By Jonathan Mbiriyamveka
Numerous radio stations and media organisations have been left unimpressed by the recent results of the Zimbabwe All Media Products Survey.
Of course, that would not be without reason – the survey indeed fell short of being worthy of credibility.
Zamps, as per its role, is supported to monitor and research on all media products in the country and give an informed analysis on consumption patterns and most importantly the popular media platforms and programmes.
While this data is important to advertisers and also media houses, it now lacks credibility and accuracy. This will result in some stations, whether TV or radio, losing advertisers and revenue due to the warped results.
From the look of it, Zamps is serving some interests while negating others.
The audiences have become global not just local, the tastes are now varied and wide while the reach is almost seamless. A number of radio stations are now live streaming, which means that their bulk listeners are now beyond Zimbabwe’s border.
But the big question is, is Zamps able to have an instrument to measure the listenership of those listening from diaspora, does Zamps have the instrument to measure the most popular presenters or programmes on certain radio stations? I guess the answer is a big NO!
This is after the organisers acknowledged that they didn’t have enough resources to conduct or run the last quarter survey.
And one of the glaringly challenges which now confronts Zamps is clearly the digital migration within the media.
This have given rise to several media houses in denouncing the Zamps results with the latest being a letter of withdrawal by Ray of Hope Broadcasting which trades as YA FM.
In a letter written to Zamps regarding first-quarter results released on 16 April 2024, YA FM expressed its displeasure and disappointment at the inadequacies by the research.
“For years, we have insisted on Zamps ensuring that the main geographic centres of Zimbabwe are included in their research. Unfortunately, they have chosen to exclude all the main mining towns in Zimbabwe that include Zvishavane, Gwanda, Flabusi, Shurugwi, Kwekwe and Chegutu,” the station said.
“It is not by coincidence that these are YA FM target region as the Pulse of the Great Dyke.”
Zamps proceeds to draw inference on listenership, presences, without acknowledging the evident omission.
“It is our hope that ZAMPS will seek to remedy these shortcomings. Failure to do so will damage the organization’s reputation and ensure that organizations such as ourselves request to be excluded in their future research,” the letter reads.
According to the results, it showed that Radio Zimbabwe now has less listenership than Star FM, Power FM and National FM — which are in fact niche radio stations. These are totally different stations in as far as their programming is concerned.
Secondly, the ZAMPS results lack credibility in that they always try to compare unlike products instead of like and like.
For instance, Radio Zimbabwe is not and will never be the same as Classic 263 the reason being that these radio stations have always been defined by the demography of their listeners and the way the programming is designed.
That said, Radio Zimbabwe is a mass market stations whereby even in terms of coverage it reaches wide and far than Classic 263, so comparing the two will be a big misnomer.
Technically, you cannot compare Radio Zimbabwe to Classic 263 or National FM since the number of transmitters countrywide are different with Classic 263 having less broadcasting transmitters.
Then another glaring challenge is how does ZAMPS lump all radio stations in one category or classify them the same. Instead, Zamps should assist each and every Radio station by looking at their programming and awarding them to what they are producing. Each station has its own best programs, best Announcer/DJ, the most listened to program etc, and this should be examined as such.
Clearly the classification of radio stations as it stands is warped. There has to be clear classifications of radio stations in terms of community stations, national stations and regional stations, and those that are also on livestreaming into the diaspora, whether through the World Wide Web or Facebook, etc. and the like as described by Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ).
While its noble for ZAMPS to conduct the research it will be a good idea to conduct their research station by station and that way it would give more accurate and relevant data. That way it would also not just make sense but also inform on the programming what changes need to be done and also improvements regarding the target audiences.
As mentioned, each station is unique so you cannot compare it to any other station that has its own demographics and content.
A sample of 1200 is oddly not good enough for such a survey and yet Zamps results are based on such a sample.
Like mentioned earlier on, nowadays some stations have reach beyond borders via online or streaming platforms and these audiences are not captured by ZAMPS because they don’t have the instrument to measure.
Added to this, ZAMPS has to be on the ground and this includes actual listening sessions station by station, knowing the Presenters of each Radio station and the station programming.
The issue of a Zamps Officer calling on all Radio stations a week before Zamps to provide names of all DJs/ Presenters and a list of programs/schedules without listening to the station will not do us good.
It cannot continue to send questionnaires to station managers about their programming and a lot of DJs/Presenters while the executives are based out of the country, does not make sense at all.
Zamps CEO, resigned recently sighting some of the challenges faced by her organisation.
It is Zamps which has to be on the ground and they should know what each station offers not to ask the same station managers or Station executives on which programme is popular or what they offer.
Imagine a situation where they ask an updated consolidated list of programs schedules and presenters’ names list.
This is not only a sign of laziness but also it shows lack of thoroughness or maybe resources by Zamps. And one can see why some radio stations and media organisations are disappointed at ZAMPS because the results are not a true reflection of what pertaining on the ground.
Seeing all these shortcomings it won’t be surprising to see radio stations conducting their own researches which they will gladly endorse while denouncing those produced by Zamps. It’s high time all stake holders get together and find out how best to conduct the surveys, maybe incorporating Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe and ZimStat, said one analysist, adding that Zamps should be dumped until they do things the right way.
“Some stations which are national were said to be regional or Harare based stations which is ridiculous, said one Executive Producer of a national Radio station.
“Some of the radio stations should be very careful not to be swayed on their national mandate by the so-called surveys and lose their direction.”
Maybe it’s time ZAMPS shape up or ship out!
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