Listening is what makes Radio Milwaukee what we are today. Yes, you listening to us. But also us listening to you, like earlier this year with our annual survey. Today, we're introducing another way we'll get crucial information about how we can best serve our community as a unifier: a five-county listening tour.
We're partnering with business strategy and research company Magid on a quantitative and qualitative tour of our core listening area that encompasses Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, Racine and Washington counties.
“As a public radio station, it is imperative that we do the ascertainment work to truly understand the audience we are serving,” Executive Director Maxie Jackson said. “We are thrilled to be able to make this commitment to community engagement and have a great partner in Magid to field a comprehensive study.”
Through this project, we'll be able to get a fully formed picture of the wants, values and priorities of greater Milwaukee, and a working map of the current media landscape. The research will encompass the station’s total listening area while focusing on the next generation of public-media consumers. By understanding the unique and shared needs, wants and aspirations of Milwaukee’s multicultural and multiethnic areas, we can take action to strategically impact the lives of our listeners.
Based throughout the U.S. with Midwest offices in Chicago and Iowa, Magid brings more than 60 years of experience to the project and has worked directly with thousands of media brands of all sizes — from local, urban radio stations to national, multiplatform broadcasters.
“We're thrilled to work with Radio Milwaukee on this effort to better understand and serve its audience,” said Bill Hague, Executive Vice President, Magid. “Through our continuous study of consumer behavior, we know how often attitudes and preferences change. Beyond the research, we’re also using our years of experience in media and communications to get to the right path forward and help the station put it into action.”
We selected Magid as our partner after an extensive request-for-proposal process that began in January, led by community engagement coordinators Mallorey Wallace and Darron (DJ) Brüwer.
“We were incredibly impressed with Magid’s proposal and direct past experience in the public-media space,” Wallace said. “We feel they bring the national industry experience to broaden our understanding of the community we serve, with the Midwest roots to understand our specific region.”
The listening tour, which kicks off this month and concludes in November, will consist of two key components: qualitative listening sessions and a quantitative online survey. Listening sessions will be conducted first, and analysis will inform the building of the online survey.
“One of the key components of Magid’s process that resonated with us was their approach to listen to the community first,” Brüwer said. “By having listening sessions inform the development of a broader survey, we are confident the results will help us understand our current and potential audience on a holistic and deeper level.”
We'll make select results available to the public after the tour ends, although it's more of a "to be continued." We plan to bring the tour back annually to inform storytelling and journalistic content in support of our music-discovery channels, 88Nine and HYFIN.