Survey shows increase in student audience

Efforts by student radio station WKNC 88.1 FM to increase its audience across the N.C. State campus have apparently paid off, according to a recent listener survey.

Conducted in the fall 2010 semester, the survey of approximately 300 WKNC listeners showed 56 percent were affiliated with NCSU as a current student, faculty, staff or alumnus.

The station conducts listener surveys every two years as part of the NCSU Student Media compact plan, explained Jamie Lynn Gilbert, Student Media assistant coordinator and the WKNC adviser.

“Using data collected in spring 2007 and fall 2008, our best estimate was about 25 percent of our audience were NCSU students,” Gilbert said. Based on results from the fall 2010 survey, Gilbert now puts that number around 40 percent.

The survey also showed nearly half of respondents had attended a WKNC-sponsored event, a significant increase from the fall 2008 survey when about three-fourths of respondents had not attended an event sponsored by WKNC or were unsure if they had. The event most listed by students was Fridays on the Lawn, a campus concert series started in fall 2009 through a partnership among WKNC and NCSU’s Union Activities Board, Inter-residence Council and Student Government.