The Broadcast Research Council of South Africa (BRC) recently released its fourth and final Radio Audience Measurements (RAM) for the year, covering the period April ’18 – September ‘18.
This release was the last release under CEO Clare O’Neil, whose tenure at the research council comes to an end at the of December.
Read more: SA’s BRC shows the world how it transformed audience research
Radio reach has shown a slight decrease from 90% reach in the previous release (Jan’18-Jun’18) to 89% in this one. This release also shows an average of 35.7 million people listen to the radio at anytime during the week.
Top 10 radio stations in SA
Ukhozi FM has bagged almost a 100 000 more listeners in this release, growing its audience from 7.5 million to 7.6 million listeners. This release also sees two new additions added to the top 10, namely; the XiTsonga language station Munghana Lonene and Durban-based East Coast Radio.
| Station | Audience | |
| 1 | Ukhozi FM | 7 603 000 |
| 2 | Umhlobo Wenene FM | 5 307 000 |
| 3 | Metro FM | 4 211 000 |
| 4 | Lesedi FM | 3 052 000 |
| 5 | Thobela FM | 2 672 000 |
| 6 | Motsweding FM | 2 224 000 |
| 7 | Gagasi FM | 1 602 000 |
| 8 | RSG | 1 299 000 |
| 9 | Munghana Lonene FM | 1 115 000 |
| 10 | East Coast Radio | 1 078 000 |
Top 5 community radio stations
Jozi FM has seen a decline of 67 000 listeners compared to previous release (Jan ’18 – June ’18), however the station to continues to lead in the community sector with an audience of 551 000 listeners. Radio Zibonele grew its audience by 23 000 listeners in this release.
| Station | Audience | |
| 1 | Jozi FM | 551 000 |
| 2 | Radio Zibonele | 261 000 |
| 3 | Kasie FM | 212 000 |
| 4 | Voice of The Cape | 190 000 |
| 5 | Radio Tygerberg | 187 000 |
Devices used to listen to the radio
Radio by listening by cellphone currently sits at 34%. Rise FM and Capricorn FM currently lead when it comes to radio listening by cellphone.
| Station | |
| Rise FM* | 59% |
| Capricorn FM | 57% |
| YFM | 53% |
| trufm | 52% |
Cape Town music station, Smile 90.4FM, has the highest in car listening at 65% followed by Primedia talk station, CapeTalk, at 60%.
| Station | |
| Smile 90.4FM | 65% |
| Cape Talk | 60% |
| Classic 102.7 | 58% |
| 947 | 55% |
| LM Radio* | 55% |
| 702 | 52% |
Listener loyalty
Just over two thirds (67%) of respondents in this release only listen to one station, this is up by 1% from the previous release. Limpopo continues to have the most loyal listeners in the country at 90%, up by 1% from the previous release.
| Station | Exclusive listeners |
| Phalaphala FM | 85% |
| Munghana Lonene | 81% |
| Thobela FM | 77% |
| Umhlobo Wenene FM | 59% |
| Lesedi FM | 57% |
| iKwekwezi | 57% |
Time spent listening
This release has found that listeners listened to radio 6 minutes less than they did in the previous release, the national average time spent listening (TSL) now stands at 3h36 down from 3h42 previously. The Free State province commands the highest TSL in the country at 4h36, this is down by 18 minutes from the last releases 4h54. Limpopo’s Phalaphala FM currently leads as the station whose listeners listen to the longest, followed by Thobela FM and Munghana Lonene FM.
| Station | Time Spent Listening |
| Phalaphala FM | 3h42 |
| Thobela FM | 3h24 |
| Munghana Lonene | 3h18 |
| iKwekwezi FM | 3h12 |
| Ukhozi FM | 3h12 |
| Umhlobo Wenene | 3h06 |
| Lesedi FM | 3h00 |
Diary-on-diary increases
Five radio stations have reflected four diary on diary increases, Tiso Blackstar owned Vuma 103FM has grown its audience by 78.4% between the Apr ‘17 – Sep 17 and Jan ‘18 – Jun ’18 releases.
| Station | Jul ’17-Dec ’17 | Oct ’17-Mar ’18 | Jan ’18-Jun ’18 | Apr ’18-Sep ’18 | Growth |
| Munghana Lonene FM | 861 000 | 914 000 | 985 000 | 1 115 000 | 29.5% |
| Phalaphala FM | 802 000 | 901 000 | 984 000 | 992 000 | 23.7% |
| Ukhozi FM | 7 274 000 | 7 304 000 | 7 504 000 | 7 603 000 | 4.52% |
Source: BRC
*This station has a small base size
Lwazi Mpofu is the 2017 Liberty Radio Awards Bright Star Recipient and a former radio producer. He is currently reading for a Masters Degree in Communication Science at UNISA, he is also an emerging researcher in the fields of broadcast audience measurement systems, media policy and the development of radio in SA.
