“Little Guy” Radio Stations Form Trade Body
A new trade association, formed of five radio stations including talkSPORT, has been created to fight for electronic measurement of radio audiences. At present the only trade body for commercial radio stations is the Commercial Radio Companies Association (CRCA), an organisation described by Kelvin MacKenzie, chairman and chief executive of talkSPORT owner the Wireless Group as “A fat cat organisation for fat cats by fat cats…it does nothing for the little guys”
The Little Guys Radio Association also includes Sunrise Radio, Premier Christian Radio, Spectrum Radio and Club Asia. Its members claim to feel “disenfranchised” by existing trade bodies and say that they are short changed by RAJAR’s current diary based rating system, to the detriment of their advertising revenues.
The LGRA say that because the diary system relies on respondents’ memories it favours large, heritage stations with bigger marketing budgets. It also claims that the small samples used under-report ethnic and niche stations, underestimating smaller stations’ reach, while diaries discriminate against ethnic minority respondents who may not have English as their first language.
The new trade association backs the view vigorously fielded by MacKenzie; that electronic metering would overcome these and other issues. The Wireless Group has conducted its own tests of an electronic metering system and its chief executive has often spoken out against what he regards as RAJAR’s inaccurate diary system (see TWG Uses Trial Results To Challenge RAJAR).
RAJAR itself has not rejected the idea of introducing electronic metering and is conducting tests on more than one possible device. However, RAJAR managing director Jane O’Hara has refused to confirm whether they will be introduced, either across the board or for certain areas of audience measurement, until the tests are completed early next year (see RAJAR To Complete Meter Testing). She cautions that issues of accuracy, cost and practicality for respondents would have to be looked at first.
Dr Atvar Lit, chairman of Sunrise Radio, commented: “The Asian community is grossly under-represented in the RAJAR survey…we have been campaigning for years that the Asian community should have more diaries in the RAJAR survey. Only when electronic measurement is introduced and only when the Asian sample is properly represented in a survey will the true size of Sunrise Radio’s audience be revealed. That’s why we’ve joined LGRA and we welcome other disenfranchised broadcasters to join us.”
CRCA: 020 7306 2603 www.crca.co.uk Club Asia: 0208 594 6662 Premier Christian Radio: 020 7316 1300 RAJAR: 020 7903 5350 www.rajar.co.uk Spectrum Radio: 020 7627 4433 www.spectrumradio.net Sunrise Radio: 01274 735043 talkSPORT: 020 7959 7800 www.talksport.net
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