Radio Fundraiser

What is the difference between regular commercial radio and stations that are listener supported?

It all comes down to reaching the masses. Commercial radio, which is advertiser supported, must reach large audiences to attract advertisers. There’s nothing wrong with this business model. It means that radio is available to all at no charge. The advertisers pay for it.

The other model is listener supported. This model has more than one style. There is satellite and other paid-for-use services. These generally do not contain commercials, so your payment is how they make money and survive. Sirius, XM satellite and Cell and Internet stations fall into this category.

Then there is public radio in North America. Public radio in the U.S. is supported through government funding and listener/corporate donations including very limited advertiser availability. In Canada the CBC is supported entirely by the government and there are some listener/corporate supported stations.

The listener supported station (some with government grants as well) generally do not concern themselves with mass audiences. They tend to be niche based, providing specialty services not generally available on commercial stations. Jazz, classical, specialty talk and news and other narrow focused formats thrive, or at least survive, within the listener/corporate donor business model.

It takes a lot of creative selling to convince listeners that they should pay for the station’s programming. After all, it is also available free just by turning the radio on (unlike satellite and earth-bound for-pay stations). This blog is all about that creative necessity.