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‘Grim’ trend for pubradio: average audience slips for third year

Originally published in Current, Oct. 10, 2006
By Mike Janssen

Average quarter-hour listening to public radio fell for the third straight year from spring 2005 to spring 2006, according to newly released national Arbitron data, though cume audience rebounded somewhat. Similar news of audience declines last fall sparked concern throughout the system and prompted pubradio’s Radio Research Consortium to commission the Audience 2010 to examine the causes.

“There is no question that the news about audience estimates for CPB stations continues to be rather grim,” said Carl Nelson, manager of client services for RRC, which released the analysis Oct. 6.

From spring 2005 to spring 2006, total cume for the CPB-supported stations measured by Arbitron rose to recover half the loss suffered the year before. However, all other indices fell. Pubradio’s percentage cume fell half a percent, showing that the growth in cume audience did not keep up with population growth.   

Nelson expected the data to be available this week on RRC’s website. [See RRC's summary.]

Web page posted Nov. 13, 2006
Copyright 2006 by Current Publishing Committee

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LINK

Public radio's cume is up slightly, but its average audience in spring 2006 was down for a third year, RRC reported.