The role of music selection in the decline of KovsieFM's listenership

[摘要] English: In August 2012, KovsieFM's listenership was estimated at 60 000 listenersfor the period March to June 2012. Less than two years later, in June 2014,KovsieFM's listenership was measured at 9 000 listeners for the periodJanuary to May 2014. These figures indicate that the radio station'slistenership decreased by 85% over a period of 18 months.This significant decline in KovsieFM's listenership was examined consideringthe fact that music radio has the potential to attract large numbers of younglisteners. According to the radio station's broadcasting licenserequirements, 80% of the broadcasting content must consist of music. Themusic content was therefore be the first port of call when investigating adecline in listenership.The primary research objective of this study was to investigate the role thatmusic selection played in the 85% decrease in KovsieFM's listenershipfigures between August 2012 and June 2014. The secondary researchobjectives of this study included determining what the current perceptionof KovsieFM is among students of the University of the Free State, what theperception of students of the University of the Free State is of the musiccurrently selected for airplay by KovsieFM and to determine what otherfactors could have contributed to the decrease in KovsieFM's listenership.The study used the gatekeeper model, the uses and gratifications modeland the media dependency theory as the theoretical framework.This study used a mixed-method approach to investigate the researchproblem. Auditorium Music Testing (AMT) represented phase one of thedata collection process. Thereafter focus group research represented phasetwo with the aim of assisting in interpreting the results from phase one.The concentration of the focus groups was wider than the AMT, but wasprimarily focussed on other on-air as well as off-air aspects of KovsieFM.The data obtained from the AMT sessions was analysed by means of threemethods: Firstly, Pearson product moment correlations investigated if acorrelation exists between the respondents' listening habits theircorresponding rating of the songs on a 5-point Likert scale. Secondly t-testswas used to investigate if there are differences in the music rating betweenrespondents who frequently listen to KovsieFM and respondents whoinfrequently listen to KovsieFM. Thirdly, frequency distribution tables wereused to summarise the respondents' favourite music genre and methods ofmusic consumption.The data obtained from the focus groups were transcribed and a computerassistedsemantical content analysis was utilised. The content analysis wasbased on the examination of recurrent instances that are systematicallyidentified across the data set and grouped together by a coding set.This study concluded that music was a definite factor that contributed tothe decline in the KovsieFM listenership between August 2012 and June2014. The other factors that contributed to the decline in listenership werethe content KovsieFM broadcasted and the manner in which the presentersand newsreaders presented the content.This study has shown that the content KovsieFM broadcast focused onentertaining the target audience. It can be concluded that UFS studentsalso rely on the station to broadcast local content that is relevant to them.KovsieFM, as with many community radio stations, does little to noaudience research and therefore assumes that music and broadcastingcontent appeals and satisfies the needs of the community. It is thereforeimportant that radio stations in a similar position conducts audienceresearch on a regular basis. This is especially relevant for campus-basedradio stations, where the listenership base changes as students join andleave the university every year.

[发布机构] University of the Free State