Radio Audience Data Goes Public -- Literally

In a move that is sure to cause abuzz among commercial broadcasters and their advertisers, a new radio audience measurement firm Monday released data indicating that National Public Radio ranks as the fourth most listened to radio format. The finding, based on a telephone study of 114,035 adults conducted by The Media Audit in 85 cities between 2005 and early 2006, offers a rare glimpse of the power of public broadcasters, which typically are ignored by commercial audience measurement services and advertisers as if they don't exist.

And contrary to popular wisdom, the audience for public radio has been expanding, not eroding, according to the research. "Listening to public radio has been growing steadily over the past 20 years," stated Bob Jordan, president of The Media Audit, which is one of two major research firms competing in a radio industry proposal to develop a new state-of-the-art audience measurement system. "Awareness of public radio's growth as a format has not been that visible since data for public stations are not reported in the primary audience ratings service."

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It's unclear whether The Media Audit would report public radio audiences on an ongoing basis should it win the bid from an alliance of commercial radio broadcasters, but Jordan noted that The Media Audit historically has reported both commercial and non-commercial radio audiences as part of its traditional local multimedia market reports. Based on The Media Audit's new research, he noted, public radio currently has an adult audience base that is 75 percent as large as the medium's most popular format: news/talk radio.

The Media Audit's plans to measure radio via a new, high-tech system utilizing so-called "smart phone" technology got a boost when it made the final cut of a radio industry alliance spearheaded by radio giant Clear Channel Communications. The other contenders were Arbitron and Mediamark Research Inc., but MRI dropped out several months ago due to concerns that the alliance might be using it as a stocking horse to get a better bid from Arbitron. Recently, several big radio broadcasters including CBS Radio signed long-term agreements for Arbitron's portable people meter-based radio ratings service.

Source: The Media Audit telephone survey of 114,035 U.S. adults.
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