Let's take a look at who is listening to the radio, where different
genres of music are popular, and how old the radio audience is. The data
presented here is from the study "Radio Today" published by
Arbitron.
As we know from the History of the Media article, the first radio
station in the United States, KBKA, was created in 1920 in Pittsburgh by
RCA. Since then, radio stations have cropped up constantly, with moer
than 13,000 by the Spring of 2004.
Contrary to popular belief, the number of stations actually hasn't
increased much since the turn of the century, staying quite level, and
even decreasing during some moments.
All ages seem to enjoy the radio more or less equally, with the
exception of those over age 65, who listen somewhat less:
What does vary more significantly is the amount of time people listen,
with those between ages 12 and 17 listening the least, while on the
other end of the spectrum, men aged 35-44 listen the most.
Here is the breakdown for what time people listen during the day:
During the week, 7am marks the time when there are most listeners tuned
in, while during the weekend, the noon-1pm hour is most listened to. It
should be noted that during the week, although there is clearly a bigger
audience, the audience drops off far quicker after 4pm, while the
weekend audience tends to drop off much more slowly as the day goes by.
Arguably the most interesting part of this study is the data regarding
what types of music are most popular in each part of the country. First
an overview, and then we'll look at each genre in more detail.
Genre
% Men
% Women
Popular Age
Adult Contemporary
35.7
64.3
35-44
Alternative
63.2
36.8
25-34
Adult Standard
46.1
53.9
65+
CHR - Top 40
43.3
56.8
18-24
Classical
47.4
52.6
65+
Country
47.3
52.7
35-44
Jazz
48.4
51.6
55-64
Oldies
51.2
48.8
55-64
Religious
35.4
64.6
35-44
Rock
72.7
27.3
35-44
Spanish
51.7
48.3
25-34
Talk
61.1
38.9
65+
Urban
43.9
56.1
25-34
The genre that is most heavily listened to by me is rock, followed by
alternative, and then talk radio. For women, it's religious music, adult
contemporary, and top 40.
Talk and adult standard are most popular with the 65+ age group, while
top 40 is most popular with the younger demographics.
Now we'll look at a map for where each genre is popular. When looking at
the map, 100 represents the national average, so a score of 120 means
that in that area, people are 20% more likely than the national average
to listen to that type of music. We'll start with Adult Contemporary.
