Transcendence Is
An Unmet Need, Too

As a means of cultivating minority listening, public radio’s strategy to transcend has gone virtually unnoticed within our industry.

In fact, public radio’s college-educated minority audience is an untold success story to be celebrated.

The Unmet Needs
Of Unserved Audiences

The desire to serve the "unmet needs" of "unserved audiences" resonates strongly in public radio’s collective conscience and mission.

It is an explicit objective of many services now targeting listeners on the basis of their racial and ethnic characteristics.

But a survey of commercial radio begs the question, "What about the needs of the college-educated population – particularly those of the college-educated minority population?"

The radio needs of college-educated Americans would be virtually unfulfilled were not public radio currently meeting them through its strategy to transcend.

Like their white counterparts, whom they strongly resemble in interests and values, educated minority listeners rarely find what they’re listening for on the right side of the dial, or on the AM band.

They are naturally drawn to public radio in numbers that reflect their percentage of the American population. They are served by hallmark programming that assumes that one’s character and beliefs are more relevant than his race or ethnic background.

In this way public radio is truly unique and successful in meeting the needs of college-educated minority citizens.

As we seek to address "unserved" audiences, we must recognize that educated minority citizens are unserved too, and that their radio needs differ from others in their racial cohorts.

Given the projected boom in the number of minority children going to college, public radio is poised to serve this minority community for decades to come.

Just by doing what it does best now.

– Leslie Peters
– David Giovannoni
AUDIENCE 98 Core Team

 

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