A study into community attitudes to radio content commissioned by the ABA and conducted by Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) has mostly good news about Radio and its relationship with listeners. But there are some warning signs.
Overall the report shows a marked increase in the satisfaction listeners have with their favourite stations – and in particular with the choice and quality of music offered in their listening area – compared to similar studies conducted eight years ago.
94% of survey respondents said that they regularly listened to radio (70% regularly listened to commercial radio radio). And 90% of radio listeners were at least fairly satisfied with the choice of radio stations available to them in the area where they lived. Only 8 per cent were dissatisfied (not very/not at all satisfied) and more than half (58 per cent) were extremely or very satisfied.
Music was the most popular format delivered by radio, particularly among younger people. Most listeners (72%) spontaneously nominated music as the feature of radio they particularly liked or enjoyed compared to only 44% who felt that way back in 1994.
News and information scored 39% and talkback 18%.
Of all the program types surveyed, music attained the highest level of satisfaction with regard to service delivery (60% extremely/very satisfied).
Station loyalty is strong with 63% of repondents claiming they listened to the same station most or all of the time. The other 37% were ‘switchers’ who either alternated between two or three stations or listened to whatever sounded good at the time.
News
The report says that Radio plays a significant role in delivering local news and information, especially for adults aged 25 years and over.
ABC Radio led the way as percieved first source of local radio news and information (38% extremely/very important) followed by commercial radio at 30% and community radio at a comparatively impressive 22 per cent.
The bad news, however, is that Newspapers and commercial television (53 per cent and 44 per cent respectively) were perceived as more important sources of local news and information than radio.
About 10% of listeners said that they had heard something on radio that offended them in some way over the past seven days. And 25% of commercial radio listeners claimed to have considered writing to complain at some time or another, but most didn’t follow through.
For more details link to the ABA news release below.