Close on twenty thousand online listeners, indicating 150 000 traditional listeners – this is the latest figure released for Nelson Mandela Bay based niche-caster, Kingfisher FM.‘Last month they had 19 840 unique listeners on audio streaming’, said Chris Grant of the NetDynamix Group in an independent report.
‘These listeners have an average TSL (time-spent-listening) of 2 hours and 55 minutes (and) are in line with stations that have RAMS of around 150 000 traditional listeners,’ the report said.
‘That’s very impressive’, said Grant.
‘The great thing about these figures, are that they’re not a thumb-suck or a guesstimate or a projection of a four-digit weighted sample onto a seven-digit population,’ said Theunis Pienaar of Kingfisher FM. ‘These are real and quantifiable, actual figures. There is no doubt about them & they aren’t dated either. This gives us the ability to see the real picture about our product & our progress, enabling us to respond in a now-context of multi-platform media which cannot wait three or six months for audience figures.’
Rayno Grundling of Nitsec, who provides & manages the station’s technology solutions, said the new figure indicates a massive growth for the station. ‘In December 2011 the station had 1750 online listeners. We started rolling out a new streaming solution in February. Growing online listenership to almost twenty-thousand, in such a short period, is indeed very impressive,’ Grundling said.
‘We believe our current growth can be contributed to a few things,’ said Xandre van der Berg, the station’s product & development manager. ‘We launched a fresh new brand in February. This included new product elements with a very strong focus on simplicity, quality local information and intelligent, current opinion. We also launched a well designed advertising campaign, to raise awareness for the station’s offering, utilizing diverse platforms such as newspaper print-, outdoor-, online- and television-advertising.
‘Our product has gone way beyond that of a single-medium terrestrial broadcaster’, said Zelda George, the station’s marketing manager. ‘Kingfisher FM is a new generation, multi-platform product with radio at the core of its service offering, enhanced with a website, 7 blogs, extended Social Media coverage and direct personal contact into our community.’
‘It is niche-casting’, said Wouter van der Westhuizen, a director of the company. ‘People form tribes around values. Our offering is aimed at a very specific tribe. We don’t apologize for that. It is our strength. People who are serious about constructive change, positive family values, our environment, relational living and making a real difference in our community – influencers – they’re part of our growing tribe. They’re the people who share life with us from day to day, making our little bit of world awesome.’
