[cma-l] Listening figures
Al Garthwaite
al at vera-media.co.uk
Tue Jun 3 18:26:34 BST 2008
The figures for LeedselevenFM:
231 interviews conducted in all.
Intro blurb, then
Q1: Have you heard of LeedselevenFM?
98 yes. 42.42% (slightly lower than I said before. Mis-recalled. Now
checked.)
Q2: (if yes) How have you heard of it?
Majority knew of it through leaflets and posters.
Q3: (to those who had heard of it): Have you had a chance to listen to any
of the programmes?
42 of the 98 said yes. That's 42.857%.
Q4: (If yes) What did you listen to & What did you think of the programme/s?
Various answers.
Q5: Do you think it's a good idea to have a local community radio station
with news, music, talk programmes...
215 yes. Some additional comments recorded.
Interviewers were mainly, as I said, volunteers. We gave them all some
training and guidance before they went out. They did, of course, go out and
about in our local Leeds 11 area. In the city centre, or another part of
Leeds, we would expect the figures to be very much lower.
We have kept copies of all the completed forms, who the interviewer was in
each case, at what location, and the time and date.
As the RSL in question took place last August, unfortunately students were
not available to undertake it as part of their coursework.
I am very glad that this correspondence has arisen, as it has given me lots
of ideas and led me to return to the survey. I have renewed my enthusiasm
for putting together the results as part of our report on the station so
far, along with a qualified academic in the field from Leeds Met University,
who will advise on presentation, add all necessary and appropriate comments
as to the reliability and significance of the results, and advise on our
best course of action in the future.
All best wishes
Al
Alison Garthwaite
Director
Vera Media & LeedselevenFM
30-38 Dock Street
Leeds LS10 1JF
+44(0)113 242 8646
www.LeedselevenFM.co.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: idea [mailto:idea at mcr1.poptel.org.uk]
Sent: 03 June 2008 14:00
To: Al Garthwaite; cma-l at commedia.org.uk; Stevensuttie at aol.com;
councillor.king at salford.gov.uk
Subject: Re: [cma-l] Listening figures
Interesting stuff
I'm not sure what is decribed here by Alison should be considered
"statistically significant or quotable".
The figures of 47% heard of the station and 45% listened to any
programme are both REMARKABLE. Though a small number of established
commercial and BBC stations will exceed this name recognition from a
balanced sample e.g. in self completion survey bundled in RAJAR radio
listening booklets I don't think any would get a figure for listened at
least once that was anywhere near this high. Especially not in an RSL
situation.
I smell leading questions here. Plus untrained interviewers. Plus a
pretty low response rate. I reckon it would cost about £2 per interview
to get 250 street interviews done properly, plus the cost of devising
the survey and processing the results. Worth far more than any ad hoc
personnel and methodology.
RAJAR use a deck of cards with all (most) of the stations available in
the particular area - usually about 60 - and if the respondents are
fully cooperative all cards are either picked or examined twice - they
certainly get the chance to look twice at every card - and respondents
are also asked if there are any other stations they listen to (or hear)
that are not included among the cards.
Typically a small few do mention a community station, a small few an
overseas station e.g. France Anterre or KOP (Kenya) or RTE or similar,
or a niche service e.g. BBC Arabic.
ALL FM gets a mention from somewhere between 1-30 and 1-45 residents in
its area. When I've done such assignments in Salford - only a small
number - I've never had a respondent mention SCR, though I know the
station myself, have been on it a few times and do know your DJ councillor.
In terms of the interviewers age, demeanour etc these youngsters
mentioned might well get a good response from a broad range 15-24 most
prized by commercial radio, whereas 45 year old women might not. Even if
there is some sort of light demographics applied. Skewed, skewed,
skewed. And very remarkable results.
RAJAR surveys have approximately 3000 interviews weekly across the
country in structured (and then weighted) samples with 200 sample
points, are placed door to door with proper demographic interview, and
they are conducted by trained ipsos MORI personnel with no leading, 10%
backchecks and strong supervision. About 150,000 interviews and radio
diaries completed a year nationally.
The CMA might try striking a deal with RAJAR/ipsos MORI to have a
generic "Community Radio" card in the deck or some other means of
getting on the RADAR. But although this is a not-for-profit org the
costs are shared by all the stations and there is likely to be a cost
involved in this.
