HARARE - A recent survey conducted for the radio station Voice of the People (Radio VOP) revealed the need to buff up its advertising campaign and address the quality of its reception in order to satisfy the needs of its Zimbabwean listeners.
The survey was conducted between July and August 2009 in all 10 provinces. The surveyors used a fully structured questionnaire with interviews conducted face-to-face. Its intention was to establish the audience size of those who listened to Radio VOP and to ascertain the kind of topics that listeners would like covered in the broadcasts. The survey also covered issues of reception clarity and availability in both urban and rural areas. 89 per cent of those who participated in the survey said they listened to the radio. Although there was a low percentage that was aware of the different stations available, it emerged that Voice of Africa (VOA) was the most popular international station.
Radio VOP was shown to have a slightly higher percentage of listeners in rural areas than among the urban population. Those who listened to the station in the rural areas were more interested in the political programmes on offer, than their urban counterparts. The daily audience of listeners was shown to be low, with most people saying that they tuned in at least once a week. It was also shown that 100 per cent of listeners enjoyed the programmes broadcast in English. There was a clear preference among rural folk for evening programmes, leading to the recommendation by surveyors that key programmes be broadcast between the hours of 7pm and 8pm. In terms of reception, most listeners reported that coverage was better in rural areas than in the urban centres, with 67 per cent admitting that they had, at one time, been unable to listen to Radio VOP due to poor reception.
This was one of the areas in need of improvement, as well as lengthening the programmes and focusing on issues of health and local news. Questions around the topic of other media sources that listeners benefited from, revealed that aside from radio, word of mouth was the main source of information for the people. Television was second and newspapers third.
Among the newspapers in Zimbabwe, The Herald emerged as the most important source of print information with The Zimbabwean as a close second. Some of the directional insights given by the research team included the need for Radio VOP to revisit its advertising strategies in order to rival the listeners main choice, VOA.
Post published in: News