Glossary of Terms

Glossary of Terms

Average Hours per Head

The average length of time a person spends listening to a station. This is calculated by dividing the Weekly Hours by the Population.

Average Hours per Listener

The average length of time that listeners to a station spend with that station. This is calculated by dividing the Weekly Hours by the Weekly Reach.

Dayparts

Day Description Times
Weekday Breakfast Peak 0600 - 1000
Mid Morning 1000 - 1300
Afternoon 1300 - 1600
PM Drive 1600 - 1900
Evening 1900 - 2400
Overnight 0000 - 0600
Saturday Breakfast Peak 0600 - 1000
Mid Morning 1000 - 1300
Afternoon 1300 - 1900
Evening 1900 - 2400
Overnight 0000 - 0600
Sunday Breakfast Peak 0600 - 1000
Mid Morning 1000 - 1300
Afternoon 1300 - 1900
Evening 1900 - 2400
Overnight 0000 - 0600

Efficiency Factor

The Efficiency Factor indicates the all-time efficiency of a station at delivering a given Target Market. This is calculated by dividing the All Adult Weekly Hours by the Target Market Weekly Hours.

Hours Index

The Average Hours for a station against a Target Market indexed against the All Adult Average Hours for that station. This indicates whether a Target Market is likely to listen to a given station for more or less time, with 100 being the norm.

Main Shopper/Housewife

RAJAR allows more than one main shopper per household in the survey and it can be either male or female.

Market Share

The percentage of all radio listening hours that a station accounts for within its transmission area. This can be calculated for any target market across any area.

OTH

Opportunity to hear.

Opt-Out Service

Some stations at certain times of the day switch their broadcast to a different station, or instance during the news in favour of locally relevant programming. On RAJAR these opt outs are often too small to report separately, therefore their results are incorporated back to the main service (e.g. BBC Bristol has an opt out called Somerset Sound).

Other listening

Any station that is not surveyed by RAJAR but for which respondents wrote in as listened to during the diary week is coded to other listening. This would include for instance foreign stations, short term licences; etc ‘Other listening’ contributes towards the ‘All Radio’ total.

Population

The number of people aged 15+ who live within the TSA of a given station.

Reach Index

The Weekly Reach % of a station against a Target Market indexed against the All Adult Weekly Reach % for that station. This indicates whether a Target Market is more or less likely to listen to a given station, with 100 being the norm.

RAJAR IR Regions

The 15 RAJAR IR regions (independent radio regions) are created from the existing commercial stations' TSA. They no longer overlap and their geography is subject to change due to TSA changes. The other regions available on RAJAR are the BBC Editorial Areas and the new non–overlapping ITV regions that were introduced by BARB with their new 2010 contract.

Share Index

The Market Share % of a station against a Target Market indexed against the All Adult Weekly Reach % for that station. This indicates whether a Target Market is more or less likely to listen to a given station for more or less time, with 100 being the norm.

Share in TSA

The percentage of total listening time accounted for by a station in its Total Survey Area in an average week. This is obtained by dividing the station’s total hours by the All Radio total hours in the station’s TSA.

Survey Period

Depending on the size of their Total Survey Area, stations report on a sample based on 3, 6 or 12 months. This is the survey period and is denoted by the letters Q (Quarter), H (half yearly), and Y (yearly).

Total Survey Area

The area within which a station’s audience is measured. This is defined by the station using postcode districts as building blocks.

Total Weekly Hours

The total number of hours that a station is listened to over the course of a week. This is the sum of all quarter-hours for all listeners.

Weekly Reach

The number of people aged 15+ who tune to a radio station within at least 1 quarter-hour period over the course of a week. Respondents are instructed to fill in a quarter-hour only if they have listened to the station for at least 5 minutes within that quarter-hour. Between 24.00-06.00, listening is recorded in half-hour periods.

Weekly Reach %

The Weekly Reach expressed as a percentage of the Population within the TSA.