Arbitron: Country #1 In USA

The findings found that Country and New Country continue to be the #1 format . It has grown from last year and has reached record another record share. The younger demo 18-24 benefitted the format most and is #2 with teens nationally, according to a story at atasteofcountry.com.

Following Country is News/Talk/Information and Talk/Personality, a format that Country shares a great deal of audience with. It remained #1 in the PPM markets and came in #2 in the rest of the US. The format ranked high with highly educated, high income individuals.

Top 40 moved from #4 to #3 when looking at AQH shore. Their 72 million weekly listeners is highest among all formats and takes the #1 spot from AC and Soft AC on a cume basis. Teen females make up almost 30% of the audience nationally.

Country, Top 40 and Hot AC has stolen audience from AC and Soft AC stations. They are down in numbers to 69 million 12+ listeners. Listeners are high-income, highly education, female dominated and are strong in middays listening while at work.

Classic Hits is now the “go to” format for pop hits taking away from the Oldies format and in the Spring 2012 it has reached high ratings. Listeners are split almost 50-50 between males and females and it does well in various market sizes.

Classic Rock continues to appeal to its core demo of 45-54 males and had the highest share in a decade. It too works in all market sizes.

The second largest growth spurt was in the Hot AC format. Thanks to teens, adults 28-24 and adults 35-44 it achieved a national high.

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