Previous posts have touched on radio’s ability to reach people across age groups, gender, language and locations. Radio’s reach is based upon many things – community, personalities, music and news. Yes, news. Despite technology and social media trends, people continue to listen to news on the radio.
While it may not be surprising that of those adults who believe that radio is a good source for learning and providing information, 83% are radio listeners. It may surprise you to know that of those adults who believe radio is the most trusted, 30% are A18-34, 56% are A18-49, 54% are A25-54 and 36% are A35-54 – based on GfK MRI data.
In 2016 the amount of time adults 18+ spent consuming news grew by 18% over the prior year, or 73.5 billion minutes, according to Nielsen’s Q4 Total Audience Report. Most importantly, news consumption on radio grew to 11.5 billion minutes* in 2016 over 2015. Based upon this same demo, news consumption for radio made up nearly 13% of all minutes of radio listening in PPM markets. Looking at the breakout by age group, radio news in those same PPM markets among 18-34 was 5% of their total radio listening, 35-49 year-olds nearly 9% and 50+ nearly 20%.
If those percentages don’t seem impressive, let’s take a look at time spent. Based upon this same Nielsen Report, among national broadcast, local TV, national cable, PC, smartphone and radio news, in 2016 every week:
- Adults 18+ spent nearly five-and-a-half hours with radio news, second to national cable news
- Adults 18-34 spent nearly three hours with radio news – more than national, local and cable TV news, even PC and smartphone news
- Adults 35-49 spent nearly four-and-a-quarter hours with radio news – highest among other options
- Adults 50+ spent nearly six-and-three-quarter hours with radio, second to national cable news
So if you thought that radio listeners only listen to music or tune in for the personalities on-air, in today’s environment, that would be considered fake news.
*In PPM markets