PRESOLICITATION NOTICE
B -- MUSIC STUDY FOR THE MIDDLE EAST BROADCAST INITIATIVE
- Notice Date
- 12/6/2001
- Notice Type
- Presolicitation Notice
- Contracting Office
- Broadcasting Board of Governors, Associate Director for Management, Office of Contracts (M/CON), 330 C Street, SW, Room 2500, Washington, DC, 20237
- ZIP Code
- 20237
- Solicitation Number
- CON-02-0002
- Response Due
- 12/21/2001
- Archive Date
- 1/5/2002
- Point of Contact
- Lesley Isaac, Contracting Officer, Phone 202-619-1623, Fax 202-205-1921 - Gloria Sweetney, Contracting Officer, Phone 202-619-1623, Fax 202-205-1921
- E-Mail Address
-
lisaac@ibb.gov, gsweetney@ibb.gov
- Description
- This is a written Request for Quotation (RFQ) No. CON-02-0002 pursuant to procurement of the required services as described below using the Simplified Acquisition Procedures specified in Part 13 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). Price quotations submitted in response to this RFQ that exceed the Simplified Acquisition Threshold (as defined in FAR Subpart 2.101, Definitions) will not be considered as responsive to this RFQ. The Broadcasting Board of Governors' International Broadcasting Bureau (BBG/IBB) has a requirement for a contractor to conduct a study of the musical tastes of young publics in the Middle East. Quoters are herein requested to submit written price quotations and technical capabilities/experience information for conducting research as outlined below. 1) OVERALL PROJECT DESCRIPTION: The International Broadcasting Bureau is developing a major new radio service, broadcasting in Arabic, for the countries of the Middle East. In its initial phases, the service will be primarily designed to reach younger (age 30 and below) listeners in the Levant, Egypt, and the Gulf. As the station's programming shall include significant amounts of contemporary popular music - both Arabic and Western - in depth research into the musical tastes and preferences of the target audience is required. Research shall be conducted by playing musical excerpts to a sample drawn from the target audience and recording reactions to a brief questionnaire designed to elicit listeners likes and dislikes, as well as the intensity of their preferences. 2) RESPONSIBILITIES OF CONTRACTOR: It is anticipated that this project will be handled by a single contractor, who shall sub-contract as necessary with other firms for conduct of any fieldwork. The Prime Contractor shall be responsible for preparation, oversight, and analysis of all research necessary to address the substantive topics of interest outlined above. This shall include: (1) Regular consultation, by phone and in person, with IBB staff and consultants to ensure common understanding of research objectives. (It is assumed that this shall entail at least one full day meeting with IBB staff in Washington and one additional full day in Washington for presentation of research findings at conclusion of project.); (2) Selection of research sub-contractor(s) for any field work; (3) Sub-contracting as required with selected field work providers; (4) Oversight of any field work carried out on this project, including training of local sub-contractors in music research techniques; (5) Drafting of research instrument(s); (6) Translation of research instrument(s) (may be handled by the subcontractor) and back-translation for verification purposes; (7) Ensuring provision of clean data by the sub-contractor(s) , to specifications outlined below; (8) If necessary, arranging for acquisition of tape recorders and/or CD players for the sub-contractor's field staff to allow music testing during interviews; (9) The preparation of final, machine readable data file containing results of research in each location; (10) In-person presentation of overall findings and recommendations at IBB headquarters in Washington, D.C. 3) DESCRIPTION OF REQUIRED FIELDWORK: It is assumed that the sub-contractor(s) selected by the prime contractor for this project shall be responsible for carrying out the fieldwork. However, it is the prime contractor's ultimate responsibility to ensure that any fieldwork is carried out to the standards and specifications outlined in Sections 3.1 through 3.3 below. The study shall be based on fieldwork as follows: 3.1 Sample. The research for this project shall be carried out in Cairo, Amman, and Bahrain. The research shall be based on samples drawn from the target population for the new radio service described above. In the initial stage of sampling, recognized probability techniques shall be used to select households for screening to ascertain the presence of eligible household members. In the event that a selected household does not contain any members eligible for this study, or eligible members within the household refuse to participate, successive additional households shall be identified, again based on recognized probability techniques, until a substitute respondent has been successfully recruited. In no case shall more than one respondent be drawn from the same household. In each city, four separate sample of 25 respondents shall be drawn as follows: (a) males, age 17 - 22, (b) females, age 17 - 22, (c) males, age 23 - 28, (d) females, age 23 - 28. In addition, potential respondents shall be screened for the following characteristics: (1) All respondents shall be regular music listeners, listening to music by any means at least one hour per day, 5 - 7 days per week. (2) All respondents shall listen at least occasionally to Western, as well as Arabic artists. (3) All respondents shall either have completed secondary education or be currently enrolled in a secondary educational institution. These screening criteria may be slightly modified, and further screening criteria may be identified by the IBB in consultation with the contractor prior to commencement of any sampling and fieldwork. 