ABSTRACT
This study is to determine the Assessment of AKBC Radio Listenership Pattern among Students of Heritage Polytechnic, Eket, 2018 / 2019 session. Some of the research objectives were used to guide the study and these were; to find out whether student of Heritage Polytechnic, Eket, do listen to AKBC Radio, to find out how often the student listen to AKBC Radio. The survey method was adopted for the study. The population of the study was 7,044 students. Simple random sampling technique was used to select a sample of 360 students. Questionnaire was found as a reliable instrument of data collection. The data gathered was analysed using frequency table. Findings showed that the students have been listening to AKBC radio, majority of the students listen to AKBC Radio daily. The researcher recommended that AKBC radio should regularly report events and happening within the school so as to encourage students to listen to the station. And also internet connectivity as well as online relay of AKBC radio programmes should be effected to enhance the reach of the students.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Radio is an essential mass medium that virtually every member of the society benefit from kwuewumi (2009) asserts that Radio has radicalized the face of human communication and ultimately become a fixed in the daily lives of humans where by people are informed, taught, nurtured and reformed by way of relaxation. This he argued, makes radio as a medium of mass communication being constantly sought after by its ardent listeners. Radio is the wireless transmission of signals through free space by electromagnetic radiation of a frequency significantly below that of visible light, in the radio frequency range, from about 30khz to 300ghz.
Egbuchulam (2017) defined radio as a mobilizer and a formidable factor in the new world order in economy technology and politics. Radio is best described as the cheapest, safest and the most effective medium of communication available to man. According to Onabajo (1999), in the developing world as in Asia and Africa, radio is cheap, it does not cost much compared to television which is expensive. It is also portable i.e it can be easily transported from one place to another. It is credible, as it transmits message that its listeners hold important. Radio can also present news as it happens, brings the voices of news makers and artist into the homes of listeners. It also provides dramatic shows and other entertainment, which students can visualize even in the absence of visuals. For that reason, radio enjoys the advantage of simultaneously. It is a good companion that entertains and informs the students.
Kwuewumi (2009) asserted that a world without radio will be like a garden without flowers and trees. Radio daily feeds us with information, teaches us and calms our nerves. If radio is well understood and its potentials realized, hardly will there be any one that will live without a radio. Many anxious moments will be healed.
Radio is a vehicle for projecting personality through which it attracts and holds an audience. It is an efficient instrument for getting a message to a large number of people at the same time, because it transcends the boundary if space and time, and also leaps across illiteracy barriers (Onabajo, 1999).
Egbuchulam (2002) asserts that radio has been a major communication tool for improving the quality of people’s lives, bringing to their door step news, entertainment and education through its programmes, despite the world wide enchantment with the internet and web based learning, radio still retains the advantaged communities aspiring to overcome the barriers of illiteracy and physical distance in many countries. Students us and relate to radio in very different ways compared to other media. Students use radio for various reasons one of which is for emotional support, to keep their spirits up through programmes, and the result will determine to a large extent the pattern students would have to programmes. People listen to radio to informed, entertained, educate follow their favourite football team, and follow fashion trends or popular music, among others.