Radio Listenership Numbers

Last week the Radio Advertising Bureau had their annual convention in Indianapolis, about 90 miles from Fort Wayne.  Lots of information was presented during the event and at a pre-event:

AM/FM Radio Has More Daily Listening than All Other Audio Combined
Source: John Potter, SVP/Professional Development, RAB
Edison Research released results of their Share of Ear study at the Radio and Internet Newsletter (RAIN) Summit in Indianapolis on Tuesday, which took place prior to the 2014 Radio Show. The goal was to show all radio listening from a single source. Included were AM/FM radio, Internet radio, SiriusXM, and other audio sources.
This was a national study conducted in May, 2014, online and offline, of persons 13+, in both English and Spanish. The sample base was 2,096. The methodology was diary based where respondents logged listening including platform, device, Internet radio brand, location (car, home or other), and type of element.
The study shows AM/FM radio commands over half of Americans’ share of time spent listening
to audio sources:
 AM/FM radio — 52.1%
 Owned music (CD’s, digital music files…) — 20.3%
 Internet radio music (Pandora, Spotify…) — 11.6%
 SiriusXM — 7.7%
 TV music channels — 5.2%
 Podcasts — 1.7%
 Other — 1.5%
More importantly, the study broke out audio listening of radio services and found AM/FM radio
increased its lead over other audio sources:
 AM/FM radio –75.3%
 Pandora — 9.2%
 SiriusXM — 11.1%
 Other Internet radio — 4.4%
Daily reach for AM/FM radio is similar to other studies showing nearly 3 out of 4 Americans
listen to AM/FM every day:
• AM/FM radio –72%
• Owned music (CDs, digital music files…) — 39%
• Internet radio music (Pandora, Spotify…) — 26%
• SiriusXM — 13%
• TV music channels — 11%
• Podcasts — 5%

Also at the convention on Thursday night the 25th annual Marconi awards were presented. This is like the Oscars, Emmys, or Tonys except for the radio industry.  The National Association of Broadcasters announced the nominees this summer and my station, WOWO was awarded the Medium Market Station of the Year.

WOWO has been on the air since the 1920’s.  I grew up listening to them when they were owned by Westinghouse Broadcasting.  Last year I joined their sales/advertising/marketing staff and plan on making WOWO my final radio home.  While our programming and news staff certainly deserves the awards and recognition, my job is to help local businesses get noticed and receive a return on their investment of their advertising dollars.  We’ll talk more about that next Wednesday.  As always, you can contact me at 260-255-4357 or Scott@WOWO.com