This is how many people are listening to South Africa’s most popular radio stations
New data released by the Broadcast Research Council in South Africa (BRC) shows which radio stations in the country are the most popular among listeners in 2016.
In its January to September review, the BRC published the estimated listenerships of 39 commercial radio stations and 233 community stations across the country, using a sample of 53,396 listeners.
The BRC estimates that there are approximately 38.3 million radio listeners in South Africa, making it the most consumed form of media in the country, with most listeners (60%) living in urban areas.
The rest of the listenership is split evenly (20% each) across small urban and rural areas, the BRC said.
The group’s data shows that on any given week, there are 35 million people listening to radio stations in South Africa, with approximately 28.6 million tuning in every day.
This penetration and pervasiveness of radio broadcast is across the country, with even the lowest tune-in rate (Northern Cape) still being at 80%.
Other interesting facts to come from the data:
- South Africans listen to the radio for 4 hours and 6 minutes a day, on average. The Free State has the longest tune-in time of 5 hours, while Gauteng listens for the shortest time at 3 and a half hours.
- Sesotho and Swati listeners tune-in the longest at 4 hours and 36 minutes. English listeners tune-in for the shortest time at 3 hours 12 minutes.
- More than half of listeners (52%) are considered ‘heavy listeners’ – tuning in for more than 20 hours a week.
- 64% of listeners only listen to one station.
- Portable radios are still the most widely-used device for listing to radio stations (76%) – followed by cellphones (37%), car radios (26%), desktop computers (8%) and laptops (2%).
These are the biggest radio stations in South Africa
# | Radio station | Audience |
---|---|---|
1 | Ukhozi FM | 7 294 000 |
2 | Umhlobo Wenene FM | 5 208 000 |
3 | Metro FM | 3 968 000 |
4 | Lesedi FM | 3 440 000 |
5 | Thobela FM | 2 819 000 |
6 | Motsweding FM | 2 640 000 |
7 | RSG | 1 488 000 |
8 | Gagasi FM | 1 408 000 |
9 | Jacaranda FM | 1 325 000 |
10 | Ikwekwezi FM | 1 294 000 |
11 | Munghana Lonene FM | 1 020 000 |
12 | East Coast Radio | 988 000 |
13 | 947 | 952 000 |
14 | Ligwalagwala FM | 947 000 |
15 | 5FM | 865 000 |
16 | Kaya FM 95.9 | 858 000 |
17 | Phalaphala FM | 838 000 |
18 | Heart 104.9 FM | 832 000 |
19 | YFM 99.2 | 706 000 |
20 | KFM | 675 000 |
21 | Good Hope FM | 612 000 |
22 | Algoa FM | 588 000 |
23 | 702 | 530 000 |
24 | Capricorn FM | 473 000 |
25 | Radio 2000 | 447 000 |
26 | OFM | 282 000 |
27 | Lotus FM | 274 000 |
28 | North West FM | 212 000 |
29 | SAfm | 175 000 |
30 | Smile 90.4FM | 140 000 |
31 | trufm | 129 000 |
32 | Power 98.7 | 103 000 |
33 | CapeTalk | 79 000 |
34 | Vuma 103 FM | 77 000 |
35 | Classic FM 102.7 | 71 000 |
36 | Rise FM | 47 000 |
37 | LM Radio | 15 000 |
38 | Magic828 AM | 11 000 |
39 | X-K FM 107.9 | 6 000 |