Finally, tomorrow, Hobart’s first survey in 12 years will be delivered.

Back in 2011 when Hobart’s “first survey in nine years” was eagerly anticipated by local stations and advertisers alike, it was abandoned at the last minute.

According to Peter Cornelius, head of radio research for Nielsen, which held the contract for radio audience measurement at the time, the decision was made because the survey did not gather enough responses from under 40 year olds to make the results valid. “Those aged 55+ were over-sampled and those under 40 were under-sampled.”

Local stations who had been hanging out for the results were not pleased with the decision. 

Gil Sellars, General Manager of 7HO told radioinfo at the time, “It was devastating to find out what happened. It is beyond belief that we get to find out just hours before the result was to be released that it was a non-survey.”

Sea/Heart FM GM Damon Wise felt the same, “We’re disappointed with the circumstances surrounding this survey – Hobart’s first in nine years. To not get a result is a bit like a drawn grand final. Our teams have worked extremely hard in 2011 and we are now looking forward to 2012 and the next survey.”

We’ll have the latest Hobart survey results for you tomorrow, here on radioinfo, provided by Xtra Research, one fo the panel of companies which now conducts regional surveys.