2. Radio Reaches More People
Although traditional radio, much like traditional TV, must share its audience with newer audio choices, radio remains the leader in overall audience reach, or 92%, according to Nielsen’s Q Total Audience Report.
Radio also had the largest total weekly users 18+ during Q1 2018, at million; compared to million for live, DVR and time-shifted TV; and million for an app or the Internet on a smartphone. 
AM/FM radio attracted more monthly users 18+ from June 2016 to November 2017, or million, than search, social media, video, e-commerce, news and sports Websites.

3. More Big Numbers for Radio
AM/FM radio exceeded its overall 92% reach with 10 selected demographics. Baby Boomers and women 25– 54 were the largest, at 98%, and Generation X, women 18–49, adults 25–54 and men 25–54 were 97%.
According to 2017 Nielsen data, 65% of Americans listen to radio outside the home from 6am to 7pm weekdays, with PM drive, specifically, the largest time slot at 75%, and midday, 74%.
According to BIA/Kelsey, local radio ad revenues will increase 1.3% during 2018, to $15.7 billion, or a 10.4% share. Its ad revenues are expected to increase modestly during the next few years, reaching $16.7 billion by 2022.

4. Heavy Radio Listeners Are Different
Edison Research and Triton Digital, in their Heavy Radio Listeners Report (April 2018), define “heavy radio listeners” as those persons 12+ who “listened to radio for more than one hour during the past 24.”
Men indexed higher than women as heavy radio listeners, or 108 and 92, respectively. Unsurprisingly, adults 55–64 had the highest index, or 125, compared to other age groups.
Heavy radio listening includes those who listen to audio sources other than AM/FM radio. For example, 60% listened to online audio; 44%, YouTube; 29%, Pandora; and 20%, streams of AM/FM radio.

5. Radio Listeners’ Favorite Formats
According to Nielsen’s Audio Today 2018 report (April), the Country music format, which includes Country and New Country, was the top format during fall 2017, with 13.2% of total listeners 12+.
News/Talk Combined (commercial and non-commercial) was second, at 12.3%; followed by News/Talk Commercial, 8.3%; and Adult Contemporary (Adult Contemporary and Soft Adult Contemporary), 8.1%.
Nielsen also found the Adult Contemporary format increased its audience share of persons 6+ from February 2017 (7.7%) to February 2018 (8.4%) while News/Talk decreased a very small amount, from 10.5% to 10.4%.

6. Favorite Formats, Demographically Speaking
Nielsen reports that during March 2018, Country, with an average quarter hour (AQH) share of 15.6%, was the favorite format of adults 18–34, as well as adults 35–44, 12.6%; adults 18–49, 14.0%; and adults 25–54, 13.1%.
Not surprisingly, Pop CHR was teens’ favorite format, with a 19.1% AQH, and News/Talk for adults 55–64, with a 15.0% AQH.
During most summers, Classic Hits and Classic Rock compete for the top format of the June–August period, compared to the first five months of the year. Classic Hits had a 5.2 share and Classic Hits a 5.9 share during June 2018.

7. Radio Is Multicultural
The ethnic composition of the national radio audience (persons 12+) as of June 2018 was African Americans, 13.6%; Latinx Americans, 16.8%; and other, 69.6%, which includes anyone who is neither African American or Latinx American.
Radio’s weekly reach among African Americans is 92%; however, among Latinx Americans, it is even stronger, at 96%. (Nielsen includes Asian Americans among its total population data, but not separately.)
A larger percentage of African American radio listeners are women, or 53%, than Latina American radio listeners, or 47%. It’s the opposite among men: African Americans, 47%, and Latino Americans, 53%.

8. Top Formats for African Americans and Latinx Americans
Among African Americans 12+, adults 25–54 and adults 35–64, the Urban Adult Contemporary radio format is their favorite. For younger African Americans – teens, adults 18–34 and adults 18–49 – it’s the Urban Contemporary format.
The Mexican Regional format had the largest share, or 26.2%, during fall 2017 among Latinx Americans 12+ whose language use was Spanish dominant. 
Mexican Regional was also the #1 format among Latinx Americans 12+, adults 18–34, adults 18–49, adults 25– 54 and adults 35–64. Among teens and persons 12+ who spoke mostly English, the #1 format was Pop Contemporary Hits.

9. Sports Fans and Their Radio Usage
During the June–November 2017 period, audience shares for sports-formatted stations increased more than 30%, even among Millennials.
Nielsen attributed these increases to the start of the fall football season and whenever the Major League Baseball season ends with playoff teams playing all the scheduled games to determine the winners.
From June to November 2017, AQH on stations with sports radio formats increased from 4.0% to 5.3% among persons 6+; from 3.1% to 4.3% among adults 18–34; and from 4.3% to 5.7% among adults 25–54.

10. Football Fanatics Glued to Their Radios
According to 2018 data from The Media Audit, Columbus, OH, home of the OSU Buckeyes, had the largest percentage of radio listeners during the past 12 months, or 11.2%, compared to only 6.0% in Austin, TX, home of the Texas Longhorns.
The New Orleans Saints of the NFL attracted the largest percentage of the market’s base population to the radio dial for its games, at 12.7%, according to The Media Audit’s Winter 2018 survey.
Somewhat surprisingly, given the rabid fanbase of the Washington Redskins, just 2.3% of the Washington, DC population listened to the games on radio.

11. Streaming the Latest Tunes
As of the end of October 2017, Spotify continued to be the #1 streaming audio service among Americans, with Apple Music #2. Spotify had approximately 18.2 million paid subscribers to Apple Music’s 15 million.
By July 2018, however, Apple Music’s total US paid subscribers equaled Spotify’s, or approximately 20 million each.
Apple leads Spotify when measuring monthly mobile users in the US, or 49.5 and 47.7 million, respectively, as of March Apple’s advantage, of course, is its iPhone is the #1 seller in the world.

12. Re-inventing Radio
Drive Time Metrics collects data from light vehicles with an embedded cellular modem to measure listening data of broadcast, Internet and satellite radio, but also CDs and stored music as well as the vehicle’s location.
Rhiza, another innovative radio measurement service, which Nielsen purchased during April 2017, can provide auto dealerships with an overlay of radio listening with Polk’s data on registration, title information and new vehicle transactions.
A 2017 Kantar Media study revealed the public trusts “radio news bulletins or programs” more than other media when measuring the impact of hearing “fake news” in political and election coverage.