Listeners' Attitude and Perception of Radio Stations' Image After Reformatting: Campus Radio 97.1 and Mellow Touch 94.7

Abstract

This study primarily aimed to establish whether radio listeners' attitude towards their preferred or choice radio station's reformat influences their perception of the station's new corporate image. The two defunct station formats under study are the former Campus Radio 97.1 and Mellow Touch 94.7 which are now BarangayLS 97.1 and Mellow 94.7 respectively. To measure listeners' attitude and perception of their preferred station's reformat and new image, survey questionnaires based on a survey instrument called What is Your Attitude Towards Change?" by Pierce, Grube, Gardner, Cummings, and Dunham (1989) were distributed. A purposive sample of 70 respondents were gathered with 37 respondents being listeners of the former Mellow Touch 94.7 while 33 were former listeners of Campus Radio 97.1. This study found that radio listeners' attitude towards a radio station's change in format or reformat can influence their perception of the station's new image by eliciting two responses 一 one that is positive and allows the acceptance of the new format and image or one that is negative and rejects the station's new format and image. This study also proves that attitude towards a station's reformat does influence perception of the station's corporate image wherein when the reformat is viewed positively and the new format is accepted, the station's new corporate image is also accepted. In the same light, when a station's reformat is viewed negatively and the new format is rejected, the result will be rejection of the station's new corporate image.