The fourth release wave survey, which consists of data gathered from 18 529 respondents (aged 16+) over two fieldwork periods, running from mid-May to August 2006, shows resoundingly that radio is on the up.
iGagasi 99.5 (formerly P4 KZN) has taken a bigger slice of the radio pie, growing its audience from 2.2% in the August release of RAMS, to 2.8% (past seven days), giving it a total audience of 854 000. Increased numbers of listeners in Durban, among males, in the 50+ age group, and among blacks are the source of the station's climb across the week.
iGagasi's average Monday to Friday audience is also up, from 1.1% in the previous RAMS survey, to 1.5% in RAMS October 2006, with 454 000 listeners in total. Gains were made in the urban, metro, Durban, male, 25 - 34, and SU-LSM 5 demographics.
Further down the coast, Algoa FM has grown its national reach. The station's audience is now at 666 000 in total, growing from 1.7% in the previous survey, to 2.2% (past seven days). This growth can be seen particularly in the station's rural audience component, as well as among males, the 16 - 24 age bracket, SU-LSM 5, and among blacks.
The significant audience gains of these two stations have contributed to the higher listening levels in total over the August 2006 release, reversing the medium's decline seen in the past two surveys. Radio listening levels are now comparable with the year previous.
Across the week, radio penetration has increased significantly, from 90.1% to 91.6%. The medium has grown its audience pool specifically in the Western Cape, in East London, in the 50+ age group, among blacks, and in SU-LSM 9. (The average time spent listening during the week however, has dropped by 40 minutes, to 31 hours and 48 minutes.)
On an average Monday to Friday, radio reaches 77.4% of the adult population, which is also up significantly on the previous survey's 76.0%. Listenership is up especially within urban and metro areas, in Kimberley, among males, whites, those over 50, and in SU-LSM 6.
Weekend listening is similarly up. On a Saturday, audience levels are at 73.6%, with growth in urban and metro areas, and among males and coloureds. On a Sunday, audience levels are at 71.9%, with growth in a number of demographics - metros, urban areas, Johannesburg, Soweto, males, 16 - 24, blacks, and coloureds.
Average daily listenership levels for individual stations are very stable, with no other commercial radio stations showing any significant changes in audience levels. A large number however, experienced significant changes to their audience composition.
Demographic shifts across the week (past seven days) include:
Community radio
In the community radio sector, while Total Community showed only a significant demographic shift, growing its SU-LSM 1 audience base (past 7 days), a number of individual stations showed significant changes over the previous survey.
Those which have attracted more listeners are Radio Alpha 97.8 FM (42 000 listeners across the week), Radio Bushbuckridge (150 000), Setsoto Community Radio (14 000), Radio West Coast 92.3fm (47 000), Unitra Community Radio (408 000), and X-K Fm 107.9 (12 000).
Moutse Community Radio, Radio Khwezi, and ICORA FM showed significant declines over the previous RAMS.
With the release of AMPS 2006 Rolling Average (RA), a new six-month small town/village/rural RAMS measure is available, which has been added to the May-August large urban data to produce this fourth national RAMS wave. As before, this component is not flooded. In small towns, villages and rural areas, only primary respondents (those that also did the AMPS interview) in households completed diaries.
RAMS October 2006 also reflects the new 2006 population estimates used in the recently released SAARF AMPS RA 2006. These estimates, supplied by Unisa's Bureau of Market Research (BMR), are part of a new set of population projections for South Africa for the period 2001 to 2021. They are based on the 2001 census structures, as well as a large number of other data sources, and factor in the impact of HIV/Aids.
The total adult population for the SAARF RAMS universe increases by 0.8%, from 30.656 million in 2005 to 30.903 million in 2006 (an increase of only 247 000 people). The demographic profiles remain relatively unchanged in terms of gender, age, and population group.
The 2006 population estimates also reflect the recent changes in the provincial boundaries for seven of the nine provinces, with a few community size changes occurring in the small urban sector. RAMS users will find that the incidence of people on a provincial level remains comparable, but they will see a difference in thousands. They will also find that a few community size changes have occurred in the small urban sector.
Another change which will be found in RAMS October 2006 is the adjustment to the eight household income groups. With a real increase of average household income of 5.3%, from R905 a month to R998, the lowest income bracket has gone up by R100 (R0 to R599), and the top bracket is now set at R14 000 and over, compared to R12 000 in previous RAMS surveys.
The fifth wave of SAARF RAMS 2006 will be released on 22 November 2006.
