B-1 The Impact of Adventist World Radio in India and Russia

Buller Hall 149

Our team was awarded a contract to evaluate awareness of and impact of Adventist World Radio (AWR). There were three projects: (1) a literature review of Christian radio; (2) focus groups on AWR effectiveness; and (3) and an audience impact survey in two areas of India and Russia. This presentation is based on the audience impact survey. Approximately 500 surveys were collected in market places in two areas of India and 500 from Adventist Churches in these two areas. This methodology was repeated in Russia. These countries were chosen because AWR invested considerable resources in these counties. In India it was found that the majority of Church members were unaware of AWR and less than 5% in the market place had ever heard of AWR. Awareness was higher in Russia; 12% of the market place was aware of the existence of AWR with 86% of Church members aware. Within the market place, only two of the 500 individuals surveyed reported any impact from AWR. The data showed the difficulty of market awareness penetration in any culture but particularly in a non-Christian culture. AWR was primarily listened to by the elderly with youth noting that there was little of interest to them. The data suggested that AWR needed to work with churches to improve market impact, move from Shortwave to FM and more specifically apps and podcasts for brief messaging that can be shared by church members with friends and family, and focus on increasing the cultural contextualization of the messages and credibility of speakers.