Community Radio Broadcasting and Positioning

Abstract

Community radio in Australia comprises 340 independent not-for-profit organisations filling niche market segments. However, they often strongly compete with high profile mainstream commercial sophisticated broadcasting companies. For community radio to successfully compete means developing a clear market position to assist their program development, management system and promotion format. This paper explores the status of community radio organisations in Australia and examines the market research process adopted by one organisation to test and validate its market position. Both listeners and non-listeners of the station were sampled. Analysis indicated that for the community radio broadcaster they were well positioned by the cognitive understanding of their constituent members. This paper presents, tests and affirms the market position held by the organisation and the results provide affirmation to the programming content and broadcast structure. In addition it assists in filling a research gap as it relates to positioning and community radio organisations.