The Wireless Group’s outspoken chairman, Kelvin MacKenzie, has launched a stinging attack on the “absurd charade” utilised by radio audience researchers Rajar to achieve the listening figures radio advertising depends on.
In an article appearing in the Guardian’s Monday media section, MacKenzie said that unlike the way audiences for newspapers and TV are calculated, Rajar’s system is “widely discredited”.
Rajar uses a system whereby listeners write details of their day’s listening in a diary, while TV audience figures rely on boxes which record all given viewing. MacKenzie claimed that there are similar electronic metering systems available to measure radio listening, but that their introduction does not have the backing of the industry.
MacKenzie feels that since the diary system relies on listeners to remember exactly what they listened to, it favours the larger networks and stations which can afford big marketing campaigns and therefore increase their chances of recall when diaries are written. This, the Wireless Group chief claimed, is why the industry has been so slow to support more technical ways of gathering data – if new technology revealed the reality of audience figures, a drop would be seen in the big station’s figures and advertising rates would have to drop as a consequence.
“Only when meters measure radio ratings will everyone in this multi-million pound industry get their money’s worth,” he concludes. “That could be good news for many, bad news for some- but whatever the impact, at least it would be accurate.”
In the last set of Rajar figures (see National Commercial Radio Audiences Slip In Latest RAJAR Report), Wireless Group’s national sports channel, TalkSport, dropped 11.4% in its weekly reach, which stands at around 2 million. Its main rival, the BBC’s Radio 5 Live, dropped just 2.8% to a weekly reach of 5.7 million.
Rajar has declined to comment on the claims made by the article, but is expected to produce a response within the coming week.
Rajar: 020 7584 3003 Wireless Group: 020 7959 7800
