90% represents the portion of the US population aged 12 or greater who are reached by radio in a given week – a higher percentage than any other medium, including television, newspapers, magazines or the internet.
The fact was part of the release of the latest version of Arbitron’s Radio Today at the NAB Radio Show in Philadelphia. It’s the first time the report has had the benefit of PPM data from several key markets.
Arbitron says that in Fall 2008, the historic election of Barack Obama helped propel News-Talk-Info to the top of the format heap.
Other snapshots: Classic Hits is growing, especially thanks to a trend under which Oldies stations tweak themselves forward in time to Classic Hit’s sweet spot.
Contemporary Christian had a record year, pulling in 14.5M listeners weekly.
Active Rock held its own with a rock solid 15.5M listeners weekly.
Regional Mexican beat all comers in terms of time spent listening.
