PETALING JAYA: Among the top-three Chinese radio stations, 988FM is the only one that saw a jump in exclusive listenership on a weekly basis, according to the latest GfK Radio Audience Measurement Survey (RAM) for 2020.
Its exclusive listeners jumped 33% or 202,000 during the survey period.
Also, 988FM’s weekly cumulative audience reached the two-million milestone and it recorded the highest weekday and weekend listenership among Chinese radio stations.
The survey showed 988FM’s weekday and weekend listenership overtook other Chinese radio stations to become the most-listened-to station on Mondays to Fridays, as well as Saturdays to Sundays. Weekly listenership for weekdays and the weekend stood at 1.92 million and 1.57 million, respectively.
It also remained as a preferred Chinese radio station, grabbing 42% or two million listeners out of the 4.74 million total listenership of Chinese radio stations.
Also, it was the top Chinese radio station in the southern and northern regions.
The survey also showed 20% of 988FM’s listeners had an average monthly household income of RM8,000, while more than 500,000 listeners were professionals, managers, executives and businesspeople or PMEBs, up 25% from a year ago.
The non-working-adult category – including those unemployed, looking for work, retired and aged pensioners – made up about 385,000 listeners, representing a 41% year-on-year (y-o-y) growth.
Meanwhile, students accounted for 328,000 listeners, representing a 22% y-o-y growth.
Also, 988FM’s listeners aged between 45 and 49 increased by 12% y-o-y, while listeners aged between 15 and 19 more than doubled.
The lockdowns resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic also saw a change in the media consumption pattern, with several programmes on 988FM reporting higher listenership during the survey period.
The “Morning Up” programme hosted by Chan Fong, Emily and Joycelyn continued to outperform with the weekly listenership expanding to 1.36 million, making it the most-listened-to Chinese radio programme in the morning slot.
The segment’s exclusive listeners grew by 64,000, and achieved 715,000 exclusive listenership.
The “Standby You” programme hosted by Chrystina Ng, which airs from 10am till 1pm, had 699,000 listeners, making it the most-listened-to radio programme compared with other Chinese programmes within same time slot.
The popular segment also captured the most number of exclusive listeners (480,000) among Chinese radio stations in the recent survey.
As for the “Energy Go” (1pm-4pm) programme hosted by Chloe and Brandon, which focuses on health, gym and music, it garnered 592,638 listeners, thus making it the top Chinese programme during the same time slot.
For the “Power Show” (4pm-7:30pm) evening drive time, a total of 1.165 million listeners tuned in to the programme hosted by Danny One, Cassey and Fish.
They added 56,000 listeners and was the only programme that registered a 5.05% growth in listenership among the top-three Chinese radio stations based on weekly listenership.
Meanwhile, “Topline News” (7:30pm-8pm), a programme that focuses on daily major news, not only recorded the highest weekly listenership (356,000) but also recorded the highest time spent listening (56 minutes), and had the top in exclusive listenership (286,000) compared with other Chinese programmes in the same time slot.
Also, Chan Fong’s Friday night programme (8pm to midnight), “City Heartbeat”, registered 200,000 weekly listenership in this survey.
It also had the highest exclusive listenership of 193,000, in addition to being dubbed as the most popular, compared with other Chinese programmes in the same time slot.
The weekend programme hosted by veteran deejays Sean and Xiao Lam “Yum Cha” (623,000) on Saturday (7am-10am), as well as the Sunday morning programme “Those Days” (494,000) hosted by Sean, recorded the highest weekly listenership among Chinese radio stations during the same time slots.
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