One Third Of Offended Radio Listeners Will Turn Off, Says Survey
Radio stations that offend listeners by treating ‘phone-in guests badly or featuring offensive language and topics risk having their audience turn off or tune in to another station, according to new research.
A recent study into radio listening habits undertaken by BRMB International for the Radio Authority and the Broadcasting Standards Commission found that 40% of respondents had been offended by something they had heard on the radio. Of those offended, around a third turned the radio off, another third turned over while another third continued to listen.
Radio ‘phone-in shows have become more popular recently, but not everyone likes to hear callers treated badly. One respondent said: “I can’t stand to hear people being belittled.” In fact, bad treatment of callers was, at 19%, the biggest cause of offence for the regular commercial radio listeners surveyed. Swearing and bad language had offended 14% of listeners, and the same number had been offended by racism on the airwaves.
Many respondents to the survey were under the impression that there was a ‘watershed’ in radio as there is in television. Of all respondents 56% were nevertheless concerned that children could hear offensive material on the radio. This figure rose to 60% among those with children at home.
A total 85% of all respondents felt that bad language should not be used during the day, with 44% of respondents (47% of those with children) saying that radio stations should be more careful about content and language during the ‘school run’ time of 8-9am; 37% (40%) saying the same of the 2pm-5pm period and 41% of all respondents and also all respondents with children saying that care should be taken over programming between 5pm and 7pm.
The survey also found that listening to the radio is often a solitary activity, with around 87% of respondents listening to the radio on their own. Radio was used in place of company, as background noise, for information such as weather and traffic, to create a mood such as ‘ready to go out’ or ‘winding down’ or to cheer the listener up.
52% of listeners said they also tuned in with other adults, a figure which rose to 67% among the 15-24 year olds. Two in five respondents with children said that they listened with their children. The most popular places to listen to the radio included at home by yourself (55%), in the car by yourself (50%) and in the car with other adults (30%).
Increasing choice in radio stations is also leading to a decrease in loyalty to any given station. The report cites data from the Radio Advertising Bureau which says that the average number of stations listened to nationally every week is 2.3, up from 1.9 in 1994. In London, where even more stations are available, this figure has grown from 2.2 in 1994 to 2.7 today.
“You set up your top 18 stations to listen to and go through them until you find a good tune.” said one respondent. “If you can’t find one you carry on looking until you find something else, a good tune.”
Participants were also found to have a strong perception that different radio stations are targeted at different audiences. Categorisation took place mainly by age, but also by gender and social grade. “You’ll find a lot of building sites with Kiss on, whereas if you’re going into an office they might have BBC or Capital or something like that,” said one respondent.
The survey took in 2000 respondents. From a nationally representative sample of the general public it was found that 57% were regular commercial radio listeners, prompting Lord Holme, the Broadcasting Standards Commission Chairman to say in his introduction to the report, “Radio is undergoing a renaissance of interest to both listeners and investors, demonstrating that radio continues to have a very real role to play in our media landscape. Reports of its demise have been greatly exaggerated.”
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