Non Comm Resources (especially for Non-NPRs...)

[billybarou]

Does anyone have any good resources for non-commercial stations in regard to research and hard listenership data?

I'm especially referring to the non-comm stations that are not NPR affiliates (e.g. independant college stations, religious stations, community stations, etc).

I've heard of the RRC, but the rates seem steep for non profit organizations to pay for. Not to mention, they seem to cater more to NPR stations anyway.

I don't mean to sound like I'm bashing NPR, but I would like to exlude it from this discussion, because, to a great degree, it seems to fall into its own category.

I have heard the rumor that arbitron does not report where the non-comm stations stack against the commercial stations. But, truth be known, there are many non comms stations that, when compared to the commercial band, would rank quite high against the top stations ranked by Arbitron.

 

[radiomike]

The Radio Research Consortium, RRC, accodring to their website, states:

The Radio Research Consortium, Inc. is an independent, not-for-profit research firm committed to providing audience data to non-commercial radio stations. The RRC contracts with Arbitron, Inc. to produce local market audience estimates.

Basically, RRC provides NONCOMMERCIAL stations with Arbitron data. This includes Public, Community, College and School stations, and Religious broadcasters. Arbitron gathers data for ALL radio listenership. They report out their commercial station data to subscribers in a hard copy form (The Book) and also have software available to those subscribing stations. However, noncommercial stations are not listed in the book, as Arbitron does not provide this information.

RRC takes the same diary and other data Arbitron gathers, and provides reports on the markets for all non-commercial data. They also have software that provided stations to customize reports and one product, market PC, "puts you in the book." The market reports give you data on every non-commercial station in your survey market. It is Arbitron data, and RRC does not favor NPR or public radio stations.

In other words, if you want Arbitron data on your station, RRC is the place to get it. Their rates are based on market size and what Arbitron charges them. It is WAY BELOW what it would cost a commercial station to get the same data. There are also restrictions on how you use the data, as well.

One thing that RRC will do, is cater the data to what your station actually gets. For example, most college stations (sorry, but this is case) do not show up with any real measurable audience. One station boasts a huge audience by number on their website, but tha number is at least 100 times their Arbitron audience measurement (sorry, I can't legally disclose the station, but I will tell you it is the East). Thus, many of the detailed reports will likely not be of use. Instead, topline data will give you something to go on, and is realtively inexpensive to license. RRC will help you decide whether it is worth even subsrcibing. You can call them, and they will tell you how many diaries you showed up in. You can then go from there. Sometimes, it might be once a year you buy data, or twice a year. They can do that. However, you can't use the data unless you subscibe to it. There a pretty steep legal implications if you use Arbitron data without authorization or license, or not following their rules.

There are some other fly by night survey companies that offer some services to smaller stations. However, their sampling methods and statistical methods are pretty sketchy.