The Media Audit just released a new study showing that National Public Radio (NPR) is the 4th most listened to radio format. The telephone study of 114,035 adults was conducted across 84 cities in 2005 and early 2006 and found that NPR garners an adult audience 75 percent as large as News/Talk, the largest format in the nation. As a result, NPR will be included in The Media Audit/Ipsos' proposed new Smart Cell Phone ratings service.

"Awareness of public radio's growth as a format has not been that visible since data for public stations are not reported in the primary audience ratings service," said Media Audit President Bob Jordan. "It is important for radio programmers and managers to know the full story. We have always included all radio listening (commercial and non-commercial) in our multi-media reports. We will do the same with our Smart Cell Phone initiative. The Media Audit/Ipsos will not censor how radio listening is reported. All radio listening will be reported on the same page, whether it is over the air, internet, podcasts or MP3 players. This will be good for radio because it will provide both commercial radio and non-commercial radio a complete picture of radio listening."

"Programmers of commercial radio stations need to know who their competition is," added Jim Higginbotham, Chairman and head of research at The Media Audit. "Public radio stations are not a big factor in terms of the ad dollars they take from commercial radio, however public stations can be a big factor in garnering audience. And ultimately that can cost commercial radio revenue. National Public Radio stations edged ahead of Country as the number two format for adults' in 'most listened to' stations."