The PMCC Knowledge Network is a collective of consultants and thought leaders that our members can call upon for professional consulting services at no cost, as a benefit of PMCC membership. The Knowledge Network gives you much-needed access to some of the most respected and successful consultants in media. Whether you need help with digital strategy or coaching your hosts, you’ll find the support you need in the Knowledge Network.
PMCC’s audience research studies help you understand audiences from new perspectives.
RUN: Researching Unmet Needs is a groundbreaking study of the unmet needs of music audiences and news audiences. Fielded in the summer and fall of 2024, RUN includes a national general population survey, local oversampling in 19 different markets and national and local focus groups yielding more than 30,000 respondents providing quantitative and qualitative information about their media diets. The study is produced in partnership with Station Resource Group and Greater Public and identifies key opportunities for public radio to serve new audiences and become essential in our communities.
In 2023, PMCC worked in partnership with The Station Resource Group (SRG), Greater Public and our research partners at City Square Associates to compile and analyze more than two dozen local audience research studies from stations of different market sizes, geographies and broadcast formats across the country to perform a “meta-analysis”. The descriptive report identifies common themes, opportunities and threats for both news and music stations and the prescriptive playbook delivers actionable intelligence to a range of decision-makers.
PMCC has partnered for almost 20 years with Jacobs Media to field The Public Radio TechSurvey, a study of public radio’s most loyal fans. The survey polls your own audiences, the people who sign up for e-newsletters and carry your station’s branded tote bag to the grocery store. These are the people who consistently support your station and whose preferences, behaviors and attitudes you most want to know about. Participating stations receive their own unique data set along with national results for comparison. PMCC members get a significant discount!
Registration for the 2025 survey is coming soon. Watch this space for updates!
This study conducted in 2016/2017 gives us a unique ethnographic look at a key segment of the audience. Researchers at Jacobs Media immersed themselves into the lives of a dozen Millennial public radio listeners, spending a full day with each of them from the time they woke up, through their workday, and back at home, observing their media and lifestyle activities. The project was built on a combination of one-on-one interviews and ethnographic encounters with a diverse cross section of American Millennials.
In 2000, PRPD (now PMCC) launched the Core Values Project with the intent to clearly define and articulate the fundamental appeal of public radio’s programming. Over the next four years, five groundbreaking research studies were conducted to explore the core values of public radio’s most popular programs as well as its three “franchise” broadcast formats; News/Information/Talk, Classical Music and Jazz, the formats that accounted for 92% of all listening to public radio at the time.
The PD Handbook is a comprehensive guide to all aspects of the job of public radio Program Director. With examples and links to important resources, the PD Handbook is an essential go-to guide for anyone working in programming. Currently under revision, find the latest version below.
The Talk Show Handbook focuses on the fundamental basics of producing original talk programming for public radio listeners. While PMCC works on a revision of this handbook, please find a series of checklists and planning materials to help you with the production of your local talk programming. Find the planning materials below.
PD Essentials Guide contains all the links and contact information you need as a new PD. Whether it’s finding your audience data or submitting your playlists to Sound Exchange, this quick reference guide will point you in the right direction. Find the guide below.
PO Box 8340
Pittsburgh, PA 15218
Tel: 412-838-2815
1108 S. Braddock Avenue
Suite C
Pittsburgh, PA 15218
Tel: 412-838-2815
