Nielsen Dives Deeper Into PPM's N/T Surge

News/Talk radio typically sees a surge in listening during election years, as people tune in to hear the political commentary in the lead up to November, before dropping back to typically listening share.

Unlike in years past, however, this year is breaking with norms, both politically and in Nielsen’s portable people meter (PPM) ratings.

In February, News/Talk listening again remained strong, so Nielsen explored this trend in more depth by breaking out the public, non-commercial stations from this group, along with some of the some of the less obvious storylines taking shape two survey months into the new year.

No matter which side of the political spectrum news/talk radio stations lean, the past year has seen steady growth in the format’s share of listening audience across the board. And this month’s results are the highest February shares for News/Talk in PPM measurement for both Millennials 18-34 (4.7%) and persons 25-54 (7.9%). From a general audience standpoint (all listeners 6 and older) this month (10.5%) trails only February 2011 (10.6%) for the largest February News/Talk share on record.