Arbitron releases RADAR 116 AQH, Cume rankers

After a one-book hiatus, Arbitron is once again reporting RADAR rankers for the radio networks. In the March 2013 RADAR Radio Network Ratings, nearly 180 million Persons 12+, or approximately 68% of this demo, heard one or more network radio commercials in an average week of the survey period. See rankers for AQH and Cume for Adults 18-49 and 25-54 in the tables, below. Note that the list cannot be published in its entirety, which would go to the full list of 1-46.

There are 46 networks reported in the RADAR 116 – March 2013 report.

Premiere Radio Network added two networks: Enterprise and Spectrum, and they discontinued three networks: Express, FX28, and Prime Time.

Cumulus Media Networks removed their two Spanish language networks from the RADAR survey: Hispanic Select, and Metro Latino.

Biggest gains among the A18-49 targeted networks year to year:

Cumulus Female Connection (+25%), Cumulus Urban Advantage (+17%) and Premiere Top 50 Optimized (+17%). For the A25-54 targeted networks, the top 3 gains were Cumulus Family FM (+7%), CMN Radio Social (+21%) and Premiere Today’s Men (+16%).

Biggest drops among the A 18-49 targeted networks year to year:
DG Complete FM (-29%), DG Metro Music (-37%), Premiere Daytime Youth (-14%). For the A25-54 networks, the biggest drops were seen on Premiere Daytime Adult (-46%), DG Reach Net (-44%) and DG Market Select (-34%).

Overall, the total RADAR Gross Impressions were down -11% year to year with both Adults 18-49 and Adults 25-54, mainly fueled by a substantial loss on DG’s networks (-22%).

Source: Arbitron RADAR 116 – March 2013, Mon-Sun 6a-12mid Average Audience, Weekly Units. Not an Arbitron analysis.

Cumulus Media Networks announced substantial year-over-year growth in average audience for key national programming:

FEMALE CONNECTION: +28%
Female Connection has a target audience of females 18-49 and delivers a relatively high female audience composition. The lineup consists of AC/CHR/Top 40 formats. Female Connection has a strong A-county skew and is attractive to advertisers targeting working women.

FM CONNECTION: +16%
FM Connection has a target audience of adults 18-49 and is one of the few dominant, full-inventory RADAR networks targeting young adults. This provides advertisers with flexible scheduling options. Formats include Country, Rock, and Classic Rock stations. Average ratings exceed many cable TV networks. FM Connection has excellent top market coverage and is a smart choice for advertisers targeting young families.

FAMILY FM: +7%
Family FM has a target audience of adults 25-54 in Middle-American families on Country and AC stations. The network delivers a strong rating against both adults and women 25-54 and is a smart choice for a wide variety of mainstream advertisers.

Commercials aired on the 46 radio networks measure reached:

• 68.2% of Persons aged 12+ (179,923,000 Persons)

• 68.6% of Persons aged 18+ (163,738,000 Persons)

• 68.1% of Persons aged 35+ (113,417,000 Persons)

• 70.9% of Persons aged 18-49 (95,091,000 Persons)

• 71.7% of Persons aged 25-54 (89,654,000Persons)

The sample size for the RADAR March 2013 is 395,844 persons aged 12+. It includes data from all 48 Arbitron PPM markets. The survey dates for RADAR 116 were from January 5, 2012 to December 5, 2012.