Remote Indigenous Radio is the highest rating radio in remote communities. Results of the 2016 Remote Audience Survey show that remote Indigenous radio is far and above the top rated station in remote communities!

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in remote communities have until now been largely unrepresented in surveys of radio and television preferences. The challenges of distance, lack of access to landline telephones, and the diversity of languages have created barriers to participation in the standard ways of gathering data from very remote areas.

With initial funding from the Community Broadcasting Foundation. IRCA has been working with many of the Remote Indigenous Media Organisations (RIMOs) to gather data on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander preferences for radio and television stations, news sources, radio and music content, sources of government information and language content. Data was also gathered on ways that people listen to and watch radio and TV, as well as reasons for listening to Indigenous radio.

Participating RIMOs have been crucial to the engagement of local Aboriginal and Torres Strait people as interviewers and in the coordination of many of the logistical challenges. Iona Matthews of IRCA has provided support to local interviewers as well as working alongside some of the interviewers. 

McNair Ingenuity Research has been a key partner in the implementation of the survey on computer tablets, training and accreditation of local community interviewers, and data analysis. McNair’s involvement in designing a flexible, field-based data collection methodology has provided a valuable approach for meeting with the challenges of remote community surveying. 

Results of the survey are available at an aggregated level across the surveyed communities. These aggregated results will support the work of IRCA in advocating for and representing the remote Indigenous media sector.  Participating RIMOs have also been provided with their own individual RIMO reports showing specific results for their RIBS area. The results of the survey will provide support for RIMOs in promoting their services as well as planning for content scheduling and distribution platforms.

IRCA’s Data Collection Policy was an important component of the survey implementation setting out data ownership and usage protocols. Specific RIMO results are confidential to the participating RIMOs, with individual RIMOs able to use the results to best meet their needs.

IRCA will be working with RIMOs in 2017 to identify further useful areas of analysis from the data collected. This will involve analysing different age groups and gender preferences for content and stations, as well as more detailed analysis of the reach of Indigenous radio and television to a range of other demographic groupings.

IRCA acknowledges the funding support from the Community Broadcasting Foundation, and from the Indigenous Advancement Strategy.

The support of the participating RIMOs, local interviewers and McNair Ingenuity Research has been vital to the completion of the survey. IRCA thanks the organisations and many people involved. 

Results of the survey are available at an aggregated level across the surveyed communities. The specific RIMO results are confidential to the participating RIMOs, with individual RIMOs able to use the results to best meet their needs. For more information contact Daniel Featherstone, General Manager IRCA on manager [at] irca.net.au, or phone 08 8952 6465.