[cma-l] FM Listening Figures

Thu Sep 12 12:24:36 BST 2013

Cheers Fellas,

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

We were asked by a local university if they could do some survey work for
us. Mostly it was amusing when they apologetically returned a figure of
roughly 15% of the local population were listening to us, which I was over
the moon about and they couldn't understand it at all.

I think it's part of the charm of FM and I don't really want to know hard
figures, even if manufacturers start selling sets that accurately report on
listener activity I'd be a bit worried about the long term effects on
programming. But, it's always an important figure for potential sponsors
and advertisers.

Thanks again,

Matthew

On Wed, Sep 11, 2013 at 11:34 AM, Ian Hickling <transplanfm at hotmail.com>wrote:

> Darren seems to have arrived at a workable solution.
> Of course advertisers want an idea of who is listening and how many -
> and so should the station as well.
> "Reach" is a term subjective to other data and is only a means to get to
> an end.
> "TSA" is again a token figure and can easily be manipulated by the station
> to serve its own ends.
> I'll say it for you - I've said it before - RAJAR is a joke at best and a
> confidence trick at worst.
> The sample size is ridiculously small - and in 20-odd years I've
> never ever come across anyone who has taken part - or for that matter ever
> seen a "diary".
> But it's all there is - and advertisers seem to think they need something
> to work on - however inaccurate it may prove to be.
> CR stations doing their own surveys by talking to people in the streets -
> and as a pre-requisite using well-chosen and unbiassed questions would
> appear to be the only way.
>
>  ------------------------------
> Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2013 11:12:49 +0100
> From: Darren at DigiEnable.co.uk
> To: andy.king at commedia.org.uk; matthew at thesourcefm.co.uk;
> cma-l at commedia.org.uk
> Subject: Re: [cma-l] Deducing FM listening figures
>
>  We've just completed a project for a community radio station to
> establish their listening figures. However the station wanted qualitative
> as well as quantitative feedback. So we conducted a city wide survey as
> well as a series of focus groups, to find the information they wanted. This
> went way beyond the sort of information that RAJAR would gather and at a
> fraction of the price.
>
> I suppose it comes down to why you want the numbers. I worked in community
> radio for 12 years and spoke to a number of potential advertisers over that
> time. They wanted to know “How many people are listening?” and “What’s the
> Demographic?” They don’t care about reach or comparative data between
> stations.
>
> We delivered this project because the station wanted the information to
> come from an “outside” agency to give it validity and show it as an
> unbiased piece of work, but also because they managed to attract some
> funding to enable the project to take place.
>
> Additionally, as we were being paid to conduct the research we were
> perhaps more committed to delivering the project well and on time, which as
> I’m sure you’re all aware can slip when you have a full time station to
> run.
>
> I suppose what I’m trying to say is that RAJAR doesn't make sense to me,
> certainly not for community radio. As Andy said, it’s not just about the
> numbers although that is the headline that most people want, collect the
> qualitative as well (what do people enjoy, what could be improved).
>
> Some key points from conducting our own survey:-
>
> It has to be face to face – Online surveys usually tend to reach the
> people who already know about you. Get a table at a schools fun day; attend
> a community fair, you will get a much more realistic range of statistics
> this way.
>
> Offer a prize – It only needs to be small but it encourages more people to
> take part.
>
> Get a decent sample size – Surveys which are filled in by 50-100 people
> tell you very little. We survey just short of 500 people for a TSA of
> 170,000. This means the results are accurate within a 5% range. If you want
> to work out what this would be for your area there is a calculator here
> http://www.surveysystem.com/sscalc.htm
>
> Data entry is a nightmare – Unfortunately, there isn’t really a way around
> this and this is where you really need dedicated staff or volunteers.
> Unless, you are paying someone else to do it, in which case that’s their
> problem.
>
> Darren
>
> Darren Jenkinson
> 07958327516
> Darren at DigiEnable.co.uk
> www.DigiEnable.co.uk <http://www.digienable.co.uk/>
>
>   ------------------------------
> *From:* Andy King <andy.king at commedia.org.uk>
> *To:* Matthew Rogers <matthew at thesourcefm.co.uk>; cma-l at commedia.org.uk
> *Sent:* Wednesday, 11 September 2013, 10:04
> *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>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<http://live.canstream.co.uk:8000/sourcefm.mp3.m3u>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
> Reply - cma-l at commedia.org.uk
>
> The cma-l mailing list is a members' service provided by the Community
> Media Association - http://www.commedia.org.uk
> Twitter: http://twitter.com/community_media
> http://www.facebook.com/CommunityMediaAssociation
> Canstream Internet Radio & Video: http://www.canstream.co.uk/
> _______________________________________________
>
> Mailing list guidelines:
> http://www.commedia.org.uk/about/cma-email-lists/email-list-guidelines/
> _______________________________________________
>
> To unsubscribe or manage your CMA-L mailing list subscription please visit:
> http://mailman.commedia.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/cma-l
>
>
>
>
> --
> Andy King
> Technical Assistant
> Community Media Association
> http://www.commedia.org.uk/
> 0114 279 5219
>
> Canstream Internet Radio & Video
> http://www.canstream.co.uk/
>
> _______________________________________________
>
> Reply - cma-l at commedia.org.uk
>
> The cma-l mailing list is a members' service provided by the Community
> Media Association - http://www.commedia.org.uk
> Twitter: http://twitter.com/community_media
> http://www.facebook.com/CommunityMediaAssociation
> Canstream Internet Radio & Video: http://www.canstream.co.uk/
> _______________________________________________
>
> Mailing list guidelines:
> http://www.commedia.org.uk/about/cma-email-lists/email-list-guidelines/
> _______________________________________________
>
> To unsubscribe or manage your CMA-L mailing list subscription please visit:
> http://mailman.commedia.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/cma-l
>
>
> _______________________________________________ Reply -
> cma-l at commedia.org.uk The cma-l mailing list is a members' service
> provided by the Community Media Association - http://www.commedia.org.ukTwitter:
> http://twitter.com/community_media
> http://www.facebook.com/CommunityMediaAssociation Canstream Internet
> Radio & Video: http://www.canstream.co.uk/_______________________________________________ Mailing list guidelines:
> http://www.commedia.org.uk/about/cma-email-lists/email-list-guidelines/_______________________________________________ To unsubscribe or manage
> your CMA-L mailing list subscription please visit:
> http://mailman.commedia.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/cma-l
>

-- 
Matthew Rogers - Station Manager
www.thesourcefm.co.uk
Tel: 01326 211 782
Mob: 07789746933
Listen to Source FM Live <http://live.canstream.co.uk:8000/sourcefm.mp3.m3u>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.commedia.org.uk/pipermail/cma-l/attachments/20130912/29744e5e/attachment.html>