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Buffalo-Rochester radio listeners’ survey

Mike_Saffran

Mike_Saffran

Radio-Info.com—Buffalo/Niagara Falls/Rochester board readers:

You’re invited to participate in a university-affiliated study exploring Buffalo-area and Rochester-area radio listeners’ opinions about local stations’ programming and community involvement.

The Web links below take you to a survey—easy to complete in about 5 minutes—where you can share your opinions about Buffalo or Rochester radio stations (depending upon where you live).

Please take a moment and share your opinions about Buffalo or Rochester radio stations—no matter how much (or how little) you listen. There are no right or wrong answers and the confidentiality of your responses is assured. (Note: you do not need to be a registered user of Radio-Info.com to take this survey.)

Submit your responses by clicking the “Click here to submit survey” button at the end of the survey. If you want to receive survey results, please provide an e-mail address or U.S. mail address in the space provided near the end of the survey.

Buffalo-area residents
Click here to take survey:
Listeners’ opinions and use of Buffalo radio stations

If the above link does not work, visit http://clipboard.rit.edu and enter Survey Identification Number 4cf4n5 or copy the following Web address and paste it into your Web browser’s address bar:
http://clipboard.rit.edu/takeSurvey.cfm?id=4cf4n5

Rochester-area residents
Click here to take survey:
Listeners’ opinions and use of Rochester radio stations

If the above link does not work, visit http://clipboard.rit.edu and enter Survey Identification Number 4bt4n1 or copy the following Web address and paste it into your Web browser’s address bar:
http://clipboard.rit.edu/takeSurvey.cfm?id=4bt4n1

Notes:

  • If you’re a resident of the Niagara Falls area, but you regularly hear Buffalo radio stations, for the purposes of this study please consider yourself a Buffalo-area resident.
  • If you’re a resident of Batavia or another area where you regularly hear both Buffalo and Rochester radio stations, for the purposes of this study please take the survey for the market about which you’re most familiar.
  • If you regularly hear a radio station that is considered to be outside of your home market (for example, Rochester-area residents who hear WLKK), note that for the purposes of this study any station whose signal reaches where you live is considered part of your home market. (Please list the station’s call letters, dial position and/or nickname in your response to question #20.)

Thank you for sharing your opinions about Buffalo or Rochester radio stations.

Sincerely,
Mike Saffran
Department of Communication
College of Liberal Arts
Rochester Institute of Technology
 
This is quite the survey, Mike.

Yet, I wonder if it will be statistically sound, given the nature of the posters on this board, including me. I have read, but not taken the survey because of my, lacking abetter word, prejudice.

Can you tell us what compelled you to put it together and about the people (professors, researchers, academics) who devised the survey? That might provide interesting reading for those who read this board.

I applaud you for creating and designing the survey and would like to read the results, which hopefully, will be posted here.

"Survey sez....."
 
Radknowski said:
Yet, I wonder if it will be statistically sound, given the nature of the posters on this board, including me. I have read, but not taken the survey because of my, lacking abetter word, prejudice.

Can you tell us what compelled you to put it together and about the people (professors, researchers, academics) who devised the survey? That might provide interesting reading for those who read this board.

I applaud you for creating and designing the survey and would like to read the results, which hopefully, will be posted here.
Click to expand...

NOTE: If you haven’t already taken the survey, please do so soon before the survey closes. Many thanks.

Mike (and others who may be wondering the same thing),

You’re entirely correct! Because of their passion for radio, readers of this board—including some “radio junkies” (that’s why many are here), “insiders” who work in radio or who used to work in radio, and “P1s”—don’t necessarily comprise a representative sample of citizens of Greater Buffalo and Rochester. Nevertheless, I anticipate interesting results from the unique perspectives of board readers—allowing for insightful comparisons with the findings from a survey administered simultaneously to a more scientifically valid sample.

In answer to your other question, I devised this survey (in consultation with some RIT professors). My motivation: measuring, for the first time, listeners’ perceptions of local radio in relation to levels of ownership concentration in specific markets. Other studies have examined consolidation’s effects on format diversity and even playlist diversity. But, I believe the ultimate effects on listeners are most important. Further, many people—myself included—have expressed strong opinions about the effects (good or bad) of media ownership consolidation, but scant hard evidence exists in support of any viewpoints. I aim to collect some.

Some might ask, “Doesn’t Arbitron, through ratings, already measure listeners’ perceptions?” Well, indirectly, maybe a little bit (sort of); but, in fact, not really. Rather, Arbitron (and other ratings services) measure listeners’ preferences through their reported use of radio, but not their perceptions about radio. Some listeners may “settle” on particular stations due to a lack of better alternatives—accounting for some of their use (“top rated” doesn’t necessarily equal “satisfying”).

As for your prejudices, I urge you (and others) not to be concerned with them. After all, everyone taking this survey has prejudices—aren’t yours just as valid as theirs? That’s why I’ve emphasized that there are no right or wrong answers: your perceptions are your perceptions. This point also addresses a concern expressed by a couple respondents, in their survey submissions, who suggested that some questions are too general because, for example, levels of news and public affairs programming vary widely among stations. While this is unquestionably true, this survey doesn’t aim to ascertain the levels of specific programming on individual stations. Rather, it asks for your overall perceptions. (Again, there are no right or wrong answers—if you perceive there to be very little (or some or a lot) of news, then there is very little (or some or a lot), insofar as your tastes are concerned. Even if you choose to listen to only one station (or no stations), presumably your decision is based somewhat on your perceptions of programming on other stations.

Finally, your request to share my study results here is an excellent suggestion. I’ll make sure readers can access results in one form or another soon after they become available (likely in another few months). Thanks for your interest.

Mike
 
The survey is now closed. My thanks to all who took the time to share your opinions. As previously promised, I’ll share results when they’re available.

Thanks, also to the Radio-Info managing board editor for granting permission to post links to my survey here and on a couple other boards.

Mike
 
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