Manx Radio and 3FM - listening figures

[Gagster]

34 minutes ago, Roger Mexico said:

I suppose it might be useful to look at the actual RAJAR figures.  These are the seven most popular radio stations in terms of percentage reach (ie percentage of the possible 15+ listenership who listen each week:

So there's still more people who listen regularly to Manx Radio than 3FM and those that do listen for longer.  But more importantly both stations are among the most popular in their areas across the UK+ that RAJAR covers.  So saying that Manx Radio is not really serving its audience is only true if hardly any other station is as well.

All the stations above cover places with distinct identity:  Island FM is Guernsey's commercial station and Channel FM is Jersey's[1];  MFR is Moray Firth Radio and Cool FM serves Northern Ireland.  Both Channel Island stations have over twice the Reach % of their BBC counterparts, so Manx Radio is the only public service one that outperforms its commercial equivalent.

None of this is to say that Manx Radio couldn't be better run.  But it's still doing it's job.

 

[1]  It's interesting to speculate what would have happened if Tindle Radio, which runs them both, had been allowed to take over 3FM.

My point was the steady decline of Manx Radio’s audience. If 47,000 were listening in 2015 but 26,000 are listening now, it tells me that something is not right despite yearly increases to the subvention.

With 47,000 listeners in 2015, Manx Radio was very much out performing 3FM. No doubt there. However, there looks to be a risk now that following the current trajectory Manx Radio’s audience could become smaller than 3FM’s. All the while seeking further increases to the subvention!

[Gagster]

25 minutes ago, Declan said:

Do you need an orchestra for a radio jingle these days. 

You don’t need one, but does sound nice, though is an incredibly expensive way of doing things. But if you have a steady flow of public money coming then it’s easy to splash the cash. And a nice trip too, for Chris Sully, Alex Brindley and Christy D (as seen in the videos!).

It does make things difficult when, further down the line, you plead poverty!

Edited October 27, 2023 by Gagster

[Fred the shred]

Manx Radio is the best of the three for local information but it is massively over staffed.   The morning show is dreadful just boring it doesn’t need two people and the news could very well be read by the presenter ditto weather forecast .    I listen to George Ferguson early morning as I like the music he plays and Carnaby Street .  The news readers are not great one gabbles another is hard to understand and another drawls.   Manx Radio just needs taken and shaken particularly the news room department which is just lazy they would rather rehash previous news than get out and find fresh material.

[IOM]

36 minutes ago, Fred the shred said:

Manx Radio is the best of the three for local information but it is massively over staffed.   The morning show is dreadful just boring it doesn’t need two people and the news could very well be read by the presenter ditto weather forecast .    I listen to George Ferguson early morning as I like the music he plays and Carnaby Street .  The news readers are not great one gabbles another is hard to understand and another drawls.   Manx Radio just needs taken and shaken particularly the news room department which is just lazy they would rather rehash previous news than get out and find fresh material.

I agree it all needs looking at but the idea of getting the presenter to read the news is not right or professional in my opinion . The news is a serious topic that requires a separate focus from normal programming there is literally no other radio station in the British Isles where that happens . And actually the breakfast presenter does read the weather as do they all ! 

[Roger Mexico]

1 hour ago, Declan said:

What's difference between Average hours per head and Average hours per listeners. Do some of Manx Radio's audience have more than two ears? 

[Insert own Foxdale joke here]

Per head is the average listening in the period for the whole 15+ population.  Per listener is the average of the total listening among those who did listen to the station in the survey period.

[Declan]

2 minutes ago, Roger Mexico said:

[Insert own Foxdale joke here]

Per head is the average listening in the period for the whole 15+ population.  Per listener is the average of the total listening among those who did listen to the station in the survey period.

Makes sense - so most don't listen, but those that do - listen for a long time. 

[Two-lane]

In the beginning, there was medium wave and long wave. One could listen to stations as far away as Luxembourg.

Then came FM, which meant only local stations.

Now there is the Internet. You can hear The Ramsey Show on Talk 650 KSTE in California, and Bayern 3 tells me "Achtung, drei kilometre stau" - somewhere.

I wonder if Phil Gawne has made it as an Internet star. Drei kilometre stau sounds more interesting.

