Radio

Harker Bos Group has been helping radio stations better understand their listeners, their strength and weaknesses, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of their competitors, for over 30 years. In those many decades we have helped stations grow and succeed across the spectrum of formats.

They say “Knowledge is Power”, and it is certainly true in radio. A radio station’s success depends on an understanding of what listeners want to hear, and equally importantly, what they don’t want to hear. The challenge is that listeners are not static in their likes and dislikes. Tastes are continually evolving, so you need to understand today’s listener right now. An additional challenge is the rest of the media your audience consumes.

The solution is research. Research helps you better understand wants and likes of your listeners. You also need research to determine how good of a job you are doing compared to your competitors.

Every study is designed for your unique situation and the challenges you face. Your study begins with a collective deep dive into your view of the opportunities and threats the station faces.

What metric do you use to judge the success of the station? If you rely on Nielsen there is a good change you are using a flawed metric. Nielsen’s methods may be theoretically reasonable but in practice they leave much to be desired. A relatively small panel is spread across a wide range of ages. Your target audience is probably not 12+, let alone 6+, so most of Nielsen’s panel is of little use to you.

If you want an accurate and reliable metric for judging the success of the station, you need a targeted, carefully crafted panel of listeners who tune to you or your competitors. Knowing how you are doing in the focused universe of listeners is invaluable for assessing the performance of the station as well as charting its future.