Virtually all commercial stations and most of the public radio stations that are recognized as leaders in programming and/or development use research thoughtfully and consistently. They use it in such diverse but important ways as determining the extent of listener loyalty to their programming, which other stations compete for their audience, the amount and location of listening at various times of day, and how best to structure their membership and underwriting efforts. The best stations are usually the first to realize that there is always something more that can be learned about the audience, and that the needs of the audience and competitive conditions in their market are always changing. Research is one of the important tools they use to stay on top of these situations and continually provide improved service to their target audience.

If you (or someone you work with or for) still doubt that there is anything to be learned from a survey, try this just once. Conduct a legitimate survey. Use this guide or hire a professional research firm to conduct the study and analyze the results. But before you get the first response from listeners, complete the survey yourself, predicting how you think the questions will be answered. Then, seal up your answers and give them to someone else for safekeeping. Once the results are tabulated, compare your answers to those from listeners. If 90% or more of your predictions are within 5% of the tabulated responses from listeners, you'll have accomplished something no one has ever done before. If they are not, you may be forced to admit that research indeed CAN tell you some things much more exactly and accurately than you knew before.

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