Go Figure, the blog of NPR’s Audience Insight & Research group, posted some very interesting data showing hour-by-hour audience patterns for visitors to NPR’s online and mobile channels, and compares them with public radio broadcast listening.
The first slides (embedded below) show the number of listeners to NPR member stations side-by-side with visitors to NPR.org. On weekdays, rush hour commuting boosts radio listening and delivers the largest audiences to local stations in the morning and late afternoon. In contrast, visitors to NPR.org shoot up around 9 AM, after folks get to work and find themselves “occasionally” browsing the web. The NPR.org visitor numbers stay strong throughout the workday hours.
NOTE: On the NPR blog, they emphasize that the slides with radio and web numbers have two separate axes (red for web, blue for broadcast). Looking closely at the numbers, you can see that NPR broadcasts on local public radio stations remain NPR’s largest source of audience.
Moving forward in the slides, you see the data for NPR’s mobile offerings. The NPR News iPhone app brings in the largest number of visitors and shows a significant peak during the weekday morning commute. You may be surprised to find NPR’s mobile formatted website (m.npr.org, counted separately from NPR.org here) sits well ahead of the NPR apps for Android smartphones and the iPad. The iPad and Android apps are more recent additions and it will be interesting to see how this data evolves over the next year. And I like how the iPad has a bump in traffic around 10 pm. It looks like many iPads spend the night on the bedside table!
I’ve been working under the hood of the Public Radio Player this week to organize our database of programs, stations, and streams. In the process, I’ve come across a number of programs with titles that simply jump off the page. By their names alone, I am willing to count myself among their fans.
Here are some of the great ones:
Aspen Hot Wax — Stop, don’t tell me what this is about… You had me at “hot wax”
Tapping through the Public Radio Player I found myself diving into guilty pleasures — pop culture and celebrities — and being pleasantly surprised with KCRW’s Guest DJ Project. You can find it by going into On Demand, then Categories, then Pop Culture.
Artists, entrepreneurs, chefs, and an array of other cultural icons share who they are through their personal musical tastes. From Tyler Perry to Cillian Murphy to Anthony Bourdain, KCRW gives a unique twist to the idea of celebrity by having them bring and explain five music faves. While these people are public figures, the intimate setting of the KCRW studio brings out deeper stories that make me feel like I’m a fly on the wall in their one-on-one conversation with the host. When Tyler Perry recalls his mother calling him right after she heard a Boyz II Men song, I could tell this wasn’t just another publicity interview. Finding meaning in specific songs is something we all can relate to.
Each guest DJ gets around 10 minutes so each program is short, sweet, and straight to the point. The Guest DJ Project website has playlists, information, and a transcript of each interview.
Rene Dongo is a senior at Emerson College majoring in Film Production. He’s interning at PRX this summer, and he’s always asking to borrow the iPod.
WBUR gathered the input of its audience when planning features for the app and, with the PRX team, sought to create an app that harnessed the power of the iPhone. More than just a tool for streaming audio, the WBUR app is meant to facilitate a new level of engagement between the station and its audience.
Here are some highlights of the new WBUR app:
Live stream WBUR
Read the latest news from WBUR and NPR and share stories on Facebook and Twitter
Submit breaking news tips and photos to the WBUR Newsroom
View your member benefits on a map with a built-in location finder to locate participating businesses and redeem savings using a virtual member card
Initiate donations to WBUR from your iPhone
Alarm clock/Sleep timer for the night owls and early birds.
Listen to 20+ programs on demand
View the program schedule
Like with the Public Radio Player, PRX plans to release the code for the WBUR app under an open source license to assist other stations in the development of their own apps. The WBUR app is available for free in the iTunes App Store. You can see more screenshots of the app and watch a brief video tour.
