It was initially set up in 1992 to align, design and operate a single audience measurement system for UK licensed radio stations. It is ran by a board that which decide its strategy, governance and decisions of policy and TMG (Technical Management Group) involved in RAJAR are more focused on technical researching and the decisions involved with data collection.
It doesn't actually collect the data itself, it contracts third parties to do so on their behalf, but they then have overall quality control of the data, delivery of the findings and control over the contracts too.
It's current contracts were awarded in 2007, to Ipsos-MORI for fieldwork and reporting and RSMB for weightlifting and sample design.
It is a deadlocked company, meaning all decisions require agreement for all share holders in the company, this means it can be a highly trustworthy and reliable service. Additionally it is a not for profit company, it is funded by an annual fee payable in part by the BBC License Fee and part by commercial stations that pay a subscription fee in order to use the service for their station.
The listening figures are collected through 'diaries' given to a sample of people, with a maximum of 1 adult and 2 children completing them per household.
Commercial stations that have a total survey area population of 4-6 million will use a minimum sample of 1000 people gathered over 3 months. Those with 1-4 million will use a sample of 800 people built up over 6 months. Those with a reach 4% or lower in their total service area can choose a longer reporting period than the board outlines.
Their findings are collected over 50 weeks in the year, and prior to diaries, the participants are required to highlight the specific stations they are the most likely to listen to across the 50 weeks, both online and on paper. Reports are published every quarter of the year except national stations.
It's figures collected most recently in the 2nd quarter of 2015 include:
48.2 million adults (89.9%) tuned in each week to listen to radio which means 1.05 billion hours of radio were listened to every week.
On average, 21.7 hours were listened to by an individual, weekly. 55% of people listened to digital weekly, proving the rid of DAB radio in the UK due to its increased accessibility.
This graph shows that radio listening via online devices was up 13% in adults and that 36% of 15-24 year listen to the radio on this way at least once a month:
Some good notes here on the work of RAJAR. Perhaps you could develop this further to include listening figures for some local radio stations?
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