Avon ratings down 13%

Press, 19 April 1979, Page 6

Avon ratings down 13%

Although Radio Avon’s ratings have dropped by 13 per cent from their usually commanding position, the station has no plan to change its programme format, according to the programme director (Mr K. Ellis). The latest Octa survey, commissioned by Radio Avon earlier this month and released yesterday, shows that Radio Avon’s ratings have dropped from 50 per cent last year to 37 per cent. The 6 a.m. to midnight figures show that the station has lost 18.000 listeners, bringing its audience down to 131,000. On the other hand, 3ZB’s

s ratings have increased by 4 | J per cent to 32 per cent i i (120,000 listeners) and 3ZM’s • ratings have increased by 5 1 > per cent to 9 per cent I - (39,000 listeners). ; Earlier this year, 3ZM i . switched from its low-rating i “Beautiful Music” format as 1 , Radio Nova to a top-40, > rock-album mixture. < [ The new religious station, < i Radio Rhema, has captured < > 3 per cent of the audience 1 ■ and 3YA and 3YC have each i : gained 1 per cent to bring 1 their ratings up to 17 per ! t cent and 2 per cent respeci tively. i , Mr Ellis said that the 1 i main shift had resulted from i the arrival of Radio Rhema. 1 ; This was an audience not 1

previously catered for and represented 22,000 listeners. “The change in audience listening is reflected in a breakdown of the age groups, where listening preferences are now more clearly defined,” said Mr Ellis. “Of Radio Avon’s audience, 102,000 are under 40 and 29,000 are over 40 years of age. 3ZB has 74,000 listeners under 40 and 45,000 over 40, while 3ZM has 31,000 listeners under 40 and 9000 above this age.” Mr Ellis said that some changes were planned to try to regain Radio Avon’s ratings but these were not likely to be made public at this stage.