Free Riders, Givers, and Heavy Users: Predicting Listener Support for Public Radio

Best practices in noncommercial radio fundraising: a practitioner perspective

“…Households that listened to public radio more also donated more. Bailey () reported similar results. Not only did public radio donors listen longer and more often than nondonors, but donors also listened more exclusively to public radio, had stronger beliefs that they would miss public radio if it went off the air, and had stronger beliefs that public radio needed listener support.…”

“…Noncommercial stations serve their communities by providing specialized programming that is not widely available on commercial radio stations (Lochte, ; Waldman, ). Many listeners donate because noncommercial radio is an important part of their lives (Bailey, ). However, the U.S. has recently experienced slow economic growth (Rampell, ) and a political climate hostile toward public radio (Fahrenthold, ).…”

Modelling the Members’ Intentions to Give

“…However, the number of members and the member revenue for public television stations has been declining (Fuerst & Behrens 2012). There has been some valuable research examining relationships between public radio listening and giving (Bailey 2004) and successful practices for generating support (Station Resource Group 2008). Given the challenges facing public service broadcast stations, it seems appropriate to try to examine the issue from a perspective that reflects what we have learned about a psychological theory of human behaviour: the theory of planned behaviour.…”

Won't You Be My Neighbor? Norms of Cooperation, Public Broadcasting, and the Collective Action Problem*

“…In other words, does the individual think that he or she should pay for use of the good, even without a requirement to do so? Bailey (2004) answers that question by suggesting that giving to public radio is motivated by ''a sense of responsibility to pay for personal use of the service'' (Bailey, 2004:609). Using a large recontact survey of Arbitron diary respondents, he operationalizes these concepts using questions about time spent listening to public radio (as well as which public radio station the individual listened to the most to gauge loyalty).…”

“…The above discussion suggests a variety of variables to consider in a model using the theory of norms of cooperation to predict public television giving, but an important question is whether individual use of the product guides the giving decision, as suggested by other scholars (e.g., Bailey, 2004). Two variables may measure the ''personal importance'' that individuals place on public television.…”