The Radio Luxembourg audience

Radio listening, both in the United States and in this country, has made a remarkable recovery during the past ten years. Not so many years ago radio stations in the States were going for a song and then they started being able to sell early morning time at ‘A’ rates and they have not looked back since. The impact of ITV in this country was to cause 85 per cent of the listeners who switched to TV not to listen to any radio. The position has now changed and Radio Luxembourg figures have steadily climbed back over the past decade.

The other marked characteristic is that even in the pre-ITV days the Summer audience for Radio Luxembourg dropped sharply compared with the Spring and Autumn. This is no longer the case and the average nightly audience listening at some time during the evening is 6¼ million for Spring, 6 million for Summer and 6 million also for Autumn.

The average age of the Radio Luxembourg audience is low. This augurs well for the future. Habits caught young we carry with us through the rest of our lives and this will certainly prove to be the case with radio listening.

Radios, gramophones and tape recorders are now a normal part of the equipment of the home and the lesson is that always when technical facilities such as these are available they tend to be used and the habit persists.

Social Surveys (Gallup Poll) have been regularly making surveys for Radio Luxembourg since 1952. During the intervening twelve years we have made at least 250 surveys, using the same methods as we have used during that period for our successful election forecasts. The stability of the figures throughout a year for some programmes has been surprising; there are instances where the figures for a programme in the course of twelve months have varied by no more than 0.1 per cent. This indicates an exceedingly faithful and loyal audience.

Radio Luxembourg have earned their continued success by technical excellence in transmission and by clearly defining to themselves their potential market and consistently going after it.

   

SOCIAL SURVEYS (GALLOP POLL) LTD,

211 Regent Street, London, W.1

Food for thought – especially for the media man

In co-operation with the Research Department of Mather and Crowther a survey into Radio Luxembourg listening habits and product/brand awareness was carried out during August and September 1964. We here quote extracts from that survey.

The survey is in two parts. Part A related to audience listening habits and these broadly confirmed results contained in the I.P.A. Survey 1963-64. The Luxembourg–Mather and Crowther investigation did, however, break the age groups into smaller sections and make an extremely interesting picture

LISTENING TO RADIO LUXEMBOURG WITHIN THE LAST SEVEN DAYS

CLASS GROUPS%
AB.18
C1.30
C2.34
DE.36
AGE GROUPS%
12 - 1563
16 - 1965
20 - 2451
25 - 2733
28 - 3426
35 - 4417

CAR OWNER WITH RADIO

41%

COMMENT. The age group figures confirm Radio Luxembourg’s own survey findings, that Luxembourg effectively reaches the vast majority of people in the 12–44 market. The number of regular listeners listening to Radio Luxembourg in cars is really impressive, illustrating again that Luxembourg ought to be considered when planning campaigns aimed at this very important section of the community.

LISTENING TO RADIO LUXEMBOURG BY HOURS

6.30–8.00 pm

23%

8.00–10.30

50%

10.30–12.30

38%

COMMENT. While the peak-time listening to Luxembourg remains constant, it is of special note that more people are tending to listen in the period  10.30–12.30 where spots can be bought cheaply, especially in the thirty minutes after midnight.

PROGRAMME LISTENING: 84 per cent of listeners stated that they found an interesting programme as soon as they tuned in, 53 per cent knew of their favourite programme through previously listening to Radio Luxembourg.

COMMENT. Luxembourg has, therefore, succeeded in keeping abreast of trends in entertainment; clients sponsoring these programmes are thus assured of being associated with entertainers who have maximum impact with the listening public. 80 per cent of listeners listen at home, 54 per cent while ‘relaxing’.

COMMENT. Surely the ideal time and mood to influence people with an effective sales message.

Part B of the survey deals with product/brand awareness on Radio Luxembourg.

Eight products were represented, forming an ideal cross-section of regular advertisers and fell into the following categories:

PETROL/OIL

WINES & SPIRITS

MEN’S COSMETICS

WOMEN’S COSMETICS

CONFECTIONERY

BEVERAGES

In all cases brand awareness was markedly increased by advertising on Radio Luxembourg.

Sales increased appreciably and in one particular case, in an extremely difficult market where no other advertising medium was used Luxembourg was responsible for a 15 per cent increase in sales.

CONCLUSION

These are necessarily brief extracts from a long and detailed report which will shortly be distributed. The fact remains, however, that Radio Luxembourg is the most inexpensive and effective advertising medium in reaching the very specialised market this is Luxembourg’s very own.

IS RADIO LUXEMBOURG ON YOUR SCHEDULE?

Audiences

AVERAGE NIGHTLY AUDIENCE

Proportion of the adult population listening to Radio Luxembourg at some time during the evening.

(Estimated population)

S E R I E S

SpringSummerAutumn
19547,450,0004,450,0008,900,000
19558,080,0003,760,0006,280,000
19566,050,0003,960,0005,440,000
19576,070,0005,090,0005,920,000
19584,930,0003,940,0005,010,000
19594,360,0003,910,0005,210,000
19605,542,0005,135,0005,502,000
19615,628,0005,330,0005,750,000
19626,290,0006,000,0005,840,000
19636,290,0006,500,0006,540,000
19646,170,0005,950,0005,300,000

AVERAGE NIGHTLY AUDIENCE

Spring Series–Yearly Comparisons

Percentage of all adults listening at some time during the evening to Radio Luxembourg

%

Source: Gallop Consolidated reports

AVERAGE NIGHTLY AUDIENCE

Summer Series–Yearly Comparisons

Percentage of all adults listening at some time during the evening to Radio Luxembourg

%

Source: Gallup Consolidated reports

AVERAGE NIGHTLY AUDIENCE

Autumn Series–Yearly Comparison

Percentage of all adults listening at some time during the eveing to Radio Luxembourg

%

Source: Gallup Consolidated reports

AVERAGE PROGRAMME AUDIENCE

Proportion of the adult population listening to the average Radio Luxembourg programme
(Estimated population)

S E R I E S

SpringSummerAutumn
19542,050,0001,100,0002,550,000
19552,160,000888,0001,560,000
19561,440,0001,120,0001,560,000
19571,660,0001,660,0001,850,000
19581,660,0001,100,0001,260,000
19591,180,000980,0001,260,000
19601,345,0001,386,0001,302,000
19611,386,0001,390,0001,470,000
19621,490,0001,530,0001,410,000
19631,570,0001,740,0001,700,000
19641,490,0001,570,0001,200,000

PROGRAMMES PER LISTENER

Average number of programmes on Radio Luxembourg heard per listener per evening
(Average for the series)

S E R I E S

SpringSummerAutumn
19544.03.24.5
19554.23.43.9
19563.22.83.4
19573.22.63.1
19583.02.93.0
19593.12.93.6
19603.63.23.8
19613.73.33.6
19623.93.63.8
19634.23.74.1
19644.03.83.6

AVERAGE PROGRAMME AUDIENCE

Spring Series–Yearly Comparisons

Percentage of all adults listening to the average Radio Luxembourg programme

%

Source: Gallup Consolidated reports

AVERAGE PROGRAMME AUDIENCE

Summer Series–Yearly Comparisons

Percentage of all adults listening to the average Radio Luxembourg programme

%

Source: Gallup Consolidated reports

AVERAGE PROGRAMME AUDIENCE

Autumn Series–Yearly Comparisons

Percentage of all adults listening to the average Radio Luxembourg programme

%

Source: Gallup Consolidated reports

1965 // THIS IS TRANSDIFFUSION