A survey of the sources of funding of noncommercial radio stations

There are more than 1400 noncommercial radio stations in the United States. Many of these stations rely on on-air fund raising to support all or part of their budgets. A questionnaire was sent to 460 of these stations to ascertain which stations conducted regular on-air fund raising campaigns. Responses were received from 232 stations for a 51.6% response rate. The information gathered by the survey showed: 1) most stations conducted on-air fund raisers twice each year; 2) more than half of the stations reported listener contributions averaging $41 or more; 3) the stations conducting on-air fund raisers received support from less than 9% of their listeners; 4) most of the stations offered one or more premium gifts as well as program guides; 5) one hundred thirty stations sought financial support from corporations and foundations, but only forty-four indicated that they received money from these sources; 6) for the 134 stations responding with usable data, the average audience size was about 64,000 people; 7) the average paid staff for the 227 stations that answered this question was 17.7 persons, while the average volunteer staff was 58.5 persons for the 185 stations giving this data; 8) annual budgets ranged from less than $50,000 to over $2 million. Some of the conclusions that can be drawn from the survey are that: 1) stations with larger annual budgets conduct on-air fund raisers more frequently than smaller stations; 2) the stations conducting on-air fund raisers usually met their fund goals; 3) most of the stations received money from three to six different funding sources, with a few receiving funds from as many as ten; 4) stations need to work at attracting funds from foundations and corporations; 5) stations need to have better research information about their listeners; 6) more research needs to be done to determine if the availability of premium gifts affects listener contributions. Individual stations are receiving less support from the federal government. By cultivating a variety of sources of income, stations will be better able to withstand the loss of funds from any one source.