 

[Blade Runner]

It is costing about £15.00 per year per resident, based on 80K Residents.

That is not a lot of money but is it worth that amount?

For a bit of radio fluff, that like TV will end as a linear service in the next decade?

If I still lived there, and my children do, I would rather that money, approx. £1.2million, was focused on somewhere like a homeless shelter.

[joebean]

4 hours ago, Stu Peters said:

My understanding is that the BBC has no interest in providing anything above the service it currently provides, and even less interest in losing any licence revenue. Yes, we could probably force their hand through legislation, but risk losing all BBC services to the Island.

Number of presenters means more local jobs (even freelance) and greater variety. It's about providing more choice I think.

Apples and oranges: Energy and 3FM might do local news, but no longform programmes like Agenda or Perspective. 

Jingles: I think it must be 15 years since the Abbey Road sessions.

Personally I think the biggest mistake was 'dumbing down' and replacing the Mandate slot (0730-0830), but I never had any influence on programming (although I applied for the PC job once. Marc Tyley got it, unsurprisingly). I also think that making Mannin Line music free is a mistake. When I did Talking Heads I could play music if it was a slow news day, whereas Andy Wint HAS to leave the same old voices on for too long if he has nobody else lined up.

People sometimes ask if I miss the radio. Not for a second (although it was a lot easier than what I do now). I went up to MR a couple of weeks ago to record as guest with Marc Tyley and it felt completely alien to me.

The Apples and Oranges thing I do get Stu. The point is we are all paying for a lot of apples that nobody is eating just because some people think those particular apples are good for us. 

[Gagster]

21 minutes ago, Blade Runner said:

It is costing about £15.00 per year per resident, based on 80K Residents.

That is not a lot of money but is it worth that amount?

For a bit of radio fluff, that like TV will end as a linear service in the next decade?

If I still lived there, and my children do, I would rather that money, approx. £1.2million, was focused on somewhere like a homeless shelter.

£15 per person per year isn’t a lot, you’re right. But I would agree, given the choice of “jobs for the boys” and a plentitude of Manx Radio presenters OR something more worthy such as a homeless shelter etc then my preference would be similar to yours. Also, should 54,000 of those residents be paying for something that they’re not actually listening to?

Don’t forget, the £1.2million is in addition to about another £1million+ in commercial revenues. So running costs of £2.2million are quite steep, for listenership that down 26,000 people.

Audience decreasing from 47,000 in 2015 to 26,000 in 2023 is a 45% drop over 8 years.

If you were running a restaurant that had seen a 45% drop in custom, despite pumping in more and more cash, would you keep investing money into it? Probably not. You most likely would have given up 4 years ago OR drastically changed business model.

Edited October 27, 2023 by Gagster

[woolley]

12 minutes ago, Two-lane said:

In the beginning, there was medium wave and long wave. One could listen to stations as far away as Luxembourg.

Then came FM, which meant only local stations.

Now there is the Internet. You can hear The Ramsey Show on Talk 650 KSTE in California, and Bayern 3 tells me "Achtung, drei kilometre stau" - somewhere.

I wonder if Phil Gawne has made it as an Internet star. Drei kilometre stau sounds more interesting.

 

I don't know, but Bernie Quayle, rest his soul, reckoned to have an international following for his late show, and he encouraged people to send in requests from right around the world.

Apparently there was a bar in Downtown Manhattan where people made a beeline after work to listen to his dulcet tones, savour the mellow music of Manx Radio playing throughout the premises, and to pit their wits against "Bernie's Brain Teaser".  It was quite the cult stateside.

It was great until some scrotes pranked him with a request from someone in the Phillipines (probably Pulrose) for a nice tune for their wonderful girlfriend Minjita. "Ah, Minjita. What a lovely name." said Bernie.

More innocent times.

[Stu Peters]

2 hours ago, Declan said:

Do you need an orchestra for a radio jingle these days. 

Do you need an orchestra for anything? I’m sure Last Night of the Proms would be just as good with a couple of people on synthesisers.

I’m kidding.

