National Public Radio audience is growing

How many listeners tune in to National Public Radio stations?

Arbitron doesn't include public and commercial radio stations in the same ratings list, but it does measure public-radio stations. In fact, the latest Arbitron report shows that NPR stations are up 1 percent nationally in their listening audience over the past year.

Despite listener drops in news-talk radio, NPR's audience is growing.

For the spring of 2006, 25.5 million people listened to an NPR program or newscast during an average week, an increase of 1 percent compared to the same period in 2005.

Arbitron also found that during an average week, 29.8 million listeners tune into public-radio stations with NPR programming, an increase of 1 percent vs. spring 2005 (29.4 million).

Listeners for NPR's "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered" held steady compared to the same time period a year ago. "Morning Edition," still the country's most listened-to morning news program, posted 12.8 million total listeners, and "All Things Considered" had a cumulative audience of 18.9 million.

Locally, KUER averages a total of 101,000 weekly listeners. KBYU averages 91,000 listeners statewide.

John Greene, station manager, said that makes KUER Utah's most-listened-to noncommercial station.

He said KUER was averaging just 75,000 total listeners in 1993, and so the station's audience is up almost 26 percent in the past 13 years.

"Over the past five years, the biggest increases have occurred during our midday programming, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Our audience has almost tripled during those hours," Greene said.

RADIO HAPPENINGS — KOAY, "The Oasis," FM-97.5 has added live personalities to its format of contemporary Christian music. Kurt Wallace is doing mornings with Carly Young, who specializes in news and traffic; "Teresa" is the midday personality, and Scott Conners is on in the afternoon, said Alan Hague, program director.

—Simmons Media is selling KXOL, AM-1160, to Inca Communications for a reported $1 million. According to Radio and Records, this is Inca's first entry in the radio world. Currently the station has a Spanish music format.

—KBYU, FM-89.1, will present the noted husband/wife duo Jennifer Welch-Babidge, soprano, and Darrell Babidge, baritone, in an evening of song with pianist Barbara Allen, on Thursday, Nov. 2, 7 p.m., in the Museum of Art Auditorium at Brigham Young University. Phone 800-298-5298 to reserve a pair of free tickets.

KBYU will start election coverage next week. On Monday, the station will air "Election 2006 Special — Utah Issues," where BYU political scientists consider issues facing Utah voters in November.