T. , and Cthers TITLE Audiences for Contemporary Radio Pat-A FOB DATE Apr 78 NQTI 27P
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
ED 150 755 AUTROR hull am T. , And Cthers TITLE Audiences for Contemporary Radio Pat-a FOB DATE Apr 78 NQTI 27p.. Paper presented at the Annual Meetingof t- -Intermati9nalCommunicatiam Association" Chicago 1S7-8) .EDT$ TRICE NFF7$0083 -$O.83 11C7$2.06' Plus postage. DESCP6 *L stening- Groups -Mao Medih basic News. Bepor *Radio ;. Sampling; *Statistical Surveys IDENTIFIERS *Audience ABSTRACT A radio audience survey of 110 sample-geographic clusters in the Santa,Rarbara, California, areaserved a twcfo d purpose: the construction of ademographic profile-of audience 'types according to radio format choices, and theidentificaticn and analysis of various audience subgroups. A skipinterval technique of these geographic clusters resulted in 523 inhcneinterviews where partiaipants were asked' their preferences cf Si2 radio formats: tpp forty, beautiful music, middle of the road(light rock, ballads, and news) ,live prcgressive rock, automated rock, and all news.Format, choices were then analyzed -according tc the demographicvariables, sex, age, marital status, education,geographic stability, dwelling type, and residence ownership. Resultsindicated that persuaders and informers who use radio can use-demographic distinctnessto select anC appropriate.format forVihe target audience and stations with distinct audiences can predict tEat their prograving is reaching aselected subgroup, that many subjects who named a topforty statics as their favorite were past their teenageyears,that nearly half of those with a four year college education indicated apreference far beautiful music and news, and that listeners ofrock stations were more likely to -call the station. (UAI) **4 ******* ** *** * ** ** * * * ***** Raprbductions supplied by ED BS are the best that be made from the original document U.S. DEPARTMENT OVNEALTN, EOOCAtIONI wELFAqg NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO. OUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM - T HE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGIN - APING IT FONTS OF viEWCIP OPiNFONS STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY. REPRE- SENT OFFICiALCIATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY By es T. Lull si ant Professor pa ment of Speech niversity ofCalifornia- arbara,California93;06 awrence M. Johnson Piagram Director. ea Broadcasting Corporation 1216 State Street Barbara,, California 93101 Carol E. Sweeny Depar,rment of Speech University of California Santa Barbara-, California 9310 'PERMISSION TO RBRRODUGE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTEE-) BY a es T. Lull TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES I ORMATION CENTER (EPIC) AND.. LyERS OF THE ERIC SYSTEM.- Presented to the Masstourcation Divibion o International CommunicationAas cia tion. Chicago, Illinois,-Apri4 1978 1 Analyses 9fred ship conducted by comae_ consider -only the,m&st rudiuenry demographics. Redid ditionally have,been primarily concerned with this basic information.,Bits has become= more ape ized in middle-sized and-major markets there has devalopad a need for more telling probes into the ture,of the diversified audience.' There several recent scholarly zstigations'in th.ia area. 'Samu Car -And Ruggela gathered.dat- which challenged the preVioUely-heI that highly educated people do met'use broadcast media as much h.s their leas educated peers.-Their survey of 20 California malesrevealed that when the time reported as spent,with media was adjusted for vocational' role involvement, there remained A positive correlatfou between education and mediause, in/ eluding radio., The amount of time p t with radio was greatest amonge po d- . eats who had completed hi h'school or attended soma college. Al ter Bogart support the "high school: peak" notion education level of radio listenere, r=least for white audience memb This study alsorevealed that radio listening declined significantly adults over 50 years.old. Older teenegerd have been found to liste ra, more-then younger teens, and,'at this' age, girls listened, more than boys. 3 17urther, at least 15 percent. of the 'entire radio audience is composed of,t- 1 Age'listene andDominick haveshownthat white children listen children. ,- \ have attempted to be and explain ncluding personalitylife-yle, and mmunicatiOn ent and dependen free in their research sips. ied subjects who fit the criteria his, ategory st radiolisteners.5 Massy foldthat Ildi4idualtsm" oMbitted with certain demographics helped explain ai.n radio stations. Ruffner fact analYr d female pro do listeners end foundthem to cohere in p tterns of listen functions medium ?fodes. imilarly, Troldahl ix factors w accounted fart muchof the variancevaria.6cfaith, 9 which radio s for its audienc sr tudie d the radio, smuts dio listeners select from aw: formats, a de, d study the medium s various nt res,ear aacr lysis o of th pertictgar audiences of ran -to. In order gathe _ion abo t the radio preferences and audience members extensive vey of a Tadi marketwas undertalcen inan rbara if o Where solve out 20 000 p Uowever, due to,th close