Radio Streaming Profile: Younger, More Female, At Home

This week’s Westwood One blog post looks at the distinctions between the profile of the streaming audience and the over-the-air audience of AM/FM radio stations. 

Westwood One analyzed audience data from over 88,000 consumers who recently registered on the Cumulus Radio Station Group sites that make up the Cumulus Radio Station Group Digital Streaming Network. The analysis looked at age, gender, and location data from these listeners between April and July of 2019. 

Here are the key findings:

• AM/FM radio streaming skews female: While half of the on-air audience to Cumulus Radio Station Group music AM/FM radio stations is female, 62% of the music streaming audience consists of women. Every music programming format on streaming shows a higher composition of women compared to the on-air audience.
• AM/FM radio streams have more Millennials: The median age of the Cumulus Radio Station Group music streams is 40, five years younger than the on-air audience. The 18-34 audience composition of the Cumulus Radio Station Group music streaming audience is 37%, a much larger composition of Millennials than the on-air audience (27%). 
• AM/FM radio streams also have more persons 25-54s: The proportion of 25-54s is higher in the music streaming audience (67%) versus the on-air audience (52%).
• Over 80% of the music streaming audience is located in the home DMA: Streaming ads provide extra impact and message frequency for advertisers looking to reach consumers in the market where they do business.
• Sports and News/Talk streaming audiences skew younger: Spoken word formats have the same male audience composition on-air and online: 86% male for streaming Sports compared to 85% on-air and 70% male for streaming News/Talk compared to 65% on-air. News/Talk shows the same story. The 25-54 audience composition is higher in streaming (40%) versus over-the-air audiences.
• Smart speakers power growth of Cumulus Radio Station Group streaming: In September 2017, 2% of Cumulus Radio Station Group’s streaming audience came from smart speakers. As of July 2019, smart speakers represent an astonishing 18% of the Cumulus Radio Station Group streaming audience.