The role of music selection in the decline of KovsieFM's listenership

English: In August 2012, KovsieFM’s listenership was estimated at 60 000 listeners for the period March to June 2012. Less than two years later, in June 2014, KovsieFM’s listenership was measured at 9 000 listeners for the period January to May 2014. These figures indicate that the radio station’s listenership decreased by 85% over a period of 18 months. This significant decline in KovsieFM’s listenership was examined considering the fact that music radio has the potential to attract large numbers of young listeners. According to the radio station’s broadcasting license requirements, 80% of the broadcasting content must consist of music. The music content was therefore be the first port of call when investigating a decline in listenership. The primary research objective of this study was to investigate the role that music selection played in the 85% decrease in KovsieFM’s listenership figures between August 2012 and June 2014. The secondary research objectives of this study included determining what the current perception of KovsieFM is among students of the University of the Free State, what the perception of students of the University of the Free State is of the music currently selected for airplay by KovsieFM and to determine what other factors could have contributed to the decrease in KovsieFM’s listenership. The study used the gatekeeper model, the uses and gratifications model and the media dependency theory as the theoretical framework. This study used a mixed-method approach to investigate the research problem. Auditorium Music Testing (AMT) represented phase one of the data collection process. Thereafter focus group research represented phase two with the aim of assisting in interpreting the results from phase one. The concentration of the focus groups was wider than the AMT, but was primarily focussed on other on-air as well as off-air aspects of KovsieFM. The data obtained from the AMT sessions was analysed by means of three methods: Firstly, Pearson product moment correlations investigated if a correlation exists between the respondents’ listening habits their corresponding rating of the songs on a 5-point Likert scale. Secondly t-tests was used to investigate if there are differences in the music rating between respondents who frequently listen to KovsieFM and respondents who infrequently listen to KovsieFM. Thirdly, frequency distribution tables were used to summarise the respondents’ favourite music genre and methods of music consumption. The data obtained from the focus groups were transcribed and a computerassisted semantical content analysis was utilised. The content analysis was based on the examination of recurrent instances that are systematically identified across the data set and grouped together by a coding set. This study concluded that music was a definite factor that contributed to the decline in the KovsieFM listenership between August 2012 and June 2014. The other factors that contributed to the decline in listenership were the content KovsieFM broadcasted and the manner in which the presenters and newsreaders presented the content. This study has shown that the content KovsieFM broadcast focused on entertaining the target audience. It can be concluded that UFS students also rely on the station to broadcast local content that is relevant to them. KovsieFM, as with many community radio stations, does little to no audience research and therefore assumes that music and broadcasting content appeals and satisfies the needs of the community. It is therefore important that radio stations in a similar position conducts audience research on a regular basis. This is especially relevant for campus-based radio stations, where the listenership base changes as students join and leave the university every year.