Radio Station Research

Introduction
Music is a general love of almost every college student. Many develop their personalities, profiles, and various other tastes based on their listening choices. In general, many college students acquire the same spectrum of listening values. If a radio station, one that wishes to target the college student population, can discover the musical preferences of the general population of students, they will be able to grow within the specific market.
Since the target market is of a personality of the student, generally a crowd that has the same likes and dislikes as his/her peers; the target musical format should be fairly easy to determine. Unlike the 25-33 crowd or 40 and up crowd, where their musical preferences range far and wide, each college student has almost the same understanding of their values. Possible reasons for this may be peer pressure or self-morale gains, yet it still exists among the college crowd. Thus, a common format may be simpler for a station targeting the college format.
The station will be able to gain knowledge for its possible advertisers by analyzing its target population?_s needs and wants. Plus, they will be able to acknowledge the possible locations of the students, where they go and what they do. The ultimate goal is to find out where the students are spending their money, so advertising can be solicited into purchasing radio time. Advertisers wish to have some ??concrete?? data when analyzing which station they wish to spend their money on through airtime. The purpose of this study is to give the possible clients the facts placed in front of them as well as educate them as to where our target is going and the possibilities of gathering our target audience to their place of business.
Consumer behavior will come into play in the study, since part of the goal is to gather information on the needs and wants of the consumer, or radio listener. Analysis of behavior is more difficult to determine, because the data collected is based on values and personal judgment. Little data collected will be concrete, since the student will be revealing based on opinions, not facts. However, opinions sometimes hold strong enough to reach a borderline to fact.
Scope of the Study
The study was a descriptive design with an emphasis on the listening preferences of college students. Data was acquired as to which brand of music, or radio format, is most appealing to college students, such as alternative, rock, country, R&B, etc.
Also, data was collected regarding the basic needs of the students as well as the distances they wished to travel to acquire their needs. Other gatherings included the desired radio format, amount of interest in the radio, impact of personalities, and several shopping tastes the student has.
Analysis of the location of the target, how often they listen to the radio, what time they listened to the radio, and traveling distance, both overall and for necessities, were acquired to gain a general knowledge of the target market.
Methods Used
The main source of the study was through conducting a survey. A survey was offered randomly to college students on the campus of the University of Nevada-Reno. The sampling was nonprobability-random, because of the nature of the issuance of the surveys. However, coverage was broad, because the survey was issued to students ranging from freshman to senior. After the survey was conducted, a total of 57 surveys were collected. The information from the surveys included questions such as their listening preferences, time of day they listen to the radio, amount of time spent listening to the radio, and where they spend the most amount of time listening to the radio, such as in their car, at home, at work, or at school. Next, students were asked several questions in regards to their favorite radio formats. Such questions included were their favorite morning show, type of morning show they most desire, and how much of an impact the radio personality, or disc jockey, placed on the student. These questions were used to determine the students?_ tastes in format as well as how much of an impact the format places on them.
Also, demographics of the students, age, marital status, gender, and ethnicity, were collected. The data collected will help determine a possible correlation between the student and the other categorical questions.
Another important factor placed on the survey was the location of the student. If one can determine the general concentrated population area of most students, they will be able to determine the possible advertising companies to target. Along with location, questions were asked to determine how far a student travels when they purchase their everyday needs, like groceries, food (dining), clothing, and gasoline. Another item collected was the students?_ interests in participating in promotions and contests. Along with the students?_ interests in promotions, they were asked to see how far students would travel to participate in radio promotions. This information is mostly useful to persuade potential advertisers, where the station will be able to determine the target locations of the students. If there shows a concentration of student population in a certain area and they travel to primarily the same areas, endorsements will be extremely beneficial in the target locations. Another category used was to show how the students?_ spend their money. Do they spend it mostly on electronics, clothing, technology, sporting goods, home furnishings, entertainment, or some other goods?
Secondary data was used as a ??back up?? to the survey. Since the survey was involving a small portion of the population, some data may be skewed. The secondary data was used as a form of a guide to the survey results. It was there to ensure that the student population was represented, even with a small sample. Forms of secondary data used included journals, magazines, newspapers, the Internet, and other online databases.
Results
Age
To ensure that the entire student population was covered, the average age was calculated. The results show an average age of 23.5 with a standard deviation of 5.5. Thus, the range of age was reached, with one deviation ranging from 18 to 29.
Gender
The results of the survey show that 66.7 percent of women versus 33.3 percent of men were surveyed. The survey was slightly skewed in this manner, but the coverage was still reached. Also, the majority of the survey was a single crowd. 77.2% of the poll was single, compared to 22.8% being married.
Musical format
From the survey, the data collected showed the students?_ preferences of format based on a 1-5 scale, with 5 being most favorite. After the data was analyzed, the following shows the college students preferences based on their mean:
1. Alternative-3.0
2. R&B-3.0
3. Rock-2.81
4. Hip Hop-2.71
5. Pop-2.60
6. Classic Rock-2.40
7. Rap-2.39
The proper radio format would be to play a mix of alternative music with some rock.
Time of Day
The survey for to acquire when the student listens to the radio was a very similar format to the one in acquiring their favorite tastes. Four categories, morning, afternoon, evening, and late night, were used. Students were to rate the categories from 1-4, with 1 being the time of day the person listened mostly. The ...

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