Arbitron and Edison Media Research have completed a study which shows that over 80% of Americans believe that being exposed to commercials is a fair price to pay for free programming. They also found that when it comes to overdoing it on commercials, most find TV a bigger culprit than radio - - and use their remotes to do something about it.

In 1999, 84% of 12+ interviewees said commercials were OK, a number which hasn't changed much over six years - - 82% answered the question the same way this time around.

Asked which medium, TV or radio, has the most commercials, TV was picked 71% to 22%, with 6% calling it a tie. TV did slightly better when asked about the intrusiveness of commercials, but still was far ahead in territory you don't want to occupy - - 67% said TVs commercials were most intrusive compared to 27% for radio. 4% said it both were the same.

Radio's biggest advantage over TV, though, from an advertiser's perspective, concerns commerical zapping. 84% of radio listeners at work never or rarely change stations because a commercial comes on, a number that holds at 73% for at-home listeners. In the car, with push button controls, the number shrinks to 43% - - compared to 34% who usually or always change. That still beats TV, with its in-hand remote commercial zapping enabler. Only 19% never or rarely change channels, compared to 48% who usually or always change. More on this to come.

Question: How often to you change stations when a commercial comes on?

	Never	Rarely	Sometimes	Usually	Always	Unsure
Radio/work	63%	21%	9%	2%	2%	3%
Radio/home	49%	24%	15%	5%	6%	1%
Radio/car	26%	17%	22%	16%	18%	2%
TV/home	6%	13%	32%	28%	20%	1%

Source: Arbitron/Edison Media Research