Bush Radio Audience Research Project

Excerpts from a powerpoint presentation delivered by Josh Ogada of Bush Radio at the Third AMARC/AFRICA Pan African Conference in Nairobi, Kenya

The objectives of the survey were:

• Audience survey instrument for community radio
• Identify Bush Radio’s audience
• Demographic profile of the community radio audience
• Bush Radio’s impact on its audience
• Identify the unmet needs of the audience
• Feedback mechanism for strategic program planning
• Model for regular future surveys
• Template for the community radio sector

Actual survey:

• 12 days, excluding weekends
• 37 neighborhoods, divided into 10 areas
• Bush radio staff, CWY, 1 UCT volunteer
• 1560 surveys completed to conform with 2% margin of error,
• 3 languages (English, Afrikaans, Xhosa)

The expected outcomes were:

• Comprehensive profile of the community radio audience
• Informational resource for programming based on audience needs
• Survey framework and baseline data that can easily updated and used on a regular basis
• Framework for measuring audience impact
• Capacity to train the community radio sector in AR

Results:

• 1027 valid questionnaires completed
• Average of 3.4 stations per listener
• Average of 4.4 hours per day listening
• 82 Bush radio listeners of 1027 total
• Generalised to 231,500 listeners of 2.9m population (2% error margin)