STArTInG A LOCAL RADiO stAtiOn - Nai

Section 5: Creating Powerful ProgramsAudience surveys should be done every year, but do not wait a year to do your first survey! It isbest to do your first survey, called a baseline survey, as soon as possible after your station goes on theair. The results of your baseline survey will be compared with the results of later surveys to see how yourtarget audience has grown, how its needs are changing and how your programming meets those needs.Here are some tips for designing and conducting an audience survey:1. Train surveyors to introduce themselves properly on behalf of your station. Surveyors should explainthe purpose of the survey, too. For example, “I am a volunteer for Radio Our Town. The radio stationis asking people in our town to answer questions about what they want to hear on the radio. Can Iask you a few questions to help Radio Our Town understand our community?”2. To get reliable information, surveyors should interview a random sample of community membersin your broadcast area. To get a random sample, choose surveyors and the people they interviewaccording to this guide:nnnSurveyors should include both males and females so you can have access to community membersof both genders.Choose a number of different locations in your broadcast area. Crowded areas such as markets,schools and parks are good places to find a random selection of people.In each location, interview a variety of citizens such as: men, women, youth, adults, elders, peopleof different ethnicities and people with disabilities.3. To be able to compare annual surveys to see how things change over time:nnEach year’s random sample should include the same total number of people.Survey questionnaires must include the date of each interview.4. Questionnaire design is important.nnnnnKeep your list of questions short and simple. Each interview should take only a few minutes. Youdo not want to take too much time from people who agree to participate, and you want to haveenough time to collect as many interviews as you need.All questions should be asked of each person interviewed.Print the list of questions, and leave plenty of space on the paper for surveyors to write answers.A paper crowded with answers can lead your surveyor to accidentally skip questions.The survey should be designed to ask questions that give your station specific information thatit can use to make decisions, rather than questions that are too general.• Ask: Which program do you enjoy listening to?• Ask: Do you want to hear more news stories?• Ask: Would you listen to a specialized program about health?• Not: Do you enjoy listening to our programs?Too many open-ended questions (questions that are not followed by a list of possible answers,or that cannot be answered simply) can cause problems. Open-ended questions take too longto answer, to write down, and to process and analyze.STARTING A LOCAL RADIO STATION: A MANUAL FOR AFGHANISTAN59