Radio Audience Trends

For the first time, Arbitron research in 2005 took a focused look at public radio. Its inaugural edition of Arbitron’s Public Radio Today: How America Listens to Public Radio Stations records that out of 808 U.S. public radio stations, 225 operate with a News/Talk/Information format. That is the second-largest format group, surpassed only by classical programming with 229 stations, and does not include formats for a group of stations categorized as “Educational.” “Educational,” as Arbitron explains in the report, is not a content designation but a collection of those stations licensed to an educational institution.28

Most of the comparisons between the audience for public radio news/talk and the one for commercial do not surprise:

Public radio listeners skew to the economically elite and more highly educated. Commercial news/talk listeners are more blue-collar and more male.

The public radio audience is fairly evenly split by gender (53% male and 47% female), while the commercial news, talk and information audience tilts more heavily male (61%, compared to 39% female).

More than 70% of public radio news, talk and information listeners are college graduates.29 That number drops to 43% for commercial listeners.30 High school-only graduates make up almost 20% of the commercial news, talk and information audience but less than 7% of the public radio audience.31

Public radio audiences for the format tend to occupy a higher economic stratum as well. Some 47% of public radio listeners earn an annual income of $75,000 or more. Fewer than 40% (37.6%) of commercial news, talk and information format listeners earn that much.32

The Arbitron study doesn’t examine the stereotype that public radio audiences tilt to the left while commercial news talk audiences tilt right. But data from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press don’t reflect such a tilt. A June 8, 2004 , survey found that 30% of National Public Radio listeners identified themselves as liberal, 31% as conservative and 33% as moderates. Those figures match the profile of the public at large. For commercial radio call-in shows, meanwhile, 45% of listeners identify themselves as conservative and just 18% call themselves liberal. And for one of the shows most known for its conservative take on issues — Rush Limbaugh’s — the ratio is 77% conservative to 7% liberal.33

One other difference between public radio audiences and commercial news/talk audiences is in the time they spend listening. According to the Arbitron data, the commercial news, talk and information station listener tends to spend more time with the format. Commercial audience members aged 35 to 64 spend 10 hours and 30 minutes listening a week.34 News, talk and information public radio listeners of the same age spend a full three hours less. That becomes more interesting when we look at data for the distinct parts of the day.35

While drawing direct comparison between public news/talk and commercial news/talk is slightly complicated by differences in measurement used,36 some interesting comparisons can be made between the general trendlines. The public radio audience remains remarkably solid not only throughout the entire day, but from weekday to weekend. The greatest percent of commercial and public news/talk listeners tune in during the morning drive time (weekdays, 6am to 10am ). The commercial audience then begins a steady decline across dayparts with the lowest listening percentage takes place on weekends.37

In contrast, the public radio audience bounces up and down with the lowest percentage of listeners tuning in between 7pm and midnight . Weekend listening is high, just 15 percentage points lower than weekday morning drive time. This contrasts with a decline of some 30% for commercial news, talk and information stations.38

Time Spent Listening to News/Talk/Information (Commercial)

1998, 2003, 2004

Design Your Own Chart

Source: Arbitron