Who is listening to community radio? New listener research coming mid-2016.

In 2015, the CBAA undertook a tender process for the National Listener Survey. We are pleased to advise that this process is now complete and provide you with some further information about how the survey will be administered in 2016.

The National Listener Survey is a survey of the community radio listening habits of Australians. It provides invaluable feedback to stations about trends, listeners and the sector itself and can be used for service planning, reporting to funding bodies and pitching to potential sponsors.

After ten years, the Survey had evolved to maturity and the CBAA undertook a thorough and open tender process to ensure that listener research better meets that needs of stations, stakeholders and the sector as a whole. The tender process included working with highly regarded and experienced media/marketing/research professional Peter Cornelius, who in turn consulted a range of stations and sector stakeholders, and the invited several of Australia’s largest research organisations to tender.

From 2016, McNair Ingenuity Research will continue to deliver the National Listener Survey program. The new program will pair best learnings from the past with exciting new developments, including new reporting formats and more opportunities for stations to derive value. Key differences in the new program include:

• Substantial cost reductions for stations, achieved by requiring three year sign-ups from participating stations.
• The CBAA is now a central hub for the NLS, owning the data (instead of the research provider) and co-ordinating participation.
• Greater transparency on research processes and outcomes
• New reporting formats, with potential software reporting options being explored
• More opportunities for stations to derive value through additional research offerings (including sentiment-based surveys)

The CBAA is also working with McNair Ingenuity Research to develop a template listener survey that stations can administer themselves. This DIY Survey will be designed to gather insight on listener preferences and habits, providing detailed information that stations can use to inform programming and planning.

If you would be interested in finding out more about how this program can work for your station, please contact our Policy and Research Adviser Joel Pringle.