Nielsen: State of Radio Outside The Big Markets

While big cities grab most of the headlines, a big and qualified audience uses radio every day in medium and small markets. Nielsen Wednesday released a special Audio Today report which focuses on the radio audience in 215 Nielsen Diary markets.

There, more than 86% of consumers (age 12 or older) tune in during the week spending more than 15 hours of their media time with radio, the original mass medium. That means, 65 million consumers listen to medium and small market radio each week.

These figures represent “Weekly Cume Ratings.” For example, more than 90% of Women 35-44 in these markets tuned to radio at least once during an average week (between the hours of 6AM and Midnight, Monday-Sunday). The dotted line represents the average of all consumers in medium and
small markets (12+) who listen to radio at least once during the week (86.4%).

Key Take-Aways:

• Medium and small market radio listeners are evenly split when it comes to gender. From an age perspective, more than 60% are between the ages of 18 and 54, where most advertising is targeted.
• Qualified consumers make up the majority of the medium and small market radio audience; working listeners account for three-quarters of all radio users, tuning in away from home and close to the point of purchase.
• Millennials make up the largest generation of radio users in medium and small markets. 75% of radio listeners in those markets are in the work force and can be found outside the home when they are ready to buy.
• Small and medium market radio listeners are evenly split when it comes to gender. Radio also reaches across the generations -- 86.8% of Boomers (aged 50-74), 86.5% of Millennials (12-34) and 89.9% of Gen Xers (35-49) are reached by radio in these markets each week.

The Top Formats In 2014:

1.  Country 15.9%
2.  News/Talk 11.1%
3.  CHR 8.6%
4.  AC 7.2%
5.  Classic Rock and Classic Hits 5.4%
7.  Christian CHR 4.2%
8.  Hot AC and Urban AC 3.9%
10. Rhythmic CHR and Urban, 3.7%