We recently received our quarterly audience measurements from Arbitron, Inc., which give us a sense of how many people are listening to WPLN-FM and AM. We are always eager to see these reports, and this one provides the objective information about listening behavior since we changed the balance of music and news on WPLN-FM in September.

The good news is that our total audience is up: our weekly FM audience totals approximately 164,000, up from 150,000. Almost 20% more people are using the midday news and information programs and an all-time high of 64,000 people listened between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.

We’re glad to see that WPLN-AM continues to serves almost 25,000 people a week, providing our listeners with more choices during the daytime to stay informed and connected to events.

We’re cautious about relying on a single report and we always look for trends to appear over time. Still, these recent numbers are very encouraging, especially given that more people are finding other ways than traditional radio sets to listen to public radio programs, especially computer streaming and mobile phones.

The new NPR Mobile applications are a great example. These free apps turn your Blackberry or iPhone into a mobile radio that allows you to listen to any public radio station in the country. Just log on to NPR’s web site here and follow the instructions.

We do have an important request: if you choose to listen to NPR programs on your cellphone, remember that the public radio system depends on strong local NPR member stations. Stations like WPLN contribute countless stories and reports to NPR every year. We pay almost $500,000 annually for Morning Edition and All Things Considered alone. In fact, all the nationally distributed public radio programs rely on the funding that comes through local stations. Without healthy member stations like WPLN, the whole public radio enterprise would sputter to a halt.

So no matter how you choose to listen to your favorite public radio programs, if you live in Middle Tennessee, please remember to renew your annual support to WPLN. By calling during an on-air campaign, answering a letter or filling out an online pledge form, you make certain we’ll always be there for you, on FM, AM, on your iPhone and everywhere else.