from radio and records
Friday, April 22, 2005
Rock Listeners Agree: Radio Doesn't Suck
Key findings from a new Jacobs Media Technology Survey released today say that when listeners to Alternative, mainstream and Active Rock and Classic Rock radio were offered the chance to agree or disagree with the statement "Radio sucks," 79% chose "disagree total," while 13% were neutral and just 8% selected "agree total." By format, 78% of Rock and Active fans, 71% of Alternative listeners and 83% of Classic Rock listeners agreed that radio doesn't "suck."
When respondents were asked whether local commercial radio has gotten better or worse, 41% of Alternative fans said things have gotten better, 27% said radio is worse and 32% said it's about the same. Rock listeners are less optimistic: Thirty-one percent said radio has improved, 29% said things are getting worse and 32% see no change. On the Classic Rock side, 32% said things are better, 24% think radio's getting worse and 44% believe it hasn't changed.
Just as the Alternative fans were most likely to say radio's getting better, they were also the most likely to say the music they're hearing has improved over the past year: Forty-four percent of Alt fans say music is better, compared to 30% of the total sample, 34% of Rock listeners and 20% of Classic Rock fans. Just 21% of the Alt listeners say the music's gotten worse, while for Rock, the figure is 26%, and for Classic Rock, it's 33%. Saying the music has stayed the same were 38% of the sample, 35% of Alt fans, 39% of Rock listeners and 37% of Classic Rock listeners.
The new findings are from a survey from which Jacobs released early data a couple of weeks ago, saying Alternative and younger Rock listeners are likely to have no landlines in their home and therefore cannot be included in Arbitron's total sample — a situation Jacobs Media describes as "a major problem."
Data from 53 stations was used in the Jacobs Media Technology Survey. Most of the 19,263 respondents are members of station e-mail databases who received an e-mail asking them to participate. Some respondents took part because they heard on-air announcements or saw a link on a station website. Jacobs notes, "This is a web poll and cannot replicate all radio listeners, or even Rock radio listeners."
— By Brida Connolly
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