By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
Three all-English radio channels fall short of their stated purposes of helping upgrade expats’ quality of life, according to the results of a recent satisfaction survey among foreign listeners.
In the survey, only 11.7 percent gave “excellent” marks, saying that the introduction of the radio stations helped enrich their life. These people said they were a good source of information, particularly about weather and traffic, and cultural and sporting events.
Nearly half of the respondents or 49.8 percent said the impact of these stations on their lives was minuscule.
About 37 percent said that listening to these channels didn’t improve their views or understanding of Korean corporations and their products. Fifty percent saw no change. Only 2.6 percent said that the stations helped a lot.
Only 7.1 percent said that their image of Korea become more positive thanks to the radio stations. More than two-thirds, or 67. 3 percent, said they didn’t help.
The survey also showed music and news programs are the most sought-after among the listeners with eight out of 10 listeners supporting the establishment of more English-only stations.
This was the first survey of its kind since the nation’s first English-only radio station in Seoul, TBS eFM, made its debut last December. At present, a total of three stations, including Busan e-FM and GFN in Gwangju, provide services 21 hours per day. Three more stations are to open this year in Ulsan, Daejeon and Daegu.
The survey was conducted for two months starting in mid-June by the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) and Korea Radio Promotion Agency, sampling 455 foreign residents listening to English-only radio programs now on air in Seoul, Incheon, Gyeonggi Province, Gwangju and Busan.
Fifty-one percent said they had recommended their friends listen to English radio channels. Thirty-seven percent listen to news programs. Domestic national news drew the keenest attention from listeners.
But those behind the findings admitted they may not be representative.
Jung Seung, the KCC official in charge of the survey, said, “The results do not represent all listeners’ attitude because we could not conduct a comprehensive survey due to budgetary limits.”
A foreign resident, who has been in Korea for 13 months, said that it was not just convenient for him to listen to radio.
“I rarely listen to it,’’ he said. “I need a car to listen to radio.” He said that he prefers to listen to music online and read English newspapers to check up on information.
Another foreigner, a long-term resident, said that radio was “so 20th centuryish.” He said that the contents of Arirang TV and radio stations were too amateurish and that he had stopped listening to them altogether.
Reactions by foreigners are mixed but, as the survey shows, all-English radio doesn’t meet foreigners’ high expectations.