Rajar Results – Industry Reactions

The first RAJAR results released on Friday have received mixed reactions from the industry. There is no doubt that the results vary markedly from those produced by JICRAR with many ILR stations recording much lower figures.

Brian West, director of the AIRC has released a statement acknowledging the discrepancies; “With all new systems …. there is a settling in period during which the methodology adopted, and the gathering and processing of data, continues to undergo the closest scrutiny.” West warns against direct comparisons with JICRAR because of the differences between the surveys.

London’s Capital Radio was among the stations whose RAJAR results were less favourable. Capital’s managing director Richard Eyre said “It is surprising that the result should deliver a blow that is greater to ILR than it is to the BBC.”

Radio Clyde’s RAJAR results were higher than those produced by JICRAR. Commenting on the AIRC’s decision to release the RAJAR data Clyde’s managing director Jimmy Gordon said “I think that shows great maturity and robustness of confidence in the medium.” The AIRC held a meeting last Wednesday at which the decision to publish the data was unanimous.

The AIRC has released a document pointing out the main differences between JICRAR and RAJAR. These are summarised as follows;

RAJAR covers 100% of the population while JICRAR covered 93%. The % reach of ILR will therefore be less.

• ILR station areas have been ‘digitised’ resulting in changes to boundaries and population totals.
• RAJAR uses the 1991 census data which shows a slight decline in the proportions of the younger adult age groups.
• RAJAR does not cover listening in areas outside of a station’s official TSA.
• RAJAR places a diary with all members of a household rather than just one member. It also places greater emphasis on calling back at households where nobody was at home. It is possible that these less accessible respondents may be lighter listeners.
• The RAJAR diaries list all the BBC local stations rather than labelling them under one heading.
• RAJAR diaries listed all IR stations alphabetically therefore many stations with split frequencies did not appear together. RAJAR considers it would be better to have shown the split frequencies side-by-side to avoid confusion.

The AIRC also points out that the launch of Channel 4’s The Big Breakfast during the survey period may have been detrimental to radio listening.

AIRC: 071 727 2646