The impact of several of these events from a radio perspective is quite evident when examining listening trends in Texas, Florida and around the continental U.S. Nielsen’s portable people meter (PPM) September survey—which stretched from Aug. 17 until Sept. 13—tracked listener preference in the top 48 radio markets in America.
It reveals a distinct spike in listening to News/Talk stations during this period, as weather dominated the busy news cycle, according to Nielsen.
Hurricanes Harvey and Irma arrived during the September survey: Harvey made landfall in Texas on Aug. 25 and 26 during the second week of the survey, directly or indirectly affecting four of Nielsen’s PPM markets in the state (Houston, Austin, San Antonio and Dallas). Irma followed just two weeks later with landfall in Florida on Sept. 10 before moving on to affect five different markets in the sunshine state (Miami, West Palm Beach, Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville).
While each storm was unique, we saw a common thread across all of the affected markets—audience tune-in to local news radio stations surged during the week each hurricane arrived.
Regardless of evacuations, flooding, power outages or disruption from the storms, the reach of local news radio stations spiked the week that each storm made landfall. The following graphics combine all of the news-formatted radio stations (All News, News/Talk and Spanish News/Talk, both commercial and non-commercial) in each market and compare the specific hurricane week to the four weeks prior.
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