CBAA - CBOnline Data Presentation

As well as scanning the horizon for a view of the future, stepping up to the next level relies on a solid understanding of where we are now.
That’s why the community broadcasting sector has developed a strong research base over recent years.
Collecting, collating and publishing sector based research is a core function of CBOnline project.
Managed by the CBAA, CBOnline has, for the past 5 years, undertaken annual, and now bi-annual, surveys of community broadcasting stations across Australia resulting in the Community Broadcasting Database.
CBOnline also coordinates the McNair Ingenuity National listener survey, which is run in the years in between the CBD data collections.
And last year, CBOnline published on its website the results from the Griffith qualitative audience research, which resulted in the Report called Community Media Matters.
You can find the results of all of these research projects on the CBOnline website

This year we completed the 4th CBD survey, for the financial year 05-06. This survey was the biggest yet, reflecting the fact that:

The number of fully licensed community radio stations has continued to grow steadily. As of July 2006, there were 285 fully licensed and operating stations.
During this period, growth was strongest in regional areas, with a 22% increase in station numbers (from 95 to 116 stations).
Since the first survey for 2001-02, the sector has grown by 14%.

This years results reinforce and amplify the importance of the role community broadcasters play in their local communities.

Community radio is INCREASINGLY the only source of local content in many areas.

91 stations (or nearly 1/3 of the sector) were the sole providers of local radio programming.
This was an increase of or 9% from the previous survey.
In rural and regional areas the level was higher, with 38% of stations operating as sole providers of local content.

The importance of the local nature of community radio was reinforced by key findings from the Griffith qualitative audience research

In this report, audiences from rural and regional radio stations described access to local news and information as one of the principle reasons for tuning in to their local community radio station.
Listeners to Indigenous radio services identified community radio as playing a central organizing role in community life, and helping to maintain social networks.
Listeners to ethnic services talked about its role in helping maintain community connections and networks, as well their enthusiasm for hearing local community news and gossip.

Casting back to the results of last year’s McNair Ingenuity audience listener survey, a common theme identified by listeners across all demographics, was their appreciation for the local nature of content, where:

Over 40% said they listened for “local information/local news”
1/3 said they listened for “local voices and local personalities”
3 in 10 listeners saying they liked the fact that “locals can air their views/and they have easy local access”

It was not surprising then to find that the high value put on broadcasting of local content was extended to Australian music.

Referring again to the McNair Ingenuity survey, 35% of listeners specified Australian music and support for local artists as a key reason for listening to community radio stations.
This is understandable - we’ve been doing an excellent job with Australian music for years. But just when it may of seemed we couldn’t do it any better, I have to report that the percentage of Australian music played by community radio stations has risen once more.
The sector’s Code of Practice for radio sets a quota of 25% Australian music (exceptions are ethnic and fine music broadcasters with quota of 10%).
During the survey period, the sector exceeded its minimum quotas, reaching an average of 36%. This is 1% higher than for the previous survey.

The percentage of Australian music has increased steadily over the last four years:

In 2002-03 Australian music made up 32% of total music played
In 2003-04 it rose to 35%

Moving on to the people who make it happen – we all know that Volunteers are at the core of community broadcasting.

This year saw the total number of volunteers in the sector rise 3% to 20,751
The sector average was 74 volunteers per station.
The ethnic, fine music and youth categories had the highest number of volunteers, with station averages between 200 and just over 300.

Interestingly, a gender imbalance continues to be evident among our volunteers

This survey revealed that 57% of all volunteers are male, while only 43% are female.
Compared to the previous survey period, this represented a 3% increase in the number of male volunteers, while the number of female volunteers remained stable.
RPH was the only category to have more female than male volunteers, where females comprised, on average, 60% of volunteers at each station.

Overall staff numbers decreased during this survey period

The percentage of stations that employed at least one staff member was 58%. This was 5% less stations than for the previous survey period.
Across the sector, a total of 848 people worked on either a full or part-time basis during the period. This was 5% fewer people than for the previous survey.
The total number of effective full time (EFT) staff employed by the sector was 534. This was 9% less than for the previous survey

Note: EFT is calculated by adding up hours for all full and part-time staff and dividing by 35

In contrast to the trend, described earlier, for female volunteers, the proportion of female staff is on the rise

While still more males are employed as staff within the sector, the gap between the genders is decreasing.
The proportion of female staff increased 3% during the 05-06 survey period.
Since 2002, the proportion of females has increased by 6%.

There has been a lot of talk about technologies at this conference. Converging broadcast, information and communication technologies have created a new paradigm for media infrastructure over the last two decades. While uptake of basic equipment has been widespread, it is by no means complete within the sector

97% of community radio stations used computers for office functions. This figure been consistent for the past 3 surveys, however it indicates that 3% of stations still operate without benefit of this basic facility.

Computer technologies are used extensively for broadcast and production purposes:

93% of stations used a computer for audio production (an increase of 2% over past 3 surveys)
88% used a computer in their broadcast studios to manage ALL audio play-out (an increase of 9% over past 3 surveys)
49% of stations of stations have achieved full networking of station computers, while 34% have established partial networks.
The remaining 17% still operate their computers as stand-alone units.

Onsite Internet access is a basic tool for station communications and program research.

93% of stations are connected to the Internet, however 7% of stations still operate without internet access.

Of those connected:

73% use a standard broadband connection (ADSL)
17% use high speed broadband (ADSL 2)
9% still use dial-up connections (the majority of these are in regional areas).

Community broadcasters have taken advantage of specialist software to manage a range of station operations, although a large proportion of the sector is still to benefit from these programs.

63% of stations used software for music storage and access.
47% used general scheduling software.
Only 34% used specialist software to organise sponsorship billing.

Moving on to the business of raising money and paying bills, I’m happy to report that National overall revenue grew in 2005-06

The combined income of all fully licensed radio stations during this period was $54 million
A rise of 7% over the previous survey, and 16% since 02-03

While the average station income was almost $190 thousand, this can be quite misleading.

Individual station incomes varied widely. At one end of the spectrum there were stations operating on less than $6,000 per annum.
At the other end, the turnover of some stations in metropolitan areas exceeded $1.5 million
Most community broadcasters (58%) had a turnover of less than $100,000

Sponsorship remains the biggest source of station revenue and continues to grow

The sector raised $22.1 million through sponsorship during the 2005-06 period.
A 24% increase on the previous survey, and a 50% increase since 2002-03.
The average income per station from sponsorship was $80.2 thousand
However, income derived from this source varied greatly across the sector, from nil to over 1 million dollars.
Station location plays a significant part in sponsorship potential.

As you’d anticipate, an increase in a national income was matched with an increase in national expenditure

Sector wide, total station expenditure was $52 million, an increase of 7% on the previous survey.
The average expenditure was $182 thousand per station (similar to previous survey).
Wages, salaries and related on-costs were the largest cost item, making up 45% of total expenditure.

Last year, CBOnline introduced a new feature to the CBD website which provided stations with an interface for viewing station survey data in a graph format.

You can access the database using your station password and username, same as you did when you filled in your survey – click the PREVIOUS RESULTS button

This year you can pull up a graph for every question you answered, showing data for this survey and the previous survey.

The 2005-06 Community Database Report will be available on the CBOnline website in December.