Media

RAJAR discovers the internet 

By | Published on Tuesday 7 June 2011

The people who compile the official ratings for the UK radio industry are going digital, people. Which, given the many and much previously reported weaknesses of the RAJAR system sounds exciting.

Until you realise that all that is happening is that the small sample group of radio listeners who keep diaries of their radio listening for RAJAR will be able to submit their lists of the stations and shows they listened to via a website rather than by post. Which, I think it’s fair to say, most of us probably assumed was the way it was already done.

But no, RAJAR is even more of a 1980s operation than we thought. Say what you like about Kelvin McKenzie, but when it came to his ‘RAJARS are rubbish’ rants during his brief stint running TalkSport, he did raise a number of very good points.

Seemingly very pleased that his team have worked out how to connect to the internet, RAJAR boss Jerry Hill announced the latest innovation by saying: “This is probably the biggest event in RAJAR’s history in terms of data collection. The notion of future-proofing the survey is a very powerful reason why this is so important for RAJAR”.

Of course, if we ever get to a point where the vast majority of radio listening is via the internet (assuming the internet could cope with such a thing) it would be fascinating to see the listening stats generated. While not foolproof, such stats would be much more reliable, and you can’t help thinking quite revealing.



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