26 Million Americans tune into Public Radio every week.

Nearly 26 million Americans tune into public radio every week, spending an average of eight hours listening to non-commercial stations, according to a new study by Arbitron Inc. While people of all ages listen to public radio each week, the majority of public radio listening comes from adults, age 35 or older, with slightly more men listening than women.

“Public radio is home to a unique mix of formats,” said Mike Powderly, Senior Account Manager, National Radio Services, Arbitron Inc. “While News/Talk is the leading format for public broadcasters as well as for commercial radio stations, public stations serve different audience segments for music than their commercial colleagues. Classical Music, Jazz and Album Adult Alternative are the leading music formats among public radio stations. This is in contrast to the leading music formats on commercial radio: Adult Contemporary, Contemporary Hit Radio and Urban.”

Another difference between public radio and commercial radio audiences are the political leanings of their respective listeners. According to Scarborough Research, public radio listeners are 18 percent more likely to lean Democratic or identify themselves as Democrats than the population at large.

Among public radio listeners who tune into the News/Talk format, 44 percent are Democrats or are Independents who lean Democratic, while 36 percent are Republicans or Independents who lean Republican.

In contrast, among commercial radio News/Talk listeners who do not tune into public radio, the percentages are reversed. Half (50 percent) of their listeners are Republican or lean Republican while less than a third (30 percent) are Democrats or lean Democratic.

Additional highlights from the Public Radio Today 2006 study includes:

· During the workweek, listening is strongest in morning drive, remains high through midday hours and experiences resurgence in afternoon drive. A significant number of people do their public radio listening between Midnight- 6AM.

· During the week, most early morning listening to public radio occurs in the home. Beginning around 7AM, as commuters hit the road, the out-of-home share of public radio listening grows and overtakes in-home listening until things even out in the early evening.

· People in different age groups listen to public radio at different times. Peak listening times for most men and women occur weekday mornings between 6AM-10AM and in the afternoons from 3PM-7PM. Older demos tend to listen most during the midday daypart. Older listeners tend to listen to public radio the most on weekends.

· Listeners to public radio News/Talk stations tend to be younger than listeners to most other public formats, and they’re also younger than listeners to commercial News/Talk stations.

· Public radio Classical listeners are more likely to be at home when tuned to their favorite station than
listeners to any other public radio format. Listening is strongest during midday and evening hours.

· Due to the popularity of the News-Music public radio format in some of the South Central and Mountain regions, this format has the greatest appeal among Hispanic listeners than any other public radio format.

To download the Public Radio Today 2006 study CLICK below (Adobe Acrobat Reader required):http://www.arbitron.com/downloads/PublicRadioToday06.pdf