[cma-l] Deducing FM listening figures
Bay Fm Radio
radio at bayfm.co.uk
Wed Sep 11 11:11:20 BST 2013
Hi,
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We try to gauge our listenership by doing our own surveys.
We carried one out at the end of May this year and are about to do another again shortly. Our population is around 36,000 we try and survey 1% = 360 local people.
We are dressed in plain clothes and ask no leading questions and only ask 3.
People are often happy to answer a quick survey. ie.
1. Do you listen to local radio, if so, which?
2. What times of the day do you listen to radio?
3. What age group are you?
Then we work out our percentage figures that.
According to BBC research one in a 1,000 people text into a radio station. However, I think it's more like one in 2,000.
So, If you receive on average of twenty texts in a two hour programme remove the people you know, other presenters who text in and repeat texts from listeners your left with 10 independent texts.
Halve that figure and times it by a thousand = Five thousand listeners. Not 100% accurate however, it did matched our survey results.
Andy.
Bay FM.
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Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2013 10:04:48 +0100
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From: Andy King <andy.king at commedia.org.uk>
To: Matthew Rogers <matthew at thesourcefm.co.uk>, cma-l at commedia.org.uk
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Subject: Re: [cma-l] Deducing FM listening figures
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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> 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..!--
Matthew Rogers - Station Manager
www.thesourcefm.co.uk
Tel: 01326 211 782
Mob: 07789746933
Listen to Source FM Live
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