• February 18, 2003

According to a new study conducted by Arbitron, radio listeners are very pleased with the programming choices available to them. The great majority of listeners (79%) feel they get more or the same amount of programming choices from their local radio stations than they did five years ago, with more than one-third of listeners saying their choices are now greater. Over two-thirds (69%) said their local stations do a very good or good job of providing a wide variety of programming. The study also revealed that nearly 75% of radio listeners think their local stations do a very good or good job of playing the music they like, and almost 80% said they listen to local radio stations for new, weather or traffic at least once a week. “Contrary to the concern that some observers have expressed, more variety in programming—not less—is available to radio listeners following the consolidation that has taken place in the radio industry in recent years,” says Arbitron SVP/GM Scott Musgrave. Arbitron pulled the data from 2005 telephone interviews with people chosen at random from its Fall 2002 diary keepers.