Strong Majority of Americans Believes Radio Continues to be Important in American Life
April 19, 2006
New Survey by American Media Services Shows Radio Has Strong Appeal Across the Country; 74 percent Listen Daily
CHARLESTON, S.C. – Americans rate the importance and relevance of local commercial radio very highly, despite the entry of high-technology competition, a national survey commissioned by American Media Services shows.
The survey found that 78 percent said radio is important in their everyday lives, and 91 percent said radio is important in American life in general. Nearly three-quarters (74 percent) said they listen to radio at least once a day.
The telephone survey of 1,004 American adults was conducted April 13-15, 2006, by Omnitel, the weekly omnibus survey by the national polling firm of GfK NOP of Princeton, N.J. The survey is considered accurate within plus or minus 3 percentage points.
The new findings complement those in AMS’ initial survey in January: 64 percent said they were listening to radio as much as, or more than, they were five years ago.
"The evidence from our polls and others is conclusive that people are continuing to listen to their local, free radio stations," said Ed Seeger, President and Chief Executive Officer of American Media Services. "Arbitron and Edison Media Research just conducted a national survey of 1,925 respondents that revealed 77 percent of Americans expect to continue to listen to their radio in the future as much as they are today."
In the AMS survey, 57 percent of men and 49 percent of women said they listen to radio at least daily.
The availability of music, news and reports on weather and traffic continues to be the most often cited reasons for listening to the radio, with 98 percent of respondents saying they listen to radio for one of those features. "Radio doesn't need to reinvent itself. It just needs to get its story out in the marketplace," said Seeger. "It continues to thrive with the same basic programming we have embraced for the past half-century."
Other findings of the survey include:
• 78 percent usually tune to a local radio station when they get in their car
• More people had a favorite local radio personality in their local markets (37 percent) than a favorite television personality percent (32 percent), newspaper personality (7 percent) or personality on a local internet site (1 percent)
• When asked what about the different qualities that make a good radio personality, they ranked four as most important: 89 percent said they liked to listen to someone who makes them think, 82 percent said one who makes them laugh, 79 percent wanted a personality they could trust, and 76 percent said a good radio personality has strong ties to the local community
• Overall, 41 percent of respondents said they liked to listen to stations that have a good balance of music, news, weather and traffic information. That rated above playing their kind of music (26 percent) or making them laugh (3 percent).
• Of those respondents who had a "favorite media personality," 37 percent said their favorite personality worked on the radio, while 32 percent said their favorite worked on television.
• 61 percent of those likely to change stations during commercial breaks do so in a minute or less
Results of the survey, including a complete breakdown of demographic information such as income level, region of the country, and age brackets are available on the AMS website, www.americanmediaservices.com.
AMS is a full-service radio brokerage, engineering and developmental engineering firm, and its developmental division leads the country in successfully implementing station upgrades by moving them into larger markets, dramatically increasing their value. Since its founding in 1997, AMS has increased the value of 21 stations across the country by $205.1 million, and more than $200 million in proposed rulemakings are currently pending before the FCC.
