Study: Public Radio Doesn't Have High Awareness

RADIO ONLINE | Thursday, June 22, 2017

A new study of Public Radio from Coleman Insights finds that radio listeners don't have a high level of awareness of the category. Low awareness, combined with listeners' inability to distinguish Public Radio from commercial radio, seems to impede Public Radio's ability to develop strong brands. Coleman Insights conducted an online survey of 1000 randomly-selected radio listeners between the ages of 25 and 64 in 20 markets with a variety of Public Radio formats for this study.

Major findings reveal that awareness of Public Radio is substantially lower than that of commercial radio, and such low awareness holds Public Radio back from building what it needs to support a strong brand. Second, commercial radio also holds images that are assumed belong to the Public Radio category such as "the news station" and "the information station." And third, there are images that indicate more confusion in the audience, such as choosing Commercial Radio as "the listener-supported station." Radio listeners appear to truly be unsure of what "Public Radio" really means.

The report includes recommendations and methods Public Radio can use to increase awareness and strengthen their brands and is available at bit.ly/2sju2UE.