Coleman Insights: Public Radio Suffers From 'Low Awareness'

Going Public

The latest COLEMAN INSIGHTS survey has found that public radio does not have a high level of awareness from listeners. That, combined with listeners’ inability to distinguish public radio from commercial radio, impedes Public Radio’s ability to develop strong brands.

COLEMAN INSIGHTS conducted an online survey of 1,000 randomly-selected radio listeners between the ages of 25 and 64 in 20 markets with a variety of public radio formats. Each participant was required to listen to at least one hour of radio in the previous week, and the sample was balanced to reflect the listening population by age, gender, and ethnicity.

Major findings reveal that awareness of public radio is substantially lower than that of commercial radio, which prevents it from building the images 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 also offers recommendations and methods public radio can use to increase awareness and strengthen their brands. Find out what they are here.

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