Abstract:
The objectives of this study were to examine community radio program contents and demands for program
contents, and to analyze the match between the presentation of the radio program contents and demands for radio
program contents in Muang District, Trang Province. The research instruments were interviews with community
radio station directors, tape recordings, a questionnaire distributed to 55 community radio program organizers and
another questionnaire distributed to 400 used for local residents. The numerical data was analyzed by means of
frequency, arithmetic mean, percentage, t-test and One-way ANOVA. The results are as follows:
1. Most community radio programs at Muang District presented on-air magazine-type contents and other
specific content. The contents can be divided into 4 types: news, knowledge, opinion and entertainment. From the
data, the content can be divided into 4 levels: 1) content with a hih frequency of Thai folk, classic and country
songs, health news, miscellaneous knowledge and health knowledge; 2) content with a low frequency of news
items such as those on crime, natural disasters, education, religion and entertainment forms such as radio drama,
Talung plays and Thai urban songs; 3) content with a low frequency of information about agriculture, health,
education, law, politics, society, religion, language and culture, economics local social problems and entertainment,
opinions about 4) no content involving opinions about local political problems and national politics.
2. The local people at Muang District, expect all of these content varieties. When considering each type, the
following contents were most in demand in this order of preference: 1) local news regarding health, economics and
natural disasters; 2) knowledge about health, law and society; 3) opinions about economics and earning a living,
local politics and social problems in the local area; and 4) Thai country, classic, folk and international songs.
3. When analyzing the match between the actual content and people’s demands, the programming was
judged to be consistent with people’s demands with regard to entertainment. However, in regard to news,
knowledge and opinion, these were below expectations since the people wanted a lot of these 3 types of content
whereas presentation frequency was low.
The results show that the community radio programs in Muang District of Trang Province present a variety
of contents which are not consistent with public demand. Therefore, community radio stations should offer
opportunities to local people to get involved in the operations of the radio stations in terms of creating, planning,
managing and organizing radio programs to better serve the needs of local people in accordance with the
underlying principles of community radio. In addition, local administrative organizations should support
community radio by arranging training courses to develop radio organizers’ potential since many community
radio stations lack the expertise and skills needed to present specific content.