Before there was such a thing as “public radio,” social
scientists established theories and models on which our later
research was based. The most influential body of work is on
media “uses and gratifications” by audiences. The progression of
studies makes interesting reading for practitioners and is the
harbinger of media research today. Over the past few decades,
public radio has amassed a body of knowledge of its own about
the listening public. Some of it is quantitative — relying on
statistical measurements — and some of it is qualitative —
relying more on impressions and interpretations. (Most is really
a mixture of both.) This knowledge has informed numerous
national and local programming decisions. More importantly, it
explains the push toward greater news and information on public
radio leading to a seven-fold increase of the national audience
between 1980 and 2008. Much public radio research was funded
with tax dollars through the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting. The CPB Web site contains many in