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Thursday, July 12, 2007

High percent of audience listens to Radio Pakistan


High percent of audience listens to Radio Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: A survey conducted by Gallup Pakistan on the 'Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) in March 2007' has revealed that 91 percent of the radio audience listens to Radio Pakistan and only seven percent tune in to other stations.

Fifteen different PBC stations in the country and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) were included in the survey. People from across genders and age groups, different professions and education background, and rural and urban areas were questioned.

The survey report shows that 39 percent people are radio listeners whereas 61 percent people exclusively view TV. Of a total radio audience, 91 percent listen to Radio Pakistan and the rest tune in to foreign radio channels like BBC, VOA, AIR, and VOG.

Radio is more popular in rural areas where it has a 25 percent audience compared with 16 percent in urban areas. The survey report showed that 24 percent male radio listeners compared to 20 percent female listners throughout the country and that a majority of these tune in to radio on Fridays and Sundays.

It says radio is more popular among the youth and its listenership decreases with the increase in age. The education level of 24 percent of the listeners is middle grade, 24 percent matric/intermediate, 18 percent were illiterate, 21 percent primary, 21 percent graduate and 21 percent postgraduate. In addition, 66 percent of the audience listens to music, 48 percent listens to news and 44 percent listens to religious programmes.

There is a 100 percent listenership in the Muzaffarabad and Mirpur areas, where Hayya-Alal-Falah (Quran recitation/translation) has the highest audience of 65 percent while musical programmes are also popular.

In Islamabad, 92 percent of the audience - 45 percent regular and 29 percent occasional - listen to Radio Pakistan.

In Sindh, 22 percent radio listeners are in Karachi, 15 percent in Hyderabad/Mithi and 17 percent in Khairpur/Larkana. Most people in Karachi switch on the radio from 9:00 to 11:00 pm whereas in rural Sindh people listen to the radio between 9:00 and 10:00 pm.

In Balochistan, 54 percent listeners are in Quetta/Zhob/Loralai, 21 percent in Khuzdar/Sibbi and 16 percent in Gawadar/Turbat. The survey report says 62 percent people listen to local programme Awale, 57 percent to Navety-e-Sehr, 29 percent to Malgra and 67 percent to Khalqi-Kehvni.

In NWFP, the radio listenership is highest in Abbottabad (38 percent) followed by Kohat/Bannu/DI Khan (28 percent) and Peshawar (21 percent). Hayya-Alal-Falah and Her-Kaday-Aao are the most popular programmes besides news. The breakdown of radio listeners in Punjab is, Lahore/ Faisalabad (92 percent population), walpindi/Sargodha/Mianwali (23 percent population), and Multan/Bahawalpur (27 percent of the population). Hamari Duniya is the most favourite programme.

According to a previous Gallup poll, Radio Pakistan transmissions covered 80 percent of the area and 96.5 percent of the population.
[Daily Times]
(Zacharias Liangas, Greece/Cumbre DX)