The Corporation for Public Broadcasting funded a national study of public radio programming since 1986. The 1996 programming study was conducted by National Public Radio's Audience Research department and had participation by 633 stations. Two-thirds of the stations reported broadcasting 24 hours per day, compared to one-third of stations in 1986. The study divided public radio formats into six music format bases--classical, jazz, world music, folk, pop, and eclectic--and three talk format bases--news and information, entertainment, and targeted audience. Two-thirds of stations' broadcasts were music based, and classical or jazz described three-fourths of the music broadcasts. Most stations had news and information each week, broadcast weekdays by 92% of stations, Saturdays by 84%, and Sundays by 82%. All stations aired both local and national programming each week. Public Radio International (PRI) programming was carried by 87% of the stations, surpassing the 84% carrying National Public Radio (NPR) programming. Two-thirds of public radio's music programming was locally produced, while stations relied on national distributors for most of their news and information and entertainment programming. Classical music averages were highest in the eastern time zone. Jazz had the highest averages on the coasts and in areas with populations greater than one million. Urban areas had the highest averages of news and information. Stations with the largest budgets broadcast the most news and information, and had higher averages of classical music. The nationally syndicated programs with the highest percentage of stations carrying them were "All Things Considered" (70%) and "Morning Edition" (69%). (SWC)