Commercial Radio Australia’s “future-proofing” of audience measurement will include a new quarterly behavioural tool that will gauge listener response to advertising, emotional connection to stations and motivations for listening.

Dr Morten Boyer (pictured), general manager at GfK media, the research firm tasked with the biggest overhaul of radio ratings in decades, revealed the new measurement system called “Audienscope” at the 2013 National Radio Conference in Brisbane this morning.

Boyer said Audienscope would “complement traditional radio ratings by taking a more holistic view of listener behaviour by getting to know who they actually are”.

This method will include listener reaction to advertising and why people garner emotional connections to radio stations.

Boyer also said that GfK would monitor sales of audio-enabled devices – which has hit almost nine million in the past year (up 23%) – so that it can generate insights into what may influence future listening behaviour.

It’s all about building an individual listener profile and giving insights for improved radio sales and programming," he said.

This introduction of the new era of audience measurement next year will also include a broadening of the methods used to interact with listeners and interpretation of ratings results.

This includes going “multi-mode” with a new door-to-door paper diary survey recruitment, which will make up 80% of the data collection, and a new online e-diary making up the other 20%.

“We’ve introduced online recruitment through e-diaries that can be accessed on a range of platforms measuring radio listeners,” said Boyer.