“Guys in suits with charts”: Audience research in U.S. public radio

During the 1980s audience research became accepted as an essential management (unction in U.S. public radio. The use and application of audience research had previously been resisted by some public radio managers as representing the ascendance of market considerations over the industry's social and cultural imperatives. This paper describes the evolution of public radio's engagement with audience research, and relates it to public radio's changing conception of localism.