Noncommercial public radio — with no advertising, relying instead on donations, grants and fund-raisers — is alive and well in the Salt Lake market with a nearly 20 percent share of the total audience.
An estimated 267,100 people, or 19.4 percent of the Salt Lake population, listens to one or more of the five noncommercial radio stations in northern Utah.
KUER (FM-90.1) is the most-listened-to public-radio station with a 7.2 percent share of the market. That's good enough for the station to rank as high as third in total listeners against all the commercial radio stations, too. Only KSL and KSFI have regularly had audiences greater than KUER in recent months.
Second among public stations is KBYU (FM-89.1), with a 5.9 percent share, followed by KCPW (fragmented on three different frequencies at AM-101, FM-88.3/105.3), with a combined 4.0 percent share.
KRCL (FM-90.9) has a 2.2 percent share (and a "cume" audience of 34,300 listeners), followed by KPCW (FM-88.1/91.9) with a 0.1 percent share (and a 1,500 "cume"). (KPCW, sister station of KCPW, is designed to serve just Wasatch and Summit counties and only reaches a fraction of the Salt Lake Valley.)
These statistics are for ages 12-plus, based on Arbitron estimates for the metro survey area, for the fall book of 2006 and highlighted by the nonprofit Radio Research Consortium (www.rrconline.org).
How high is Salt Lake's public-radio audience percentage compared to other markets? In Denver, the 13 public-radio stations only attract 13.3 percent of the listening audience. And even the New York radio market, where there are more than three dozen public stations, has only 15.1 percent of the total market share.
Which makes Salt Lake public radio's audience higher than average.
RADIO HAPPENINGS — Scot Young, formerly of KOSY, has been a fill-in DJ recently on KBEE.
—A free sneak preview of the new "This American Life" television show will be hosted by KCPW on Monday, 7:30 p.m., in the Tower Theater, 876 E. 900 South. There will be two episodes of the show, plus some exclusive behind-the-scenes footage.
—KBYU will air the Utah Opera production of "Lucia di Lammermoor" on March 21 at 8 p.m.
—KENZ ("The End," FM-101.) has a "Rock Out at Disneyland" contest that ends today. Winners will be announced by "Chunga and Mister" on Monday.
—Kerry, Bill and Gina, of KXRK's "Radio From Hell" show, have a new collection of photographs of themselves available on the station's Web site, www.x96.com. The DJs also have their own blog, perhaps the liveliest and most used radio blog around.
—KBZN (FM-97.9) has a weekend cash giveaway each Friday. Listen from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., for three chances to win $100 in cash.
—Wal-Mart stores are selling HD digital-radio receivers, designed for automobiles, for less than $190, and with no subscription fees. The systems offer clearer sound and more choices.
TWENTY YEARS AGO IN SALT LAKE RADIO — Joe Lee, legendary radio newsman, retires from radio; KBUG, AM-1320, is his most recent station. ... KZZI, AM-1510, switches from Spanish programming to news/talk.
E-mail: lynn@desnews.com