Radio has the power to stop you in your tracks. But some public radio programs go a step further — they grab you by the ears and don’t let go. You can find a number of programs of this variety under the Documentary category in the Public Radio Player’s On Demand section. Here a few to check out:
Third Coast Podcast — The Third Coast International Audio Festival has long celebrated the art of the audio documentary, and their weekly podcast is a great window into the genre. The program includes segments from their program Re:sound, along with a number of other audio delights collected from near and far.
Hearing Voices — Hearing Voices from NPR is a weekly collection of audio reports connected by a theme. Episodes can take a variety of forms and may include personal stories, sound-portraits, slam poets, docs, dramas, features, and found-sound.
RadioLab – RadioLab is a show for the curious. Recent topics: lucky lobsters, unintended consequences, and face-blindness. Each episode is an audio adventure, to say the least.
Changing World — A sister series of the daily international news program The World. Changing World offers in-depth radio documentaries from the BBC World Service that will enlighten your understanding of global affairs.
This American Life — Just when you think you’ve got This American Life figured out (i.e., David Sedaris, Sarah Vowell, and squirrel cops), they manage to astound you with new episodes. Their coverage of the economic crisis – most recently in a collaboration with the investigative non-profit ProPublica – has taken TAL’s journalism to new levels.
American RadioWorks – American RadioWorks is a longtime producer of top-notch radio documentaries and investigative reports. Recent productions have focused on coal and global warming, the war on poverty, and the politics of textbooks in America.
You can find these programs and more in the On Demand section of the Public Radio Player.
The halls of public radio stations have become alarmingly hip over the last few years. Once the domain of non-fiction authors in tweed, the egg-heads are now rubbing shoulders with rockers as public radio has become a sought-after stop for pop musicians on tour. You can find a number of great programs on the Public Radio Player where big name artists and up-and-comers alike play live for public radio audiences. Here are a few to check out:
Sound Opinions — This rock ‘n roll talk show isn’t all talk. Weekly guests are known to belt out a song or two. Recent guests include Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders, French popsters Phoenix, and the British electronic trio The XX. (Sound Opinions is distributed by PRX, makers of the Public Radio Player. If you like the show, encourage your local station to carry it.)
KEXP Live Performances — Seattle’s KEXP is known for being on the cutting edge of new music and their live performance podcast is a great way to keep pace with the youth of America. Get exposed to new artists like Unbunny, Giant Squid, and Spoonshine.
All these shows can be found in the On Demand section of the Public Radio Player, and be sure to browse through the music section to find more great music programs available to stream on your iPhone.
The popular blog Boing Boing has a great post that takes you behind the scenes of the public radio show The Sound of Young America. Boing Boing editor Mark Frauenfelder was recently a guest on TSOYA and found himself intrigued by the home recording studio built by host Jesse Thorn. Following the taping, the tables were turned and Thorn found himself being interviewed about how he creates radio outside of a traditional studio environment. It’s a neat look into how TSOYA works and what goes into making a public radio program.
You can find The Sound of Young America (a program Salon.com’s Audiofile once described as “the greatest radio show you’ve never heard“) in the On Demand Section of the Public Radio Player. The Frauenfelder interview is scheduled for next week’s episode.
Congratulations go out to a number of public radio stations for taking home 2010 National Edward R. Murrow Awards. The prestigious awards are handed out by the Radio Television Digital News Association and recognize excellence in electronic journalism. And the icing on the cake: you can stream all these award-winning stations on the Public Radio Player!
In addition to the success of these local stations, NPR picked up national awards for Audio Reporting: Hard News, Audio News Documentary, Audio Sports Reporting, and Website.
If you’re not familiar with World Have Your Say, it’s a live talk program that aims to give global perspectives to current affairs by soliciting calls and emails from listeners around the world. The show’s website keeps the conversation going 24 hours a day. Today, they are experimenting with Google Translate to create a multi-language chat board, and fans from around the world are showing their national pride and boasting how their team will win the World Cup.
You can find all the World Cup episodes from World Have Your Say in the On Demand section of the Public Radio Player.
Public Radio Player
