[cma-l] Deducing FM listening figures

Wed Sep 11 11:22:40 BST 2013

Andy, Matthew, and all,

At Future Radio we have always tried to keep tabs on some credible listener figures - we did a survey this summer which can explain the bold claim in my email signature! As a result, we have an answer to that most common of questions (estimated 21,000 listeners weekly, 42,000 monthly).

Yes - I appreciate that the number of listeners (and the competitiveness of comparing figures with other stations etc) SHOULD not be particularly important for a community radio station - however, it has been essential for us in getting media partnerships and advertising revenue (important for us with fewer funding pots available for covering core costs). As long as we keep our community ethos, and don't try to sound like a commercial radio offering (we don't), having a commercial strategy for the station is the right thing for us. Listener surveys form part of the strategy.

I will be happy to send a copy of our listener survey to CMA members on this forum on request - which explains the methodology. I can say this much - Future Radio was not involved in the street survey/ data capture or the write-up of the report. And in asking over 400 people for their views, we got a lot more peoples' listening habits captured than RAJAR would have. It's not cheap, but it's not RAJAR expensive either. And it's worth it.

Terry

Terry Lee
Station Manager
Future Radio
Direct Dial: 01603 255841
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Future Radio - 42,000* Listeners Tuning in Every Month!
(*Blueprint Research & Training, May 2013)

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From: cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk [mailto:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk] On Behalf Of Andy King
Sent: 11 September 2013 10:05
To: Matthew Rogers; cma-l at commedia.org.uk
Subject: Re: [cma-l] Deducing FM listening figures

Hi Matthew,

Thank you for your post - it is indeed an 'age-old' discussion, but it's one that is worth revisiting from time to time, as the question never goes away! The more we discuss these things, the more likely we are to find some kind of solution, so thank you for bringing it up. Incidentally, in the latest figures, internet listening is at 6%: http://www.mattdeegan.com/2013/07/31/rajar-facts-q22013/

There have been some fairly interesting and relevant posts on one of the radio 'forums' recently, from a manager at Amber Sound FM in Derbyshire. He has made enquiries to RAJAR and found that they were asking around £21,000 to survey the station. RAJAR's reasoning behind this is that there's currently no structure in place to measure such small stations, so extra surveys would need to be carried out in the specific community radio licence area to get any sort of accuracy in results. You can see the relevant message here: http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showpost.php?p=68531594&postcount=34

Even small commercial stations sometimes struggle with RAJAR's methodology - you can see the figures for some of the smaller licensees waver up and down from survey to survey due to the small number of 'books' issued in their TSAs. A few independent commercial stations have left RAJAR in recent years, partly for this reason.

There is definitely a place for more 'scientific' surveys of community radio audience figures than the current hotch-potch of independent surveys and guesswork. However, I would have to question whether RAJAR is the way ahead here - it's good for larger national and regional stations, but doesn't seem particularly suited to very small TSAs. I'm going to open this up to the list: does anyone have any thoughts on ways forward with this?

I'd also add the caveat that for many community radio stations, raw audience numbers aren't as important as the actual engagement of the audience. 100,000 people half-listening to Katy Perry in the background is arguably less valuable than 10,000 people who are passionate about the show's content and the local area, and actively engaging with the station. In this way, the station is more of a 'trusted friend' than a remote broadcaster miles away.

Anyway, some food for thought - I hope you find it useful!

Cheers
Andy

On 11 September 2013 09:45, Matthew Rogers <matthew at thesourcefm.co.uk<mailto:matthew at thesourcefm.co.uk>> wrote:
Hands up who gets asked, 'How many listeners do you have?' more than any other question..?

I was just wondering if there was a semi-reliable or at least sector-wide way of telling listener figures without the assistance of Rajar? I'm aware of the '10% of the available listening audience' calculation and the 'online = 4.6% of total' calculation but these give wildly different numbers for Source FM and I guess I'm just wondering if this the same for everyone?

Would there be any milage in asking Rajar to release a less expensive community radio package with limited shared information to CMA members? (sorry if this is an age old discussion)

Cheers and gone..!
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Matthew Rogers - Station Manager
www.thesourcefm.co.uk<http://www.thesourcefm.co.uk/>
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