Strong Consumer Support For Radio.

More than three-quarters of Americans believe radio stations regularly provide important news and information relevant to local communities, according to a nationwide poll.

The poll, commissioned by the National Association of Broadcasters and performed by the Washington polling firm The Mellman Group, found that 78 percent of Americans believe local radio stations provide a “very important” or “somewhat important” role in providing valuable news and information. Only three percent of respondents said local radio stations are “not at all important” in providing relevant community news and information.

The Mellman Group national telephone poll of 1,000 consumers was conducted Dec. 17-19 and has a margin of error of 3.1 percent.

“Americans are satisfied with the job local radio stations are doing providing them with news, information and entertainment programming,” writes pollster Mark Mellman, president of The Mellman Group, in his analysis of the poll results.

By a 5-1 margin (65 percent to 13 percent), consumers expressed satisfaction with the overall programming provided by local radio stations. The survey also found that 77 percent of consumers believe their favorite local radio stations provide the music that they like either all of the time, most of the time or some of the time. Only 13 percent of radio listeners believe that local stations rarely or never carry music that they like.

Only 17% of Americans say that local radio stations are providing less variety than they were five years ago. Twenty-nine percent (29%) say that these stations are providing more variety, and 21% say that they are providing the same amount of variety.

“Americans believe radio provides them with the music they want to hear,” Mellman writes in his analysis. Fifty-six percent (56%) of Americans say that their favorite local radio stations play the music they like at least most of the time, with 18% saying they play that music “always.” Just 13% of Americans say that their favorite local radio stations play the music they like “rarely” (10%) or “never” (3%).

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