Radio vs social media

The question

FEBC had been broadcasting in Cambodia for years, on Family-FM in Kampong Thom and through the Voice of Love Facebook page. Radio listenership across the country was sliding while smartphones spread, and they needed to know what that shift meant for them before investing further in either direction.

Research that had to bend

The original plan was household surveys in both Pursat and Kampong Thom provinces to measure radio listenership and who the listeners were. Then COVID arrived, with travel restrictions that made the plan impossible as designed. We recalibrated: household surveys in Kampong Thom for the radio side, and a comparative social media campaign run from Pursat to measure what Facebook ads could reach and who engaged with them.

Field research in Cambodia rarely survives contact with reality intact. The method has to serve the question, not the other way around.

What the data said

Radio's core audience was 25 to 49 years old, and the decline was sharpest among younger listeners. On the digital side, engagement was strongest among users under 34, with video content doing the heavy lifting. Two audiences, barely overlapping, and the younger one growing.

Our recommendation to FEBC was a blended approach: keep the radio infrastructure that serves the audience it still has, and put deliberate weight behind digital and social channels for the audience radio is losing. Not an easy message for a broadcaster, but the numbers were clear, and they asked the question because they wanted a real answer.