Local news and talk radio station KUOW 94.9 FM has something to talk about after recently topping the ratings for the Seattle-Tacoma radio market.

The UW owns the license to the station and is a neighbor of the station’s studio above Urban Outfitters on the Ave.

Soaring ratings are fun but not KUOW’s goal, said Jeff Hansen, KUOW’s program director.

“Our goal is to do in-depth news and information for our listeners,” he said.

Hansen said that media ratings typically mean more to commercial radio stations, who use the ratings to set prices for advertising. KUOW is a nonprofit organization operated by KUOW Puget Sound Public Radio and is a member of National Public Radio (NPR).

“We’re mission-driven, not profit-driven,” Hansen said. “Ratings mean profits for commercial radio stations. For us, it simply means, ‘Gee, it’s great we have all these listeners.’”

Like many public radio stations around the country, KUOW (or K University of Washington) was fully supported by a university at first.

“Licenses were given mostly to universities to start educational TV stations, and most of them morphed into community-based stations,” said Norm Arkans, executive director of media relations for the UW. “Most of the public radio stations in the country started at colleges and universities.”

Public radio stations like KUOW would have had trouble getting off the ground without university support, Hansen said.

“Public radio owes universities its very existence,” he said. “Universities in general, and this one specifically, nurtured public radio at their own expense.”

KUOW’s programs include news, information, talk, and entertainment, but don’t specifically target college students. However, 75 percent of KUOW’s listeners have a college degree, Hansen said.

“Students are our constituency,” he said. “It is from the base of university students that we draw our listeners.”

Even if students don’t listen during their university years, they tend to become bigger users of stations like KUOW after college.

“Most of the students I talk to who seem to know about our station know about it because their parents listen to it or because they really like NPR,” said Phyllis Fletcher, a reporter for KUOW.

Hansen said that KUOW is unique in that it provides news and information 24 hours a day with no commercials.

“We’re one of the few remaining locally owned and operated radio stations on the FM band,” he said. “That puts us in the unique position of being able to present a unique approach to news and information from the local angle.”

The station also stands out because of its public service focus, Hansen said.

“Our goal is to create an informed electorate, or at least to help,” Hansen said. “We can’t do that single-handedly, but we can contribute to that process. The airwaves belong to the public. Our mission is the use the public airwaves for the public good.”

For students, this means the local radio station isn’t just for parents.

“If there’s something going on that you think should be covered in the news, please call me and tell me about it,” Fletcher said. “We’re just as much for students at the University as we are for everyone.”