Regional radio surveys will resume in 2021 following a hiatus last year, with 25 surveys planned for the year, industry body Commercial Radio Australia has announced.

Ratings results for the Western Australian city of Geraldton will be the first to be released on March 9.  Other major centres to be surveyed this year include Hobart, Darwin, Townsville, Gosford, Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba and Shepparton.

Joan Warner, chief executive officer for industry body Commercial Radio Australia, said Xtra Insights, which has been the official regional radio survey provider since 2014, will undertake the audience research following a one-year extension to their contract.

“We’re pleased to continue our partnership with Xtra Insights and resume the important task of measuring regional radio audiences,” she said.  

Xtra undertakes all regional radio surveys for the industry except Newcastle, Canberra and Gold Coast, which come under the GfK radio audience measurement contract.

Xtra has conducted more than 100 regional radio surveys across 47 regional markets since 2014 and provides information on the stations listened to most. The reach and frequency data is available through Frequency, a Gold Standard certified software system.

“2020 was an incredibly challenging year for the Australian radio industry, so we’re thrilled that the regional surveys will be returning in 2021 with fieldwork and preparations already underway for a number of markets,” said Xtra research director & acting head of radio audience measurement, Hannah Lovegrove.

“We’re pleased to announce that recent innovations to reporting software, Frequency, now allow for the generation of multi-week reach and frequency schedules, which we hope will be of great benefit to both agencies and broadcasters,” she said.

Meanwhile, the first metropolitan radio survey of 2021 will also be released this week. GfK will issue the results of Survey 1 on March 11.