Meta-analysis of Local Research Studies

Building on decades of work to strengthen public media’s service to our communities and country, PRPD is honored to present the results of an analysis of local public radio audience research. Working with our colleagues at The Station Resource Group (SRG) and Greater Public, along with our research partners at City Square Associates, our organizations compiled more than two dozen local audience research studies from stations across the country—from a variety of market sizes, geographies and broadcast formats—to perform a “meta-analysis” that delivers actionable intelligence to a range of decision-makers by identifying common opportunities and threats for both news and music stations. The output of this analysis is two reports - a descriptive report that identifies consistent strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, risks, and mitigations present throughout the different studies and a prescriptive playbook that focuses on how the findings from these reports may translate into specific strategic directions or actions. Together, these reports offer guidance and direction to help public media organizations think about how they can best augment existing services, expand potential content offerings, and transform the quality of service to their communities. We hope the combined reports will inform subsequent research initiatives for public media organizations as we evolve from legacy broadcast institutions into multi-platform multi-media community institutions.

Read the Descriptive Analysis

Read the Prescriptive Playbook

Thanks to Bill Davis at SRG and Joyce MacDonald at Greater Public for championing and spearheading this effort; and to Christopher Schiavone, Alex Aubre’, and Phil Cook at City Square Associates for their insightful work throughout this process. Thanks, also, to the leadership and staffs at all the stations that made their local research available—and to the audience research firms for their generosity in sharing their work with us.