[BC] The Comm-noncomm disconnect

[Thompson,Blake E]

Hi Jeff and all, Just a little FYI that there are some student run stations that care about audience and ratings. We at WZIP get the RRC ratings and use them to help justify our continued ownership by the University of Akron. They help to show the President & the Board that we are a valuable resource for student attraction and retention. 
We program for the 12-25 demo with surprisingly good results. All I can say, due to the RRC requirements, is in our demo we are #3 in the area... #3 out of ALL stations. We are not NPR but run a Professional Broadcast Training program with many former students on the air all over the country. I also work with other commercial and non-comms in the area and anyone who has seen our program was very impressed, mostly with the quality of the students here. We use underwriting to generate our entire equipment budget so we don't have megabux for gear but run 'near state of the art'. 
But then again I'll admit, WE are very different than _most_ college radio.

Blake Thompson CBNT
WZIP-FM / Z-TV www.wzip.fm
SBE Chapter 70 Program Chair

I can only speak for my own station, of course. We use the Arbs to measure 
the success of the different programs we have in our various dayparts. If we 
have a consistently weak daypart we figure out how to shore it up; we also 
communicate with other noncomms of our market size, and compare notes. 
We can also sell on-air mentions and underwriting credits. We're limited to 
what we can say, as everyone here knows, but in some cases, my noncomm can be a way for a small company to at least get their name on the air. We also have major contributors, and we use that audience research to show them the 
demographic that's hearing their underwriting announcements. 

Arbitron data are very important to noncomms and commercial stations alike. 
Now a "college station" or "student station" is an entirely different matter. Those stations likely have an insignificant audience.

My station is a professional, NPR affiliate. We have a good rapport with our 
commercial brothers and sisters, and we help each other out when we can.

Jeff Glass, BSEE CSRE
Chief Engineer
WNIU WNIJ
Northern Illinois University