The Majority
Of The Minorities

AUDIENCE 98^® finds that community radio’s listeners are three times more likely to be black or Hispanic than listeners to other public stations. But this singular fact is too simple to adequately represent reality.

One station – WBGO in Newark – serves half of all minorities listening to community radio in the U.S.

Another third is concentrated at the five Pacifica stations. Not only does this reflect Pacifica’s impact on community radio listening in general, it shows the substantial minority audience of WBAI and WPFW in particular.

In fact, minority composition (the percent of a station’s audience composed of minorities) varies widely from station to station – even in the Pacifica group.

Of course, some community stations are heard primarily by minority listeners – particularly if they program in Spanish. But their audiences are small in relation to WBGO’s and Pacifica’s.

The majority of the minorities are concentrated at a few stations. Subtract out WBGO and Pacifica and all remaining community stations put together account for only one-in-five minorities listening to community radio at any given time.

– David Giovannoni
– Leslie Peters
– Jay Youngclaus
AUDIENCE 98 Core Team

 

Audience Research Analysis
Copyright © ARA and CPB.  All rights reserved.
Revised: September 01, 2000 12:38 PM.