The incomparable German radio survey

Michael Hedges August 11, 2008

Each semi annual ag.ma survey of German radio listening is a big deal. But the recent release is incomparable. The sample now includes younger kiddies and foreigners. What’s the fun of an audience survey if winners and losers can’t be spotted?

Much of the fun was taken out of the ag.ma Radio ll survey release when technical problems forced a three-week delay, pushing the semi-annual display of winners and losers into the August holidays. If a tree falls in a forest void of people, does it make a sound? Even German broadcasters’ press releases, infamous for taking spin to ever dizzying hyperbole, were conspicuously muted.

"The results are encouraging because they show that radio remains an integral part of media use," says Dieter K. Mueller, the ag.ma Chairman and ARD research director. Adding 10 to 13 year olds and foreigners to the sample population may have been a step toward a bigger picture of radio listening but it didn’t show increases in time spent listening, which fell to 190 minutes per day from 200 minutes. But, notes the disclaimer, no comparisons with previous surveys are valid.

Surveying younger and younger people is a growing trend among advertising-driven audience research.  TV does it. Audiences as young as 9 year old are measured in some countries. The ad people have special desires.

But adding foreigners to the ag.ma survey base is a bit quirky; necessary, one would think, as the German Federal Statistical Office says one in four German households include Ausländerin. But only European Union foreigners were included; not Turks, a minority of sizable presence in Germany, and certainly not Swiss, who occasionally venture across the border. No explaination was given. 

Nationally  - it appears – Antenna Bayern is the top rated German radio station, discounting network Radio NRW, which draws an aggregated reach of nearly 1.4 million listeners. SWR3 is ranked number 2 with 934,000 listeners and Eins Live number 3 with 836,000.

The only national ranking change of the top ten German radio channels, compared with the 2008 I survey which did not include kiddies and foreigners, pushed Bayern 1 up to 4th and WDR 4 down to 5th.  But, to repeat, comparisons with previous surveys are not valid.

Trends from previous ag.ma radio audiences surveys have shown remarkably stable gross listening reach. And the current survey shows 79.1% of Germans – plus a few foreigners – listen each day. Working people  - probably not the 10 to 13 year olds – are the most voracious listeners, spending 4.5 hours a day tuned in.

Arbeitsgemeinschaft Media-Analyse (ag.ma) produces media usage surveys in Germany. The radio survey is produced twice each year from rolling averages in two periods. The ag.ma Radio ll survey data was collected September 2 – December 16 2007 and January 6 – April 20 2008.