“I enjoyed it all. It's a brilliant asset for our community.”
As we always do, following our fourth broadcast in April/May of this year, Thornbury FM carried out an evaluation of our broadcast quality, listening patterns and publicity, in order to plan for future activities. We conducted street and postal questionnaires, and used information gathered from our website, and e-mails and phone calls received. We were able to gather lots of useful information, which will help us plan future programming and training. Happily, generally, those who commented, even if they did not listen often, were supportive and complimentary about Thornbury FM.
The findings from our new data seems consistent with that from previous broadcasts. As in November 2006, early morning and early-mid evening were the most popular times of day to listen. Our listeners are tuning in to fit around their workday. Our core listener may be between 35-60, and more likely to be female. They typically listen at home.
As in previous broadcasts, people cited two main reasons why they do not listen to Thornbury FM: people simply do not listen to radio, or they listen to other stations. Many people have radio routines which they are reluctant to break (many respondents listen regularly to other stations) temporarily, but might more permanently. That gives us food for thought: should we become a year-round station rather than broadcast on temporary licences?
Our publicity seems quite effective. People hear about Thornbury FM through a number of channels, including word of mouth. Many people cited family members being on the station, being advertisers, and hearing through some of our partner organisations. That underlines the need for us to continue reaching out to people as widely as possible. We also found that although people knew about Thornbury FM, they didn’t know about our content: quite often, people complained that a specific type of programme was not on – when in fact we had exactly that type of programme.
Respondents were asked to nominate programmes which they enjoyed, or did not enjoy; to make suggestions for future content; and to offer general comments. A wide variety of programmes and genres were enjoyed by listeners. Many of the comments simply suggested we maintain our current mix of programmes. In general, our mix of music, chat, and above all our local content seems to be pleasing listeners. Where changes should be made, our local focus should be even stronger. We also need to stay focused on maintaining and improving the quality of our programmes, through increased training in particular.
Thornbury FM seems still to be a venture appreciated by the local community. As one respondent put it: “I think it's a wonderful addition to Thornbury life. Thank you to all who make it possible.” That of course includes all of you, our members.
See our results from previous broadcasts: