What Women Want: Women Love Their Favorite Radio Station

The Cumulus Media | Westwood One Audio Active Group® partnered with Alan Burns & Associates to conduct a brand-new study in the “What Women Want” series. 1,001 U.S. women aged 15-64 took an online MARU/Matchbox survey from September 28-October 6, 2023. In addition, the Audio Active Group® team analyzed data from Nielsen, Edison’s “Share of Ear,” Katz Media, and the just released Jacobs Media Techsurvey 2024 to seek insights on the female listener.

 
The vast treasure trove of the results are outlined in this week’s blog.

6 key findings:

• Women love their favorite AM/FM radio station almost as much as their phone and more than Amazon, Netflix, Apple, Spotify, and TikTok; Advertisers can leverage this radio station affection and connection to build their brands
• Streaming has become more important as working women commute less, impacting their time spent with AM/FM radio in the car
• Radio station programming features do not align well with the key priorities of women – family, health, and relationships
• AM/FM radio personalities and non-music elements dominate the reasons why women listen to AM/FM radio; “Free” tops the list; Two-thirds of women say AM/FM radio hosts are the main reason they listen, according to Jacobs Media’s Techsurvey 2024
• Annoying ads and the number of commercials are noted as a reason for listening less for AM/FM radio
• Universally, six out of ten women feel “today’s music is not as good as it was years ago”

Recommendations for radio stations:

• Turning learnings into actionCompletely rethink how streaming a radio station is marketed and explained
• Adapt to the new world of commuting and market to at-home workers
• Rethink programming features and better align them to the three key priorities (family, health, and relationships)
• Rethink commercial stop sets, ditch the bow tie, and stop demonizing AM/FM radio ads
• Be part of the solution to fix Top 40 music; Proactively find songs that diversify CHR’s sound
• Engage with Gen Z and give them something to connect with

Streaming represents 10% of female AM/FM radio listening, steady since 2018

While nearly 30% of AM/FM radio listening among men occurs via the online stream (mostly powered by spoken word programming formats), female AM/FM radio streaming has been steady at 10%, according to Edison’s “Share of Ear.”

Women who stream AM/FM radio indicate they prefer it to music streaming services; They also stream as they do not have a physical radio.