Are radio listeners on holiday already?

Unfortunately, the medium is not ending the year with a bang, although several stations will have something to celebrate, thanks to the growth of their audience figures over the past 12 months.

Declining trend continues

The declining trend for time spent listening to radio is continuing. SAARF RAMS November 2007 shows that South African adults spent less time consuming radio than they did in both the previous two surveys, and in November 2006. South Africans now listen 20 minutes less on average per day, compared to November last year. The provinces most affected by this trend are Gauteng, the Free State and the Western Cape.

Despite this, total radio listening has remained stable for this RAMS wave when compared to the previous wave of October 2007. There were also no significant changes for individual radio stations period on period.

Across a week, 92.1% of adults listen to radio. On an average Monday to Friday, 74.9% of South Africans consume radio (a significant decline over November 2006, when weekday listening stood at 78.7%). Similar year-on-year declines came through for Saturday and Sunday listening, from 74.2% in RAMS November 2006 to 71.2% currently on Saturdays, and from 73.0% to 68.8% on Sundays.

Significant changes

When taking a longer-term view, several stations also showed significant changes in their listening patterns. Looking across 12 months, Algoa FM grew its weekly reach from 2.1% to 2.5%, with 786 000 listeners in total.

While it hasn't managed to grow its period-on-period audience this time around, Gagasi 99.5 nonetheless continues to feature on the growth charts, increasing its reach from 3.0% in November 2006, to 4.6% per week currently. Its total audience is now at 1.434 million.

Kaya FM 95.9's weekly reach is up from 2.9% a year ago, to 4.1% in RAMS November 2007. At the end of 2006, the station's weekly audience was 899 000, and today it stands at 1.277 million.

SAfm's weekly audience of 550 000 a year has grown to 670 000, boosting the station's reach from 1.8% in November 2006 to 2.2% today.

Declines in audiences

Three stations showed significant declines in their year-on-year audiences. Ikwekwezi FM is down from 5.3% to 4.8% reach per week, although its audience is stable over the previous survey. Lesedi FM's weekly reach has dropped from 12.4% to 11.4%, year on year. Finally Radio Pulpit now reaches 0.6% of all adults each week, compared to 1.6% a year ago.

The next wave of SAARF RAMS, and the first release for 2008, is scheduled for 6 February, 2008.