UGANDA: Community-based Radio Stations form a Committee for Audience Research Survey

 

The Executive Committee board, which comprises of four members
from the four regions in Uganda, was elected on Wednesday at the first meeting
of the ARIG held at the secretariat of the Uganda Association of Religious. The
members are: Mr Ernest Acidri from Radio Pacis (Northern region) who was
elected as the chairman, Ms Yayeri Adiko from Delta FM (Eastern) who was
elected a Secretary, Mr Justus Orishab (Freedom FM, Western), the treasurer
while Mrs Margaret Ssentamu,  the
Executive Director of Mama FM (Central), was elected as the chief coordinator.

 

Other members who were also appointed include Fr Philip
Odii,  the Executive Secretary of the
Social Communications Department at the Uganda Episcopal Conference (UEC), Mr
Moses Ricky Ojok from Audience Dialogue Uganda and Mr John Ocena, a journalist.

 

The ARIG was formed last year in November during the
networking/sharing event, with an aim of improving audience research capacity
and embedding good practice for all community oriented radios in Uganda.
Audience data is therefore essential to the development of advertising revenues
for radio channels whether public or private.

 

Mr Ojoko said that such survey also tells how many people
are in an audience in relation to total number of listeners.”

 

“Audience survey is a crucial issue for both private and
public authorities (tax, radios, communication, universal access to
information, building a strong media sector, employment, etc.) and businesses
wishing to promote their services through audiovisual media,” he added. Mr Acidri
explained that “Without precise audience data by Radio programme and time of
the week, it is very difficult to understand what the audiences like to listen
to and which programme need to be acquired by different radio stations.” 

 

The ARIG representative further, stated that in Africa,
there are a few audience measurement research firms that collect and market radio
ratings’ data. The cost of audience market research is always held up as the
key obstacle to getting this kind of information.

 

He promised that ARIG Uganda will try to
solve this puzzle uniquely since their main sponsor, Stem Van Africa
Organization, Netherlands, is ready to work hand-in-hand with them.