Arbitron released its' annual listenership figures and it bodes well for the reach of Radio....
"The number of people over the age of 12 reached by radio on an average week increased to 234 million in 2008, up from 232 million in 2007, according to the latest national listening report from Arbitron. Arbitron's report is based on surveys of a national panel of 300,000.
The data on teens was especially encouraging, as 90% of people ages 12-17 still listened to radio at least once a week. The number increases to 93% among adults ages 18-23. In another heartening result, Arbitron found that radio reaches 95% of college graduates ages 25-54 every week. Stations affiliated with networks reach 85% of college graduates ages 18-49.
On the other hand, the average amount of time spent listening to the radio is down significantly, dropping 5% from 19 hours and 32 minutes in 2007 to 18 hours and 30 minutes in 2008. The decline in average time spent listening is due, in part, to the growing popularity of MP3 players and iPods, as well as non-radio audio delivered via the Internet."
I see the reduction in time spent listening as an opportunity to engage listeners with online streams, making sure we have the tools to deliver that stream to an i-phone and as many mobile devices as possible. We can either make ourselves part of the solution or become part of the problem. Your choice?