." That’s up 2.7% from the previous year. It says news/talk is "most popular in the PPM markets" (basically, the top 50). But it’s also "the #1 format in diary markets, as well." Not only that, there’s strong qualitative for public radio stations marketers to work with-- "Listeners to this format are better educated and live in a greater number of higher-income households than the listeners to any other public or"-- get this part-- "commercial radio format." That’s a high-value audience. The second-most popular public radio format is classical. Arbitron says "as public classical stations assume the mantle from commercial stations, the format’s popularity continues to grow in PPM markets." While adult alternative (AAA) and hybrid news/AAA stations "capture nearly 10% of all public radio listening."

Public radio is doing a better job reaching younger listeners.

Arbitron finds that public radio "reached record numbers of 18-24 men and 25-34 men, in Spring 2012." Public radio program directors spend a lot of time thinking about how to expand into younger demos, while keeping their core of baby boomers and Gen-Xers. The Public Radio Today study finds that "time spent listening has held steady in recent years," and you’re welcome to compare that to commercial radio. In that realm, commercial radio’s reach/cume have held steady or grown, but TSL has eroded somewhat. Arbitron says compared to 2011, time spent listening to public radio in 2012 "either remained the same or improved, in 11 of 14 key age/gender categories." As for reach, public radio’s total weekly audience stayed around 32 million. But as Current.org observes, "the number of weekly listeners grew by 7.5%, or 1.2 million, to a total of 18 million." Cume for AAA stations jumped 8.7%, to 3.4 million.