{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.018729096989966554, 'fraction_numerical': 0.005351170568561873, 'mean_word_length': 5.504347826086956, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Radio audience research: Challenging the ‘gold standard’

Abstract Since 1992, the BBC and the commercial radio sector have carried out radio audience research using a jointly agreed methodology ‐ one producing data that until recently enjoyed the status of a ‘gold standard’. In 2000, increasingly strident calls for this human recall methodology to be replaced by new, electronic forms of audience measurement led to the breakdown of a consensus that had served much of the industry well in concealing legitimate concerns about reliability and appropriateness. This chapter sets current radio audience research in both historical and international contexts, and examines the recent controversy over different methodologies that apparently produce contrasting results. It uses data produced by a number of approaches to highlight inconsistencies that, if not resolved, may damage radio's credibility among advertisers, regulators and industry observers alike. It describes the very public dispute that led to the formation of the breakaway Little Guys Radio Association by the former Sun editor, Kelvin MacKenzie ‐ and in response, research by Radio Joint Audience Research Ltd into competing systems of electronic measurement. In doing so, the chapter asks fundamental questions about what constitutes listening to the radio, and whether mere exposure ‐ if not legitimised by recall ‐ is sufficient to justify the industry's claims on the revenues it derives from licence fees and advertisers.