Exploring a New Radio Audience: A Study of Early Adopters of Latino Podcast Media

Alex Avila, Journalism Masters Student,

University of Texas at Austin,

College of Communication

Submitted March 22, 2007.

PODCAST: A Podcast is a converged medium that combines audio (or video), the Internet, and portable media devices.

IPOD: The iPod is a personal audio player introduced by Apple Computers in 2001 using mp3 digital audio technology.

RSS: Rich Site Summary, also known as Really Simple Syndication, is an XML program for sharing Internet content from a variety of websites.

DEFINITIONS

In order for a Podcast to exist there must be the following:

• a content provider (producer)

• an audience

• a means of distribution (the Internet)

• access to software (RSS 2.0)

• the technical tools to take Podcast feeds (the computer or mp3 player).

DEFINITIONS

Apple Computers introduces the iPod in October 2001.

When iPod sales hit the million-unit mark in 2004, the iPod spawns an unexpected development that came to be known as Podcasting.

The “Podfathers” are software pioneer Dave Winer and former MTV vee-jay Adam Curry.

BRIEF HISTORY

iPods continue to diffuse: 39 million unit sales in FY 2006; 21 million unit sales over Christmas 2006.

Podcasting grows from less than 1000 podcast programs in December 2004 to 65,000 in November 2006

All major public radio entities podcast in some shape.

BRIEF HISTORY

National Public Radio’s LATINO USA• Weekly Program distributed by NPR and NFCB.

• 132 NPR Station & 52 NFCB Stations nationwide.

• Approximately 400,000 weekly listeners.

• NPR Demographic

- 74 percent “White” listenership

- Median Age 56 years

- College Educated

- Majority earn over $75K annually

National Public Radio’s LATINO USA

• National Podcast launched Sept. 2005.

• More than 1000 weekly downloads first month.

• Average 2500 weekly downloads as of Jan. 2007.

RQ1: Who is downloading the podcast? How does the podcast audience compare to the traditional radio audience of the program?

RQ2: Where geographically are podcast listeners located? Are they focused around major markets or spread out across the country?

RQ3: Why do they subscribe to an online podcast when a radio broadcast and online streaming is already available?

RQ4: Do audience members actually listen to the podcasts that are downloaded?

Research Questions

• Roger’s Diffusion of Innovation

• Fichman & Kemerer’s Assimilation Gap

• McCombs’ Media Substitution

• Katz’s Uses & Gratifications

Theoretical Links

• Web-based survey located at latinousa.org.

• 43 mostly open-ended questions about podcast usage, public radio consumption and demographics.

• 12 second “call-out” before and after podcast directing listeners to the online podcast survey.

SURVEY

• 143 responses to the online survey between late November 2005 and early January 2006.

• 25 respondents indicated they had never downloaded a podcast, leaving 118 valid responses.

• average podcasts downloads in December 2005 were 1835 weekly downloads.

• response rate 6.43 percent.

SURVEY

PODCAST AUDIENCE

56 percent Hispanic

4 percent Black

34 percent White

70 percent age under 45

RESULTS

RADIO AUDIENCE

12 Percent Hispanic

11 Percent Black

74 Percent White

63 percent age 45 and over

RQ1- Who is podcasting? How different from regular radio?

Education levels & Income Levels Are similar; Podcast listeners are 2-to-1 male over female.

RESULTS

RQ2- Where are Podcast listeners located?

Chart 2: Regional Clusters

TEXAS18%

CALIFORNIA17%

NORTHWEST13%NEW YORK TRI-

STATE12%

SOUTHWEST9%

FAR WEST9%

FLORIDA, GEORGIA AND

CAROLINAS8%

OTHER 14%

TEXAS

CALIFORNIA

NORTHWEST

NEW YORK TRI-STATE

SOUTHWEST

FAR WEST

FLORIDA, GEORGIA ANDCAROLINASOTHER

• 131 zip codes

• 8 podcast survey takers indicated they lived outside of the U.S.

• Similar to Radio audience.

RESULTS

RQ3- Why subscribe to Podcast v. Regular radio?

Out of 115 valid, open-ended responses 57 percent indicated some

sort of “convenience” reason as their first response.

The other first responses were:• “Staying Informed” 12 percent;• “Interest” 11 percent; • “Quality” 10 percent; • “Other” 10 percent.

RESULTS

RQ4- Do audiences listen to podcast downloads?

• 68 percent listen to between 80 and 100 percent of podcast downloads

• Mean number of podcasts downloaded weekly was 10.76

• 88 percent were interested in listening to the entire 30 minute broadcast of Latino USA v. listening to just one or two segments.

DISCUSSION

The Question of Audience

If 1835 weekly downloads, but only 118 valid podcast survey responses, then 6.43 percent response rate.

Begs the question, how many automatic downloads are actually listened to?

DISCUSSION

The Podcast Assimilation Gap

Acquisition = podcast downloads

Deployment = podcast listening

Currently unable to measure.

Source: Fichman & Kemerer (1999)

CONLUDE

Arbitron-esque “online diaries”

• De-emphasize “downloads” “hits” and “links” as measure of online-based audiences..

• Arbitron model of media diaries used in radio since the 1930s.

• Online diaries would give a more realistic view of digital media audience size based on Internet distribution.

Alex Avila, Senior ProducerLatino USA

2609 University Ave. #3.1081 University Station #A0704

Austin, TX 78702

512-471-6178avila@mail.utexas.edu