Sydneys independent youth metro station FBi 94.5FM this week announced the results of its first ever Audience Ratings Survey following its launch in August 2003, reporting 219,000 people tuning into the station across a week.
FBis General Manager, Stuart Buchanan said today: “This is a phenomenal result for FBi and vindicates what weve being saying all along – that more and more young people are seeking out intelligent and relevant alternatives to commercial broadcast media. When you think that only 48 months ago there was nothing but static at 94.5, to pull nearly a quarter of a million people over to us in that period is a huge result.”
FBi commissioned leading research group McNair Ingenuity Research to carry out the survey, which polled 800 people aged 15+ across Sydney in May & June 2007. The survey found that FBis weekly cumulative audience totalled 219,000 people, or 6% of all Sydney people aged 15+. When asked if they had tuned into FBi any time in the last month, the figure increased to an estimated 342,000 people, equivalent to 10% of all Sydney people aged 15+.
Buchanan said: “This survey proves that alternatives to the catch-all, commercial broadcast model are flourishing. It is FBi and other like-minded channels, with their eclectic mix of original, local and specialist content, that are paving the way for the future of media.”
A further example of this could be seen in the results of FBis own qualitative listener survey from 2006 which showed that 75% of FBis listeners said they “never listened to any commercial radio”.
Since its launch, FBis unique access program for independent local artists has given debut radio airplay to rising Sydney talent such as Wolfmother, Angus & Julia Stone, Expatriate and Red Riders. In addition, FBi has trail blazed the adoption of new technology, by launching the first podcast from any Australian radio station to feature commercially-available music, thanks to a trial licence brokered with APRA.
For more information, contact Emma Keenan on 02 8332 2940 or emma@fbiradio.com, or Emily Copeland on 02 8332 2935 or emily@fbiradio.com
About McNair Ingenuity Research: McNair Ingenuity Research is a leading Australian research group conducting all types of media, social and marketing research. MIRs history goes back to the beginning of modern Market Research in Australia when Bill McNair initiated the first radio audience studies in 1934 and formally registered The McNair Survey in 1944. Through the 70s and 80s McNair Anderson supplied the TV and radio ratings, as well as the national readership survey. McNair Anderson later became AGB McNair, before being sold to ACNielsen. Ian McNair, former CEO and owner of AGB McNair, is Executive Chairman of McNair Ingenuity Research.