A Glass Half Full...
And Rising

When one door closes, another opens. But we often look so regretfully upon the closed door that we don’t see the one which has opened for us.
– Alexander Graham Bell

Public radio reaches more Americans – white and non-white – than ever. And minority listeners are a larger portion of this audience than ever.

Our success is a direct result of our programming – programming that causes audience.

To appreciate how far we’ve come, we have only to revisit the years immediately following the Carnegie Commission Report and Public Broadcasting Act of 1967.

Few of us understood at the time what that report presaged. Indeed, many of us radio types working in those heady days had no concept of "public" radio.

Any questions we asked about the audience had anecdotal answers. We imagined hundreds – if not thousands – of disenfranchised radio users from dozens of different ethnic and racial groups flocking to our oasis for that 15-minute-a-week block program.

Then about 20 years ago, audience researchers like Larry Lichty, Tom Church, and David Giovannoni hinted that we might be overestimating the effectiveness of our reach.

We ignored them, of course, focusing intently on our own "research" – the letter and the phone call and the note under our windshield wiper.

It took time to realize how very blurry our picture of the audience was. And how unfocused we were in understanding how people use radio – especially those who happen to be Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, Asian/Pacific Islander, Native American/Indian, or some undefined mix.

Over time we learned to use the tools our research friends have crafted for us. We learned that listeners – minority and non-minority – will not tune to a radio station unless its programming as a whole appeals to them.

We also learned that not everyone will be attracted to the magnet of public radio programming. It’s not that people are white or black or Hispanic or Asian or "other" – but that public radio's service has an attitude that most Americans simply do not share.

That's not good or bad.

It's just how radio works.

With these lessons, we have revisited our missions, reassessed our value, and learned to create programming that consistently serves an audience of our choosing. As a result, we have dramatically increased the numbers of listeners among all groups regardless of race or ethnic background.

With the bifocals of AUDIENCE 98 helping our aging hindsight, it’s easier to see a glass half full. It's easier to appreciate how far we have traveled, whom we do reach, and the doors through which those listeners – both white and minority – enter public radio.

And we’re only 20 years in.

During the next decades the numbers of public radio listeners who identify themselves as other than white will continue to grow. They'll surely grow because the demographics of the American public are moving in our direction. But they'll also grow because we'll continue to apply the programming lessons and strategies we've learned…and will learn.

The charts, graphs, and paradigms of AUDIENCE 08 and AUDIENCE 18 will reflect that growth – and demonstrate our continued faith as broadcasters pledged to serve the needs of all of our listeners.

A glass half full and rising.

– Frank Tavares
AUDIENCE 98 Associate

 

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