Canadians are spending an average of 90 minutes less per week listening to the radio than a decade ago, says a report on radio listening habits released Friday by Statistics Canada. On average, Canadians aged 12 and older spent 19.5 hours a week listening to radio in the fall of 2004, the same number of hours as the previous year but down by 11/2 hours compared to 1995. Also they are listening to radio more in the car and at work and less at home, reports Canadian Press.

The study is a joint project of Statistics Canada, Heritage Canada and the CRTC. Data was collected over a seven-day period, using a log-type questionnaire covering Sept. 6 to Oct. 31, 2004.

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Some of the results:

- Canadians spent 49% of their listening time in their homes, down from 56% in 1995. But they spent 27% listening in cars, up from 22%, and 23% at work, up from 20% in '95.

- Most radio listening in the home occurred in the early morning hours. At work it was between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. and in the car, predictably, mainly during morning and evening rush hour commutes.

- The gap between adult and teen listening continues to widen. Last fall, teens were tuning in for only 8.5 hours a week, a three-hour-per-week decline over the past five years, with adults reducing their listening time by close to one hour a week.

- Provincially, Prince Edward Island residents spent the most time listening to radio-an average of 21.2 hours a week-with B.C. residents spending the least time at 17.8 hours.

- Adult contemporary music continues to dominate formats, accounting for a quarter of adult listening time, followed by golden oldies/rock (15.3%) and CBC Radio (11.1%). CBC is the first choice in radio for respondents with university degrees.

The report notes that the survey return rate was 41.4%, which is in line with international broadcasting industry practice for audience measurement, but modest by Statistics Canada standards and the data "should be interpreted with caution."

With regular radio facing increasing competition from new technologies, from the Internet to iPods, it is not surprising that the Canadian Association of Broadcasters sounded an alarm last month over the CRTC decision to grant three licenses for new subscription-based radio services, even though such conventional broadcasters as CHUM, Standard Radio and the CBC are involved in the coming technology.