Radio listening holds steady in NYC

0

Adults in the Big Apple spend an average of 2.5 hours a day listening to radio, according to the just-released summer survey from The Media Audit. Tracking listening to radio from the summer of 2009, it can be seen that listening has been relatively stable hovering around that 2.5 average.


chart1

Says The Media Audit President, Bob Jordan: “Radio is a mobile medium that is everywhere.  Like all traditional media, it has competition but it also has many advantages.  For example, if people are surfing the web, playing video games etc. they can easily have the radio on. This is tough to do with other media.  Also think about it.  Everywhere there is a computer or any connection to the internet, consumers can tune in to their favorite radio stations.  So the ongoing strength in radio that we see in New York radio is not surprising.”

Overall, New York consumers spend about 22% of their media day with the radio. For more than 3 years  radio’s share of the New Yorkers media day has been consistent, hovering around 22%.

chart2

“A New Yorker’s time is very important to them”, commented Jordan.  “The fact that they spend so much time with radio shows how important the medium is to them.   The facts speak for themselves, advertisers are well advised to reach New Yorkers with radio. Consider this: Radio gets about 7% of the ad pie but it delivers 22% of the consumers’ media day.  There’s an opportunity for both the advertiser and for radio!”

The Media Audit ‘s New York studies  are based on semi-annual  telephone interviews of  1,700  randomly selected adults 18+.

RBR-TVBR observation: The numbers are quite steady–and actually increasing a bit. A lot of this strength is driven by in-office listening (NYC is obviously chock full of office buildings). As well, folks are driven to the radio during the day to hear the latest on the presidential election. This is a good hear for spoken word stations in general, sans Merlin Media’s previous WEMP-FM–now Alt Rock WRXP, but heading to CBS Radio.