What’s Old Is New Again: Radio Listening

Over the recent Christmas and New Year’s holiday break, I was catching up on unread emails from 2018 and found this gem pertaining to trends for 2019 and beyond that says that radio listenership will be going up in the years ahead.

Deloitte Global predicts that, unlike some other forms of traditional media, radio will continue to perform relatively well with younger demographics. In the United States, for example, we expect that more than 90 percent of 18–34-year-olds will listen to radio at least weekly in 2019, and they will listen to radio for an average of more than 80 minutes a day. In contrast, TV viewing among 18–34-year-olds in the United States is falling at three times the rate of radio listening. At current rates of decline, in fact, American 18–34-year-olds will likely spend more time listening to radio than watching traditional TV by 2025!

The study also tackles another misconception about when and where people listen to the radio:

One widespread belief about radio is both truth and myth at the same time. It is widely assumed that the most common venue where North Americans dial in is in their cars. This is true: Around 90 percent of radio listeners in the United States and Canada, across all age groups, do listen while in the car. But the flip side of that belief—that North Americans listen to radio only in their cars—needs some mythbusting. While not as prevalent, people in North America definitely are listening to radio in places other than cars.

As I have noticed over the years with my access to insider radio rating data, here in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the majority of radio listening occurs anytime during the day.  Ad agencies seem to put an undue emphasis on what they call drive times, the morning and afternoon hours that people are commuting back and forth to work.

But the data I have that goes back year after year after year shows that the entire day from 5am to 6pm weekdays, my station, News/Talk 1190 WOWO has consistent levels of listeners all day long.

If you as a local business owner want to be smarter than the advertising agency media buyers, I can help you place your ads in the daytime time slots that they overlook.  And I have the numbers and data to prove it.

Most important for business owners, is not just the levels of listenership that WOWO has, but the effectiveness of an advertising campaign and that almighty Return On Investment.  WOWO itself is over 90 years old and some of our advertisers have been inviting WOWO listeners to become their customers for decades because it works.   Want to know more?  Let’s talk.