Speech Stations See Audiences Increase Under GfK Survey
Kelvin MacKenzie’s talkSPORT has seen its weekly reach almost treble under the latest unofficial radio listening figures to be released as part of GfK’s National Broadcast Survey.
The survey, which is being backed by MacKenzie’s Wireless Group, puts talkSPORT’s weekly reach at just over 1.5 million, which is almost three times greater than the 500,000 listeners attributed to it by the official radio ratings from RAJAR.
Other speech-based radio stations also come out better according to the unofficial audience measurement system and BBC Radio 4 overtakes BBC Radio 2 to become the nation’s most listened to station. The home of the Today programme records a weekly reach of 16.3 million listeners under GfK’s system, compared to just 9.5 million under the industry-sanctioned RAJAR system.
In the capital, BBC London Live sees its weekly reach rise from just over 400,000 under RAJAR to around 1.3 million in the GfK survey, Chrysalis-owned LBC News increases from 279,000 to 731,000 and its sister station, LBC 97.3, climbs from 558,000 to almost 1.2 million.
According to GfK, which is the first to electronically measure television and radio audiences, the BBC’s three speech stations in the capital, BBC London, Radio 4 and Radio Five Live, together account for 59% of the weekly listeners registered by all seven of the Corporation’s stations.
Meanwhile, Emap’s chart focused Magic 105.4 makes the biggest gain among London’s music stations, with GfK’s fledgling electronic survey helping to boost its weekly reach by more than 35% to reach just over 1.9 million.
Commenting on the figures, Nick North, director of GfK Media, said: “What we’re seeing here is predictable. By its nature, a recall survey will disadvantage stations with a dip in, dip out pattern of listening.”
Last month Kelvin MacKenzie revealed that he will make one final attempt to persuade RAJAR to endorse the electronic measurement of radio audiences before he begins legal proceedings against the research body (see MacKenzie Sets Date For RAJAR Court Battle).
RAJAR’s recent decision to say ‘no for now’ to electronic measurement received the widespread support of advertisers keen to maintain the integrity of the currency used to trade radio audiences. However, the audience research body plans to invest a further £500,000 in testing electronic audience meters as soon as new generation technology is made available for trial in 2004 (see RAJAR To Invest In Further Electronic Measurement Trials).
GfK: 0870 603 8339 www.gfk.com
Recent Radio Stories from NewsLine Former Evening Standard Boss Appointed To Head RAJAR Radio Secures Record Share Of Display Advertising DAB Digital Radio Sales Surge In Run Up To Christmas
Subscribers can access ten years of NewsLine articles by clicking the Search button to the left