There\u2019s good news, but also a few cautionary tales, from the results of Jacobs Media\u2019s 2026 Public Radio Techsurvey, which finds nearly three-quarters (72%) of core listeners have increased their support of public radio due to the political climate, with 42% having upped their annual donation this past year.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince the defunding, the core audience has [public radio\u2019s] back, they are incredibly supportive,\u201d Jacobs Media owner Fred Jacobs said during a webinar reviewing the data, which shows that even though listeners say they are impacted by the economy, they continue to support their public station.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is truly a great sign [that] this is going to be a good fundraising year, [and] there\u2019s every possibility that next year will be pretty solid as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The survey of more than 17,000 respondents from 49 U.S. public stations during June and July 2026 shows that since 2013, public radio listening has moved from 83% broadcast vs. 16% digital to this year\u2019s 54% broadcast vs. 43% digital, with Jacobs forecasting \u201cthose two lines are going to cross [eventually].\u201d As a result, mobile apps, smart-TV access, metadata, video podcasts and YouTube were identified as potential growth and additional fundraising opportunities for public stations.<\/p>\n
Another of the study\u2019s key takeaways is the importance of local focus, with 74% agreeing that local gives stations an edge in the market, although 46% say they want their station to have greater visibility in the community. \u201cWe could be working harder in the local areas, from a reality standpoint,\u201d Jacobs says.<\/p>\n
PRTS also finds that the news cycle continues to play a role in perceptions and listening patterns, but disruption by digital media is a growing factor, with one in 10 respondents reporting listening to less public radio in the last year due to the current political climate, as well as to more non-radio sources available and more in-car listening options. Although 52% of respondents say they listen to AM\/FM radio in the car vs. 44% to other audio, those owning connected cars report the listening balance as 39% AM\/FM vs. 59% other audio.<\/p>\n
Jacobs points out that the appeal of personalities on public radio significantly lags other attributes, as just 40% of respondents say it\u2019s why they listen to their public station, vs. 75% saying it\u2019s for trustworthy and objective programming. \u201cPersonalities are so important\u201d to radio, Jacobs notes, saying that making them more important on public radio is \u201cboth a challenge and an opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
One other key finding, pertaining to the upcoming midterm elections, shows that 71% of public radio listeners say they\u2019re following the elections \u201cvery closely,\u201d rivaling the interest of the 2020 and 2024 Presidential elections and far surpassing the 64% in the 2022 midterms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s good news, but also a few cautionary tales, from the results of Jacobs Media\u2019s 2026 Public Radio…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,710,61,60,278,43],"class_list":["post-648482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-free","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}