And also danger of disappointing and not tremendously statistically
significant results. This is probably already an issue for the smallest
of the digital stations that are included. And because of the brand =
Leedseleven there will be recognition from the postcode i.e. false
positives and on the listening question probably some kindness from
respondents ... and/or they are self selecting local radio heads.
The number of downloads and hits and response to comps (if genuinely all
uniques) are very likely the best you've got for the moment.
If Steve Suttie or Councillor Jim has a budget to construct some proper
listener research you'll find my email address above, or if you have a
big budget - contact ipsos MORI Manchester office (it's in the Triangle)
or the RAJAR team at ipsos MORI Harrow.
It is too late for the 2008 round but in theory Salford Council could
add a question about community media to an NDC (New Deal for
Communities) or other Living in Salford surveys that are going on. The
next NDC one may be 2010. Or it could be put in what's on IN Salford or
the Salford Star or get cross promoted with the various festivals in the
city.
But if you want respectable data you will need respectable methods to
collect it. And to go from a 45% figure discovered in this way to any
truthful or meaningful listenership would IMO be ill-advised and not
credible.
Best wishes
Chris Paul
Al Garthwaite wrote:
>We do listener surveys for radio broadcasts. Volunteers (usually) or staff
>members (if time) go out in pairs with short prepared questionnaires to
>places where people are amenable to being stopped e.g. outside the Co-op,
>shopping streets, some residential streets. We ask the interviewees to
>choose a diverse selection of people to question and ask them to tick at
the
>top of each sheet whether the person is female or male, approx age and
>approx ethnicity (we don't ask the interviewee these things).
>
>It is important that the interviewers are approachable and unthreatening in
>their appearance, and friendly. Young people under 20 don't get much of a
>response, though girls do better than boys. However, girls and young women
>are targets for sexual harassment. A pair of shy 16-year-old boys with
>knitted hats got nowhere. Young men tend to be avoided by the public in
>general. Mature-looking women aged 30-50 got the most responses (no-one
>older than 50 went out, so older than 50 may be OK as well - I would think
>so). Racism is a factor in who some members of the public are willing to
>speak to. Obviously this will depend on the area.
>
>Last summer we did a 4 week RSL and used the survey opportunity partly to
>publicise the RSL, so started during Week One, at a time when publicity was
>pretty recent. Of 231 responses during the 4 weeks, we found that 47% knew
>about the station, and of those, 45% had listened to at least one
programme;
>all but one of them were positive about what they had heard. 215 of the 231
>thought it was a very good idea to have a station. Awareness increased at
>time went on.
>
>These were daytime and weekend figures, although one staff member did some
>after-work surveying. Lots of people listen in cars, and surveys miss them.
>We meant to go to pubs but it didn't happen. Another time we'll try primary
>school gates just before 3pm but the parent crowd thins and leaves pretty
>quickly.
>
>Really it depends on your people-power. For our most recent 3-week RSL we
>didn't have so much of that. We were finding that more people were aware of
>it, but no higher percentage of them had listened. If we could broadcast
all
>the time I am sure the numbers would increase.
>
>At least 100 responses are necessary before a survey is in any way
>statistically significant and quotable.
>
>Al
>
>Alison Garthwaite
>Director
>Vera Media & LeedselevenFM
>30-38 Dock Street
>Leeds LS10 1JF
>+44(0)113 242 8646
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk
>[mailto:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk] On Behalf Of Steven Suttie
>Sent: 02 June 2008 13:14
>To: cma-l at commedia.org.uk
>Subject: [cma-l] Listening figures
>
>Dear All,
>
>A question I am asked by everybody...guests, advertisers, volunteers, is
>"how many listeners have you got?"
>
>I know we've had 48,300 streams downloaded in the past 6 months, by
>5,000 unique listeners. But in terms of FM listeners I don't have a
>clue and have no option but to say this.
>
>We have listeners, I know this by doing comps (87 entries to the
>Nintendo Wii giveaway).
>
>But my question to you: How do you measure listener numbers?
>
>I hope you can help, and that this thread is of use to everybody else.
>
>Ta.
>
>Kindest Regards
>Steve Suttie
>Station Manager, 94.4FM Salford City Radio
>0161 793 2939 (Office) 07772 355852 (Mobile)
>CHECK OUT http://www.salfordcityradio.org/
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