JACOBS/PRPD COVID-19 WEBINAR: IT IS ALL ABOUT LISTENER TRUST, PLUS MAYBE A CHUCKLE

Earning the trust of listeners is deep in the DNA of public radio. 

Bill Siemering, NPR’s first program director, described it this way in the early 1970’s:

"Just as people want to trust that their drinking water is pure, when people hear something on public radio, they want to trust that the information is fact-based and not subject to an agenda."

Now, four decades later, listener trust still matters a lot. That was one of several major conclusions from the Coronavirus Survey conducted by Jacobs Media, in partnership with PRPD. The results were presented in a “Zoominar” last Thursday (4/16) hosted by Fred Jacobs.

The goal of the survey was to learn how lifestyles and media usage have changed during the current Covid-19 crisis. Jacobs and PRPD surveyed 17,444 core public radio listeners from 46 stations during the period from March 31^st through April 2^nd. The results provide a “snapshot” of behavior during the evolving situation.

Jacobs also surveyed commercial radio and Christian music radio listeners concurrent with the public radio survey.

Spark News attended the Zoominar and captured screen-shots of key charts. More of results from the survey will be available from PRPD soon. Here are some of the key findings:

• Public radio listeners had a high-degree of trust in their hometown stations.  

When asked what sources they “completely trust,” participating public radio listeners said their top choice (77%) was NPR and local stations. Participants also gave high marks (63%) to Information provided by the National Institute of Health (NIH).

Only a few of the survey participants said they “completely trust” information from the Trump Administration (2%).

• Nine out of ten survey participants said the coverage provided by their local public radio station was “excellent” or “good.” 

Participants from all generations, genders, races and locations felt this way.

• More than 85% of the participants in the public radio survey said they were “at home” when the survey was conducted.

Jacobs compared public radio’s percentage of “at home” listeners with the percentage “at home” reported by commercial radio and Christian music radio listeners. Jacobs said the difference reflects the ages of the public radio sample and the samples for the other two surveys.

• Public radio survey participants had mixed emotions about fundraising during the Covid-19 pandemic.  

Fewer than half (43%) felt that raising money during this time was appropriate.

Younger male survey participants were the most likely to say that fundraising in the current situation was not appropriat

• We were impressed by the range of responses to the question “What you’d like to hear”on public radio during the crisis. 

At the bottom were press conferences, such as the Trump daily gabfests (net positive score:  –17%) and listener call-in shows (net positive score: -22%).

Survey participants said they most want to hear coverage of local first responders (net positive score: +41%) and humor (net positive score: +32%).

The desire to have more humor touched on something we have observed. Perhaps you have noticed that the three leading late-night TV comedy shows – Colbert, Fallon and Kimmel – have reached a new creative peak with “at home” segments that sometimes lampoon the current situation.

In that spirit, we have something special to show you. Podcaster, comedian and radio host Bob Rivers produced a parody of  I Want to Hold Your Hand by the Beatles. 

The video promotes the idea that washing your hands is good and fun! We hope it will make you smile.