Friday, December 18, 2009

NASB to conduct shortwave listener survey

Some time ago, the NASB obtained a quote from a reputable survey firm for conducting a survey to determine the number of shortwave listeners in North America, and some demographic characteristics of these listeners. As the cost was quite high, we attempted to find other shortwave stations that would be interested in sharing the cost with us. Unfortunately, not even one station offered to share in the cost of the survey, so we abandoned the idea. However, at this year's NASB annual meeting in Nashville, a suggestion was made that we conduct a survey of shortwave listeners through our NASB website, www.shortwave.org . This would not give us a figure as to the number of listeners in North America, but it would give us some valuable demographic information about the shortwave audience, not only in North America, but in other parts of the world as well.

A list of survey questions has been prepared, and a platform for the survey has been chosen. Bill Damick of TWR is coordinating the survey preparation, and it has tentatively been scheduled to go online in March of 2010. The survey will stay online for a period of one year, and final results will be announced at the 2011 NASB annual meeting. There will be a link to the survey on the NASB website, and we hope that our member organizations and other shortwave-related publications, websites and other entities will also publicize it.
(NASB Dec 09/Dan Elyea)