Rural Programming Initiative
Summary #2, NCPR

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September 30, 2002

We were eager to see the results of our February 2002 survey, so that we could compare it to our previous survey, conducted in July 2001. Since the July survey was the first data we had ever had on our listeners, we needed the second survey to look for consistencies and patterns.

The February results seem to support our intuitive understanding that more people listen in the non-summer months. This may be because people are spending more time indoors in February, or are back in a non-summer work schedule. We also see that the percentage of people listening for shorter times has increased. This may be due to listeners' busier schedules or to the absence of longer-listening retired summer snowbirds in the winter. It is also possible that we have more people sampling the station. Unfortunately, we cannot be sure how much of this bump may be due to increased tune-in as a result of the events of September 11, 2001 and our follow-up coverage. Many stations in the public radio system have reported new listeners since then. We will need to see the result of our next winter and summer surveys to get a clearer picture of how seasonal differences, rather than extraordinary news events, effect rural listening.

The February book showed continued weak performance at noon and early afternoon on weekdays. Since we have now seen this in two books, we are proceeding with plans to change programming in these slots. We hope to have these changes in place by January 2003.

The February survey continued to show that we may be underperforming in our afternoon drivetime by peaking too early and not getting the bounce we should from ATC. Because changes in this daypart might involve upheaval to some of our locally hosted programs, an important part of our mission and our identity, we have decided to continue to look closely at this issue in the next two survey books before making any significant changes. In the meantime, we continue to put more effort here in better forward promotion to keep people listening.

We were surprised to see very strong listening on Saturday morning 7 to 9am for a show that we did not think was as strong as NPR's WESAT, which follows it. Sunday morning did not show this short of drop. Since this kind of Saturday/Sunday breakdown was not available with our September survey, we do not know if the February numbers are a fluke or an accurate representation of listening at this time. It may be that rural listeners are awake and out of the house on Saturday much earlier than we thought. We will hold off any change until we see our next survey.

We continue to be concerned about relatively low listening on Saturday and Sunday middays. We are hopeful that our next two surveys will continue to provide us with Saturday and Sunday breakouts so we can better analyze the specific areas of weakness.

In addition to the incredibly important and useful numbers we are getting, this project is especially valuable to us in giving us a benchmark to compare ourselves to --- other rural stations in the project. While each station has particular and specific situations that may not apply to others, the overall performance of other rural stations is a good way to gauge our effectiveness, and to spur us to do better.