proximity hf Los Angeles d othatauthor i Several other stations are clearly the market. The nt fiber of a iswhich can be received 1,-; -.aurathe rating the range popular contemporary radio formats. The research is to ormation given by iistciiers arde to constrict e demoaraphic profile of audience types by radio Thet), byusing multiple discriminate enalyals, a compact mulivaria ethod, wa helldemona trat-e th telti- power of seve important d graphic 4. werisblesin separating audience (Dupe. Finally, we will show the ve d ices for sever audiences. A)ur c to document the clear_o of lis to rs in general, but to comparative_ analysis of 1 who Ladle pr or the station der to do this, subjects' verbalized prefer time which re received in Sai to Barbara have been condensedTito groups h represen:t six common contemporary formats. _the wed r formats rib haracte la, and most radio markets, are. S22(5a. Stations which play the popular records andorienttheir airj.sound to theyounr demographicdemographics Sbori songe aid egated disc. jockeys Gh racterice the format. autif Easy listening, background music station whit ular ballads and lush instrumentals little or no new ented. lu.dat of the Voac4Stations which play the Iight'rocit and roil songs, ballads, "oldies," and feature mere,public affairs_ Li Stations which feature extended play album seta, and live announcing by the disc' jcplosys. from blues Jazz, 'folk, to bard rock and roll. which play extended tracks fro i rock b but feature live announcers. Music back-anneunced on pre - recorded tape. Little news or public affairs is present 'sports, od Randomlyspl 43 Were drat in thepop from cans= t lied by the Santa arbara Planning tho masterlist ens cts t 110 saopla ctstara were selected. usin g the erval t These u tors each H represented ane city block bich c 0 the population of interest. vhoiiaeho de were .contac.4 in each clutter, and one member S of t io. houaghoid ti ntervieuadin each dwelling.. The p ccted sample size. `4, --050 provided more than au. -icnt predision purposes ofthis ',survey (5% tolerated error in 98 samOles in',100). This degree of precision emcee tie sampling demands made-by commercial research agencies, Pulse -and Arbiton, for the Santa Barbara market. Whenincomplete questionnaires were later elimi -tod from 'the sample, the number of Interviews analyzed urns 523. NearIY equal numbers of men and woman einterviewed. Interviewers were graduate and undergraduate communication students sat the University of 'California, Santa Barbara, who were trained by theresearchers. EaChZin-home interview lasted approximately 45 minutes during which time 98 questions were asked of each respondent.This paper is limite adiscussion , a subset of these variables.- Re suits 1/fASSZaPhics A brief description of the findings for the various,demdraphic indices is . presented below. The reader should consult Table I forr complete documen_a°' tien of the percentagesor each radio format. Sex: Tao redid formats emerge with particular appeal to one sex more than the other. Top Forty stations have May morel femalsi among their listeners - Table I about her les and Live Frog= sive Rock stations hav manypore male listeners than female. To a lesser degree, males outnumber Bales among listeners of Automated Rock stations. Other formats have nearly equal attraction to men and WOM2rio is variable reveal contrLing concen -atio s of,lieteners among various age groupings. The Live Pctg resaive format counts nearly 80% of its audience in the_113-34 range, with than'oliethird of its listeners reported to be 25-34 yea old. The Automated Rock format has a ttr tion a listeners (ne y 63) in the narrow rangeof 18-24 years. rhn Middle of Road format has. no particular concentration of listeners in age group. The majority of listeners for the Beautiful. Music format ra0 agefrom 35-65i while the All News listeners are a little older. Teenageta: comprise about one - third of the-total audience for Top Forty stations. Maqtal Status: 'This variable is a good predictor of fo preference. Clearly,'radio listeners likely to he married are those Prefer News or Beautiful Music radio formats. Least likely to be ed- are Aute4.- mated Rock or Live ProgreisiVe Rack Listeners. Educati Clear differences show hp here too. High -education-is a aracterist of. the Beautiful Music, Live Progressive Rock and All Nowa °graphic Stability: Listeners of the A.l News format are by far most geographically Stable gip what this concept can be defined as whether o a dhangd of residence has been made by the subject during the,past two years Listeners of:Beautiful 14usic, Top Forty Middle, of the Road stationsare also comparatively stable. The young adult audiences .of the Live Progressive Rock and Automated Rodk stations are least likely to have remained in one location for the two year period which preceded the collection of data. EtaellingType: Again, All Neu ligteners emerge at the extrema. Top Forty listeners c1ere also very likely to live in home.' Live Frogreesive Rock-end Automated Rock listeners: were least likely to live in a house.' Residdn s t _ershim The similarity among: All News listeners and, Beautiful Music Listeners is true of thisvariable too.