North Wales community radio station sees huge increase in listeners during lockdown.
Written by admin on 24/05/2020
Thousands of new listeners have tuned in to listen to Sound Radio during lockdown, seeing the community radio station go from strength to strength.
The community radio station who were awarded an Ofcom FM licence in December have been broadcasting vital information on the COVID-19 outbreak in the UK and North Wales to listeners 24 hours a day. Volunteer presenters have continued to present radio shows from home in make shift studios to continue their work to the community.
This work has paid off with a massive increase in listeners to the radio studio during the same period of time (March 1st to May 24th) in 2019, stats have shown that listenership has increased by 58.1% since last year. During the time of lockdown (23rd March to 24th May) their has been a 56.41% increase in listeners. The station has also seen a increase in social media and website activity during the lockdown.
Sound Radio Director Craig Kennealey said,
It is great to see the increase in listeners during this very concerning time for people in our community, we hope our output has provided listeners with important and correct information while also being a comfort and entertainment to people during this crisis. The increase also shows how much of an importance community radio is to the people of North Wales, we aim to continue our quality output into the future and we’d like to thank everyone for listening.
Additionally, Ofcom reported last month in its COVID-19 research on media consumption and attitudes that 2% of respondents said that they have used community radio to get COVID-19-related information/news during lockdown. Also 63% of respondents gave community radio a trust rating of 4 or more out of 5 (commercial radio 60%, BBC radio 78%).
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