Rural womens radio listening behavior and program preferences in SNNPRS, the case of Sidama and Gedeo Zones

The objective of the study was to identify rural women's radio program preferences and listening behaviours. Survey was used to gather information from 200 rural women selected through multistage sampling from Sidama and Gedeo Zones. Descriptive statistic such as frequency and percentage were used to present results. Moreover, association among the different variables was tested using correlation and multiple regressions. Result from Pearson Correlation analysis indicated that there exist significant but negative association between radio listening hours and variables such as number of children, habit of listening before marriage, skill to operate radio, and education level. The result of the multiple liner regression indicated that a significant regression equation was found (F5,136)=8.679, p=0.0005) with an R2 of 0.242. Education with β-.263; p=0.001, makes the largest unique contribution to explaining the dependent, and listening habit before marriage is the next strongest unique contributor with β.242; p=0.003.  Based on the results, it was recommended that health and agricultural issues should be included in programming; that more local news should be presented, that more traditional music be selected, and that program for women should be aired in the morning and evening times.    Key words: Behaviour, Listening, Preference, Radio, SNNPR, Women, Gedeo, Sidama.