U OF A PUBLIC RADIO RANKED 10TH IN U.S.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - KUAF-91.3FM, the University of Arkansas public radio station is rated #10 among over 700 National Public Radio stations in the country according to the Radio Research Consortium (RRC). RRC uses market ratings generated by the Arbitron Company to determine national rankings of public radio stations. The latest figures indicate KUAF has a Metro Cume Rating of 14.4 which puts the local NPR affiliate as the tenth most listened to public station in terms of the percentage of available audience that listens to the station. The Cume Rating for KUAF means 14.4 percent of all persons in Washington and Benton counties tune into the station weekly.

KUAF, like many public radio stations, features a program schedule of national and international news from National Public Radio (NPR) mixed with local news, classical music and entertainment programs like Car Talk, Whada Ya Know and A Prairie Home Companion. KUAF also features some alternative music formats on Friday and Saturday nights with blues, jazz and acoustic/folk music.

This is not the first top ten ranking for KUAF, but according to KUAF station manager Rick Stockdell, it’s taken awhile for the station’s audience growth to catch up with the population growth of northwest Arkansas.

"We’ve been a top 50 station for a number of years, reaching as high as number eight in the early 1990s," Stockdell said. "But our audience numbers didn’t grow as quickly as the population did, so our Cume Rating dropped some. But now we’re seeing more of the newcomers tuning in to KUAF."

Stockdell said the stations’ audience has grown from around 40,000 total listeners a week in 1999, to over 55,000 listeners in the most recent survey of radio listening. He attributes the growth to the attention the entire staff at KUAF pays to the programming of the station.

"All public stations have NPR, but not all stations work as hard as we do in creating local programming that complements the national shows," Stockdell said. "Every person at KUAF has a hand in creating, marketing and delivering a very high quality program schedule that has great appeal to lots of people in west and northwest Arkansas."

Nearly 80% of KUAF’s audience is over the age of 34 and among that demographic, KUAF is very popular compared to other radio stations in northwest Arkansas. There are hours during weekday mornings and afternoons when KUAF is one of the top two or three stations in the area. Saturday morning and late Saturday afternoon KUAF is #1 with the 35-64 age group.