Regional surveys: Dubbo, Gold Coast and Nationally

Now that the first major capital city ratings survey is over, a number of regional markets are going into survey, including the controversial Gold Coast market. This week, radioinfo looks at regional surveys from three points of view: a small market, the Gold Coast and from a Group PD’s national perspective.

Regional surveys differ from capital cities because they usually require two fierce competitors to negotiate timing and duration of the surveys with each other. This process can be more difficult than in capital cities, because one player is sometimes unwilling to commit to a date. If the two players don’t agree on a date then there are only two options – go alone and pay more, or defer until agreement can be reached.

Macquarie Regional Radio Works Group Program Director, Rod Brice, has told radioinfo that some negotiations are occasionally difficult, but a reasonable compromise usually occurs in the end.

Hot Tomato and Sea/Gold FM on the Gold Coast conducted some ‘high profile’ public negations about their survey dates through the local media last year, but things now appear to have settled down, and the Gold Coast will go into an eight week survey beginning 13 March. The results are expected to be available in May.

Hot Tomato’s Hans Torv says the final survey date was agreed to by Macquarie Regional Radio Works after Hot Tomato threatened to go it alone again. Torv has told radioinfo he is happy all Gold Coast stations are now involved because “this is one great market that deserves regular surveys to better service clients and agencies, and to present radio as a professional and united medium.”

Dubbo was the first regional market to be surveyed this year, with a two week survey conducted by Nielsen Media Research finishing this weekend.

ZOO FM Program Director Mitch Smart lets us in on his thoughts about this market:

radioinfo: With the survey currently in progress, how are things going?

Smart: It’s a very intense time for us. We only survey about once every 2 years, so a lot will hang on the result. It’s difficult to gauge how we are going, but as a station I can at least say ZooFM is doing everything exactly to plan.

radioinfo: What is your prediction?

Smart: I think this will be the tightest the market has seen since Star FM entered. We’re all spending unprecedented amounts in this market and we’re running formats that overlap. I think 2DU will come first by at least 10 share points, as for Zoo FM and Star FM, it’s hard to say. I think we’ll see Star FM deliver a younger audience than ever and Zoo FM deliver it’s oldest audience ever!

radioinfo: Who is on air at your stations?

Smart: ZooFM has Craig & Abby for Brekky 5:30-10; Ken Smith 10-2; Dave Evans 2-7; Mitch Smart 7-10. 2DU has Peter Leslie 5:30-9; Leon Delaney 9-10; Leo Dekroo 10-2; Mark Lynch 2-6; Mike Shean 6-12.

radioinfo: What are your thoughts on regional surveys? Do you really need them or can you achieve revenue success without them in a market like Dubbo?

Smart: This is an interesting question, and one we think about seriously. When it comes down to it, the survey figures are a great asset for national dollars. In our market, most of our local advertisers are content to measure the success of the stations by the success of their advertising. Lots of them are fairly un-interested in survey figures.

We can achieve revenue success without a survey, and also with a survey! I was not surprised recently to see that regional areas are having difficulty attracting national dollars, and in a sense, we hope our survey results will give us growth in this area.

radioinfo: Have you changed any formatics of either station in the past few months in the leadup to this survey?

Smart: Both Zoo FM and Star FM have made dramatic changes in the past 6 months. Zoo FM changed from an 18-30 alternate/rocky station to a 30-45 year old closer to classic rock format. Zoo FM’s core artists are rockers from the mid 80’s! We also turned the breakfast show a little more serious, with quite a lot of talk. We try to be heavily local, with the positioner Dubbo’s Best Rock.


2DU has made no changes.

Mitch Smart became ZOO FM’s PD in August last year. At that time the station was at quite a low point because it had been targeting a very young audience that just didn’t deliver enough numbers in this market. Smart decided to pitch the station at Dubbo’s newly settled families.

Mitch Smart grew up in the Dubbo area, joined a local community radio station at age 12, got into AFTRS at 17, worked for Star FM Dubbo in 2000-2001 and then joined ZooFM in 2001.

The Dubbo results are expected to be released in about two weeks from now.

Macquarie Regional Radio Works’ Rod Brice has a national perspective on how regional surveys work. He is responsible for Mitch Smart’s competitor Star FM in the Dubbo market, and for all the Star, Hot, Sea and Heritage stations that were previously owned by RG Capital and DMG. With 163 announcers and producers scattered all over the country he has a helicopter view.

Brice has told radioinfo that surveys have been locked in until the end of the financial year. “Dubbo and the Gold Coast are the first this year, and will be followed by a survey on the Sunshine Coast. We are also working on a survey date for the Central Coast.”

In the new financial year, further surveys will be undertaken in regional Victoria, NSW and Queensland. “We have no fixed dates yet, it will depend on costs and the divesting of stations in some markets.

radioinfo: Are regional surveys cost effective?

Brice: Programmers think we do surveys for them, but the reality is that surveys are primarily a sales tool. So, even though we would like as many surveys as possible for programming purposes, the reality is that cost effectiveness is achieved over a couple of years at a time in any market.

In some very small markets, for example a market like Kingaroy, it is not cost effective to do a diary survey, in proportion to potential revenue. There we may do occasional phone surveys for instance.

We are pleased that Nielsen Media Research has come up with good alternative survey methodologies to assist us in keeping costs down as low as possible in smaller markets.

radioinfo: Is negotiating dates with your opposition tough?

Brice: It’s a normal part of the radio business. Some people and networks are intransigent, but a reasonable view usually occurs to allow us to get as good a result as possible.

We have compromised at times over the years and so have our competitors. In the end we are working to prove the value of commercial radio against other competitive media. If the regional radio industry sees things from that point of view there is usually a compromise possible.

While a big network can achieve economies of scale across many stations when ratings surveys are on, smaller operators rely on different approaches to things such as national competitions and promotions.

Hot Tomato’s Hans Torv describes the competitions that are happening on the Gold Coast as it enters its survey:

“Hot Tomato are amused that SEA is running a three market contest. Especially after the complaint lodged by a Perth radio listener alleging a network radio contest was deceptive and misleading, because a Brisbane winner appeared to be presented as a Perth resident. If that’s how listeners feel, why do some radio stations do it?

“Mobile phone bingo is being played on the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Central Coast simultaneously, same contest line and sharing the prize pool.

“Hot Tomato LOVES it, and can’t wait to tell Gold Coasters they are competing against someone from Wamberal. Queenslanders are going to HATE that.

“Nothing like Hot Tomato, we are just live and local – and proud of it.”

Before too long, the programming bosses will know which strategies have worked best. Stay tuned to radioinfo as we cover these results in coming months.