In their third-quarter report released on the 27th October, RAJAR have established that 47.1 million members of the U.K population still consume radio content; suggesting that the medium is here to stay for the long-run.
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| Evidence suggests that the car radio is here to stay for the foreseeable future. |
In a more detailed look at the data released, local and regional radio is also holding its own against the national stations.
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| (Data compiled by Bradley Wilkinson. Click here to see the raw data.) |
Of the top five stations broadcasting the North West region, only one has seen a dramatic loss in audience in the last five years, Real Radio North West (formerly known as Century Radio North West), which saw a loss of 315,000 listeners between the years of 2007 and 2009.
In contrast Smooth FM North West has seen a growth of 186,00 listeners in the 5 years studied, from reaching 687,000 listeners in October 2006 to 873,000 listeners as of October this year.
Adam Howes, station manager of Frequency Radio (the University of Central Lancashire's student-run station) believes the reason why local stations are still surviving is because, "the output on local radio is very marketed and very commercialised. Not that national radio isn't, but that is why its so popular."
"Say a mother is taking a child to school she's probably going to hear some song that she likes such as something by One Direction, and that's fine for her. Personally, I don't like local radio."
Another big change that RAJAR has documented is a growth in the number of listeners tuning into radio digitally. Of the stations that were recorded, over a quarter of the share of radio was being tuned in by 28.2%.
About this, Howes said, "thats one really good thing about radio. Obviously from TV you can now access that from different places, but then you have the loading times, the buffering and whether the connection is decent. With radio its a lot easier, because it is just voice; the quality might not be brilliant sometimes, but you can access radio basically from anywhere now."
It is estimated that these digital figures will only grow to point where digital streams of radio will be the majority of how audiences will listen to the radio.
Click the "Play" button to hear Adam Howes' thoughts on local radio and digital streaming:
Adam Howes thoughts on Local Radio and the Accessibility of Radio by bradwilks
In contrast Smooth FM North West has seen a growth of 186,00 listeners in the 5 years studied, from reaching 687,000 listeners in October 2006 to 873,000 listeners as of October this year.
Adam Howes, station manager of Frequency Radio (the University of Central Lancashire's student-run station) believes the reason why local stations are still surviving is because, "the output on local radio is very marketed and very commercialised. Not that national radio isn't, but that is why its so popular."
"Say a mother is taking a child to school she's probably going to hear some song that she likes such as something by One Direction, and that's fine for her. Personally, I don't like local radio."
Another big change that RAJAR has documented is a growth in the number of listeners tuning into radio digitally. Of the stations that were recorded, over a quarter of the share of radio was being tuned in by 28.2%.
About this, Howes said, "thats one really good thing about radio. Obviously from TV you can now access that from different places, but then you have the loading times, the buffering and whether the connection is decent. With radio its a lot easier, because it is just voice; the quality might not be brilliant sometimes, but you can access radio basically from anywhere now."
It is estimated that these digital figures will only grow to point where digital streams of radio will be the majority of how audiences will listen to the radio.
Click the "Play" button to hear Adam Howes' thoughts on local radio and digital streaming:
Adam Howes thoughts on Local Radio and the Accessibility of Radio by bradwilks
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