WHY RADIO?

The Power of Radio

How America Listens: The American Audio Landscape

We are in the midst of an exciting time for audio, with more and more ways to listen to information and entertainment. AM/FM radio, on-demand streaming, podcasts, digital radio services and satellite radio are all part of this burgeoning platform. This audio universe remains a reliable way for advertisers to engage today’s diverse audiences. And as technology continues to evolve, choices for listening will continue to grow, presenting marketers and advertisers with even more opportunities.

AM/FM radio is America’s top reach medium, giving it mass appeal among diverse audiences—across generations, ethnicities and demographics. By generation, radio has the largest reach with Generation X (ages 35-54), with 80.5 million listeners tuning during an average month (97% of the Gen X population). This is followed by Millennials (ages 18-34), with 71.6 million listeners tuning in monthly (95% of the Millennial population). Meanwhile, radio reaches 41.2 million monthly listeners among Baby Boomers (ages 55-64), representing 98% of the Baby Boomer population.

Monthly reach metrics are widely used in assessing the digital media world, and here radio also leads the way when comparing data for adults 18+. By using Nielsen Scarborough to group together the monthly reach figures for various kinds of websites (including search, social media, video and several others), we see that radio’s monthly 18+ reach (243 million) is larger than the combined reach of different types of digital destinations.