The Listener Survey Toolkit
Chapter 8
How programmers have applied survey data - specific examples

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Overview
Why Conduct a Listener or Member Survey
Research Myths and Misconceptions
Building the Survey
Survey Methodology
Survey Questions
Processing the Data
Data Analysis and Reporting
Applying the Survey Results
Station Service and Support for the Listener Survey Toolkit
Sample Questions
Surveys are a valuable component of the tools available to the Program Director to evaluate programming. Here are a few specific examples of how program directors have used surveys to evaluate the effectiveness of their station's programming. At KJZZ, Scott Williams used listener surveys to determine the optimum balance of jazz and news programming. The survey results indicated that KJZZ had an audience for jazz, but the value of the service had diminished, due in part to a competing commercial jazz station in the market. Jazz was removed from midday and scheduled beginning at 7:00 p.m. This was a major program change for KJZZ, and, as a followup to the program change, a six-month followup survey was conducted to determine the success of the changes, and fine tune the new programming.

The six-month followup assisted KJZZ in further refining the format by getting some critical feedback from listeners after the changes were made. Scott Williams discovered that the listeners were fairly happy with the program changes. The station also developed some new promotional strategies out of the checkup survey because listeners wanted more information about what was going on at KJZZ. They also made some changes in the weekend programming and started news programming at 3:00 a.m. (KJZZ is in the Pacific time zone) for those individuals who wanted early morning news.

Scott also discovered from the followup survey that the weekend schedule was perceived as too repetitious, and he later made several changes.

At WFIT in Melbourne, Florida, Rob Selkow used a listener survey to refine the station's music mix. Prior to the survey, WFIT had not determined the right sound and texture of jazz programming that would best fit the station. The survey also indicated the need for the station to establish itself in the market as an NPR station, instead of a student operation (as it was for a number of years). Selling the station as an NPR station and working with the music mix helped to add legitimacy to a relative newcomer to public radio in Melbourne.

The survey at WFIT also showed that the "On Air Fund Raising Partnership" material was adding some credibility to its fund-raising efforts.

Marty Pelikan, Program Director at WCAL-FM in Northfield, Minnesota, has used surveys to determine the content of the program schedule. Surveys have been instrumental at WCAL in providing input on the program schedule, but they also have served well in determining the content of the schedule. Information derived from surveys has tipped the scale in programming decisions about what to carry and where to carry programs on WCAL.

Marty Pelikan uses surveys as one tool to test the on-air talent and to test recall on station slogans. The results from the surveys have pointed to using fewer slogans and a more focused approach to station identification. The survey has been one research element that has provided WCAL with the information needed to make specific program changes such as moving Karl Haas and the elimination of a public affairs program as a transition between classical and news. As Marty put it, "We were trying to build a block of news, but the local public affairs program acted more like a cement block to our ratings." WCAL extended classical music, and the ratings are better than the first hour of ATC! Folk music and the Urban contemporary programs are gone, with more classical music added to the schedule.

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