Radio Audience Trends

While traditional radio, as a whole, appears to be holding on to its audience, what is the future of radio news?

The answer appears to be that while the news sector is steady, what might be conventionally thought of as journalism on the radio may now be quite different and not as local as it once was.

The latest edition of Arbitron’s Radio Today report shows that stations in the format category of News/Talk/Information have held steady over the last four years. Indeed, the news and talk category is the most popular of the top 10 station formats. In 2004, 16% of listeners said they listened to talk and news, three percentage points more than the next most popular format, Country and Adult Contemporary.15

What Radio Formats People Listen To, 2000 vs. 2004

Design Your Own Chart

Source: Arbitron ’Radio Today’ annual report

It is not necessarily current event news, though, that is drawing this audience. The news/talk/information grouping of non-musically centered formats includes stations that broadcast “all news,” “all sports,” “news/talk” and “talk/personality.” When the overall news/talk figure is broken into its individual parts, “all news” stations make up less than 2% of listenership. “All sports” and “talk/personality” makes up another 2%, with almost 11% of the listenership tuning in to other stations that consider their format “News/Talk.”16

News/Talk stations are something of a puzzle; without listening to every program on every station, it is difficult to determine how much news is broadcast and how much talk. Talk, which is cheaper to produce, probably makes up the lion’s share.

In past years, we have discussed the idea of “incidental“ or unintended news consumption by listeners to music-format stations from top-of-the-hour news briefs or headlines. A survey by the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation in 2000 found that most radio listeners did not switch stations during news reports or information breaks. Some five years later, there are signs that the top-of-the-hour radio newsbreak is not as prevalent as before, perhaps reduced to a brief weather or traffic update.

What Radio Formats People Listen To, 2004

Percent of the population 12 and older, 2004

Design Your Own Chart

Source: Arbitron

* Figures in chart have been rounded.

Compared with data gathered in previous years, the age profile of news, talk and information listeners has scarcely changed. The highest proportion of listeners fall primarily into the two oldest demographic groupings: 55- 64 year olds (19%) and those 65 and older (29%). The third highest listening percentage falls in the 35- 44-year-old age bracket (17%). Those 12 to 24 years old are the least likely to listen to news, talk and information stations. Just 1% of news, talk and information listeners are aged 12- 17 with only 3% being 18 to 24.17

Listeners to News-Talk-Information Stations, by Age

1998-2004

Design Your Own Chart

Source: Arbitron ’Radio Today’ annual reports

* 1998 data includes children’s formats.

Listeners to news, talk and information formats are incredibly loyal. Arbitron, in its Public Radio Today 2005 report, defines those who listen to a single radio station more than any other station as “P1” listeners. More than half of those who listen to commercial news, talk and information stations (59%) are considered to be in the P1 category.18 On public radio, the P1 figure for such stations jumps to 90%.19