It is a very competitive industry, each station strives to be top dog and be at the cutting edge of the radio business. Knowing where you stand as a station among the listening audience is crucial. Therefore research is essential to any commercial radio station. Through research, you can find out who is listening to your station, what target demographic they belong to, what they like or do not like about it. Where your station strengths or weaknesses are, how you may improve your ratings and who your biggest competitors are.
Research distinguishes real issues from noise, reason from rationalisation.
The findings collected through research can have an effect on the station's staff, clients, and its audience as well as the station itself. Let's say there is a particular presenter that really grinds the listeners' garters, research may show that this particular person is unpopular and causing the station's ratings to drop. If the ratings continue to drop through further surveys, and the garter-grinding presenter is found to still be one of the problems, then they could face a future in the unemployment queue. There are many ways a station can carry out research. The most accurate and reliable way is by using an outside research company.