AUDIENCE RESEARCH UNIT

             Audience Research, in the earlier period, relied on "Voluntary feed back" and analysis of listeners' letters. Subsequently it also undertook field studies.

             The basic objective being the collection of information which could be fed back into the programmes for qualitative improvements.

             Radio is the source of programmes and programmes are produced to reach target audience. The Audience Research wing functions as the liaison agency between programme source and audience.

MODEL FOR MEDIA SOURCE - AUDIENCE RELATIONSHIP

             Audience Research conducts surveys among potential audience of the medium and the findings are fed to the producers, planners and policy makers of radio programmes. Along with other inputs like library and consultation with experts etc the policy makers produce programmes for broadcast, keeping in view of the audience research findings. The role of Audience Research is besides giving feedback from the audience, evaluating the programmes along with their reach. Further, the programme ratings from the audience are provided to the advertisers or the agencies to plan their advertisement strategies.

             This unit conducts different types of studies such as Field survey, Telephone survey, Mail survey, Quick feed back study, Feed forward study, In-depth study etc.

STUDIES UNDERTAKEN IN 2011-2012

January 2011:

             Radio Audience Survey on Primary Channels conducted at Pathanamthitta under the Primary coverage area of AIR, Thiruvananthapuram. The study was undertaken in January 2011 covering a sample of 200 Urban and 200 Rural (a total of 400) respondents.

Major findings of the study:

The peak time chunk in the morning, afternoon and evening hours were

Top 10 programmes of AIR Thiruvananthapuram

June 2011:

             Radio Audience Survey on Primary Channels conducted in the rural and urban areas under the primary coverage area of AIR Kozhikode. The sample size was 600 radio households (300 rural and 300 urban)

Major findings of the study:

The peak time chunk in the morning, afternoon and evening hours were

Top 10 programmes of AIR Kozhikode

July 2011:

             Radio Audience Survey on Primary Channels was conducted under the primary coverage area of AIR Thrissur taking a sample of 600 radio households (300 rural and 300 urban).

Major findings of the study:

The peak time chunk in the morning, afternoon and evening hours were

Top 10 programmes of AIR Thrissur

January 2012:

             Radio Audience Survey on Rainbow FM channels was conducted in Ernakulam district in the primary coverage area of Kochi Rainbow FM. The survey covered 20 villages and 20 urban blocks, taking a total sample size of 400 FM Radio households.

Major findings of the study:

The peak time chunk in the morning, afternoon and evening hours were

Top 10 programmes of Kochi Rainbow FM

Analysis of Listeners' Letters

             One of the activities of this unit is the analysis unsolicited listeners' letters which it receives daily. The comments of the listeners are noted and a monthly statement is prepared which is sent to the Directorate monthly.

             The unit received 8373 listeners' letters during January 2011 to December 2011.

Akashavani Annual Awards Received by the Trivandrum, AR Unit