Number crunching with community radio listeners

84% of Australians listen to any form of radio (commercial, ABC/SBS & community) in an average week.

Of this 30% (or almost 6 million Australians) tune into community radio, according to the State Of The Community Radio Sector Report.

That’s 30% of Australians aged 15+ years.

Such is the loyalty factor that listeners spend 15.7 hours on average per week, and 16% listen to community radio only.

Awareness of community radio is also increasing, up to 77% in 2018, from 74% in the previous year.

WHO’S TUNING IN?

56% of men tune in, 44 of women.

5% Identify as being of Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander origin (this group makes up 3% of the general population).

13% Identify as LGBTI, who make up 8% of society.

14% have a speech or sight impairment, versus 12%.

5% have difficulty in reading, compared to 4% of society.

65% hold a religious faith, versus 55%.

29% speak a language other than English at home, versus 23%.

63% work full or part-time, a figure which is 55% for population.

25% work as a professional business manager or executive, compared to 19%.

42% hold a university degree, versus 35%.

44% earn over $60,000 p.a. which is higher than the 35% which make up society.

WHY ARE THEY TUNING IN?

49% regional news.

34% specialist music.

27% support local artists.

27% announcers sound lie ordinary people.

25% can’t hear programs anywhere else.

24% diversity in programming.

9% non-English programs.

AND THAT’S NOT ALL

37% of music played is Australian.

There are 450 community radio licenses, of which 356 are permanent, and 30 are digital stations.

30.4% listen to DAB+ digital radio broadcasting averaging 10.5 hours per week.  11% access via online and mobile.

Full report here.