[Stu Peters]

28 minutes ago, Gagster said:

£15 per person per year isn’t a lot, you’re right. But I would agree, given the choice of “jobs for the boys” and a plentitude of Manx Radio presenters OR something more worthy such as a homeless shelter etc then my preference would be similar to yours. Also, should 54,000 of those residents be paying for something that they’re not actually listening to?

Don’t forget, the £1.2million is in addition to about another £1million+ in commercial revenues. So running costs of £2.2million are quite steep, for listenership that down 26,000 people.

Audience decreasing from 47,000 in 2015 to 26,000 in 2023 is a 45% drop over 8 years.

If you were running a restaurant that had seen a 45% drop in custom, despite pumping in more and more cash, would you keep investing money into it? Probably not. You most likely would have given up 4 years ago OR drastically changed business model.

Hmm. So you’d put maybe 25 people out of work to fund a homeless shelter instead?

And in 2015 I was on every lunchtime. No wonder the figures are down now.

(Kidding. Again!)

[woolley]

29 minutes ago, Blade Runner said:

It is costing about £15.00 per year per resident, based on 80K Residents.

That is not a lot of money but is it worth that amount?

For a bit of radio fluff, that like TV will end as a linear service in the next decade?

If I still lived there, and my children do, I would rather that money, approx. £1.2million, was focused on somewhere like a homeless shelter.

It wouldn't be though, would it, and that's the whole point. I don't know what the answer is. It serves a purpose for local news and sport. It would leave a very big hole after 60 years, and yet.......  I used to be very pro-Manx Radio, but as time goes by it does become more difficult to defend. I rarely listen nowadays, and when I do it tends to be in short doses while driving around.

I disagree with Stu about music on Talking Heads being preferable to all speech on Mannin Line. I think Andy Wint makes a decent fist of it, and obviously puts some preparation in. You know what you're going to get. Reverting to music, which is on all day anyway, seems like a cop out to me, and an admission of defeat.

I'd listened to the start of Wint yesterday on the way to an appointment and when I came out it was after 1 and he'd finished. The next programme had begun, and It was so bad going on excruciating that I felt compelled to leave it on - for a little while at least - just to see how bad it could get.

It was one of the dreaded "advertorial" features, where they pretend to give us all a treat with an outside broadcast, but it's really just a big commercial. Well, we'd travelled over the mountain to Ramsey Garden Centre, and it was all so magical. I really can't do the pretend enthusiasm any justice, but you needed to get over there fast because this year's Christmas decorations are so modern and yet so olde worlde and different to anything you can get anywhere else. And all the team are here to welcome you. And of course it's never too early for Christmas is it? Because until you have your decorations you can't decorate your house can you? And we all have a soft spot for Christmas, even in October. Especially at Ramsey Garden Centre. Then mercifully they drew breath from the embarrassment.

"We'll continue our exciting exploration of the festive treats here after this short break." So lo and behold there followed a 3 minute break for some actual commercials before returning to the massive commercial that was masquerading as the programme. It was way over the top, and I wondered if anyone else was still actually listening as I reached for the button. This kind of output is so anachronistic. I mean, why would anyone listen to a blatant commercial that goes on and on and on? It's barely a step up from the radio evangelists, and they even still have one of those on Sunday nights.

 

[Roger Mexico]

4 hours ago, Gagster said:

My point was the steady decline of Manx Radio’s audience. If 47,000 were listening in 2015 but 26,000 are listening now, it tells me that something is not right despite yearly increases to the subvention.

With 47,000 listeners in 2015, Manx Radio was very much out performing 3FM. No doubt there. However, there looks to be a risk now that following the current trajectory Manx Radio’s audience could become smaller than 3FM’s. All the while seeking further increases to the subvention!

It's worth looking at Q3 2015 RAJAR figures to consider your point.  Here's the 'top' stations for Reach % down to 3FM:

It's interesting that in the intervening eight years even 3FM's Reach % has dropped (from 40% to 36%), though not as much as Manx Radio's (61% to 39%).  But you can see that for all the radio stations.  People are finding more ways to consume media and all types are having their share diluted.  What is also noticeable is that Manx Radio has seen a smaller drop in their average hours per listener than other stations - the drop has been of casual listeners in the main.  And there are still a lot of those loyal listeners.