The latest Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA) National Listener Survey shows audience share for Australian community radio is expanding, with an average 29 per cent of all radio listeners tuning in each week.
Conducted by McNair Ingenuity Research, the 2013 survey is the sixth the CBAA has commissioned since 2004 and the first in a new bi-annual (six-monthly) format. The CBAA will officially release the Listener Survey at its annual conference, to be held at The Menzies in Sydney, November 14-17.
According to the CBAA, the 29% share found by the reseach translates to base figures of 5,204,000 of 18,109,000 Australians aged 15 or older, and a rise of nearly 15 per cent (from 4,446,000 community radio listeners) since 2012.
A spokesperson for the CBAA said, “That is great news, not just for Australia’s 350-plus community radio stations but their 20,000-plus volunteers, but for every one of those 5,204,000 sets of ears.
“It means they’re getting all the sounds and services they seek, such as local news and information, specialist content, authentic voices and unique programs across religious, indigenous, ethnic, disability, music, and age- or location-specific stations.”
According to the report, listening is strong across all segments, with mid-morning at 57 per cent followed by breakfast (54), drive (51) afternoon (48), then evening (31) and overnight (17).
AM/FM are the favourite bands, but DAB+ devotees are coming on at 12.3 per cent.
Who said that local radio is just for amateurs? Perhaps that is what the listeners want - REAL people providing music & talk, not factory created robots.
Yes Mark ( Radioman) I agree completely with you. As your Co Announcer on retrorocklive.com we have both been there in the commercial side, and back to local radio. Yes they are robotic, but anyone who reads this news item have listen to us and make your own mind up. You tell us who has more character on air Commercial guys or local guys like us.
It would be good to see a breakdown of the listenership
Say between generalist stations and say religious, ethnic,
Educational ( university) Fine Music and indigenous
Community stations.
This might reveal the interest/ demand for specialist
Programming and formats to see if the trend towards
specialization or narrowcasting is still strong.
2NURFM is the only radio station in Newcastle that has local programming around the clock and a good mix of solid gold music, local news, Macquarie National News, some talkback at midday each day, and some specialty programs ~ but the local voices and non networked programming is what is attracting listeners to NUR and away from poorly run commercial stations such as Super (you have to be joking) network's 2HD, for example.