3.2 Contractor responsibilities. The contractor shall be responsible for the project design, drafting, translation, formatting, pretesting, adaptation, and printing of the survey instruments; developing the sampling plan and screening procedures; training interviewers; supervising fieldwork; cleaning and encoding survey responses; entering and processing the data; preparing tabulations in data books; submitting data on diskette; and communicating all necessary information and results to IBB in a timely manner. 3.3 Fieldwork. The primary object of this research is to test respondents' familiarity with and reactions to individual musical selections, as identified by brief, easily recognizable excerpts, usually lasting between 5 and 10 seconds in length. Approximately 1000 songs shall be tested. The quoters may specify any methodology to accomplish this task that they believe to be culturally appropriate, efficient, and cost effective. It is assumed, however, that in the cities specified for this study, testing will be performed in the respondent's home in face-to-face interviews using a portable tape recorder. IBB shall prepare and supply tapes or CDs of the musical excerpts to be used in this testing. 3.4 Data Processing. The contractor is responsible for data entry, cleaning, and processing. The contractor shall provide printed tabulations of marginal results. The contractor shall provide data to IBB as a fully labeled SPSS "*.sav" file with a complete data dictionary of variable names and value labels. The contractor shall also provide raw data on computer diskettes in ASCII fixed format with accompanying codebook identifying location of all variables and coding scheme. 4) SUMMARY OF DELIVERABLES. The four deliverables to be provided to IBB by the contractor under this contract are as follows: (a) Raw data on computer diskette, with codebook; (b) Complete data set formatted as SPSS file; (c) Printed tabulations of results; (d) Analytic report on survey findings. 5) DELIVERY SCHEDULE: Research shall begin in mid January, 2002, with receipt of deliverables by February 28, 2002. 6) TRAVEL: It is expected that the contractor will travel to Washington, D.C. and to the Middle East in the performance of the consultation, training, oversight, and reporting requirements outlined above. All such travel is to be performed in accordance with applicable U.S. Government regulations. Cost of such travel shall be included in the price quotation submitted by quoters for this project. 7) SELECTION CRITERIA: A contract (i.e., Purchase Order) award will be made by the Contracting Officer based on: A) the quoters Technical Capabilities/Experience (for which there are seven (7) equally weighted subcriteria); and B) the quoter's Price Quotation. Of the two Selection Criteria, Technical Capabilities/Experience is the significantly dominant criterion over the Price criterion. The Technical Capabilities/Experience subcriteria are as follows: (1) Demonstrated experience in conducting commercial radio audience research; (2) Demonstrated experience in conducting radio audience research in international settings; (3) Demonstrated experience in music testing and research for radio programming, both within and outside of the U.S.; (4) Proposals for training local subcontractors in music research techniques and overseeing their fieldwork; (5) Professional qualifications of key project leaders; (6) Qualifications and experience of proposed sub-contractors; (7) Ability to complete project in a timely manner. (8) SUBMISSION OF RESPONSES TO THE RFQ (i.e., Technical Information) In the event that price quotations for the work outlined in this RFQ significantly exceed IBB's budgetary limitations, IBB reserves the right to reduce the scope of the work specified herein. Each quoters proposal shall include information on the following technical items to enable IBB to objectively evaluate the quoters capabilities/experience to successful perform the work specified in this RFQ: (a) detailed description of the proposed research methodology, including specific listing of organization(s) the quoter shall use for fieldwork; (b) Current information on the qualifications of quoters office and field staff; (c) A description of the procedures proposed for training and oversight of local subcontractors; (d) Specific information on quoters past experience in conducting commercial radio research, both domestically and internationally; (e) Specific information on quoters past experience in conducting music testing and research for radio programming; (f) A detailed description of the proposed fieldwork plan; (g) A schedule showing the time required for each phase of the project. Quoters are encouraged to seek potential co-sponsors for this survey to minimize cost to IBB. In addition to specially addressing the points noted above, submissions should also provide details on any subcontractors who would be engaged to work on these projects. Omission of any of the points of information requested will weigh against the quoter during the Contracting Officer's evaluation of the quoters response to this RFQ. Firms interested in the above described work are requested to submit their proposals and price quotations by Friday, December 21, 2001 and they shall reference this RFQ No.CON-02-0002 in their transmittal letter to the Contracting Officer. All any questions (technical or otherwise) shall be submitted in writing to the Contracting Officer for this procurement, Mr. Lesley D. Isaac, via facsimile at (202) 205-1921 or email at lisaac@IBB.GOV. The price quotation shall be submitted on a separate page from the Technical Capabilities/Experience and Schedule information. The Contracting Officer has found and determined that this proposed work is appropriate for an unrestricted" procurement pursuant to FAR Subpart 19-502 (Setting Aside Acquisitions). All responsible sources may submit a price quotation which will be considered.
- Record
- SN20011206/00001133-011207190627 (fbodaily.com)
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