New Insights from NPR and Edison Research on Understanding the Radio Listener

Why Conduct the StudyquotWe really wanted to take a fresh look at the radio platform and the role it plays in people39s lives particularly to help media buyersquot explained Susan Leland NPR39s Associate Director of Audience Insights In an increasingly digital world it was important to prove out that radio is still very important And it isThe current state of radio is in fact robust quotRadio consistently has the largest reach of any mediaquot Leland noted quotIt was 88 in the latest Nielsen data just ahead of smartphone apps It also counts for the largest share of audio listening and when in the car radio counts for the majority of listening timequot In addition Edison Research found that 63 of Americans listen to AMFM radio each dayFor NPR in particular this study comes at a momentous time quotThis spring NPR celebrated its 50th anniversary so we have a great legacy in the radio spacequot explained Lamar Johnson Vice President of Marketing for National Public Media NPR39s sponsorship division quotPart of that legacy involves having an understanding of the radio listenership and the audience It is an ongoing objective for usquotSix Unique Radio Audience SegmentsOne of the major takeaways from this study is the clear delineation of the radio audience into six distinct and unique segments noted below each with their own preferences demographic skew and behavioral patterns quotOne of the interesting things about the six groups and the spectrum is that the more engaged group is the more open they are to advertisingquot said LelandRadio Heads are super fans who essentially use radio for everything They are more likely to be female under the age of 54 and overindex among Black people They listen to all formats on all platforms and spend more time with AMFM than any other segment Not only are they advertiserfriendly they have the money to spend to purchase products and services because they have high employment higher education and higher average income Radio Heads represent 9 of all radio listenersConnection Seekers use radio as a way to connect and understand They tend to be older women and are the second heaviest users of the medium They gravitate to the spoken word tend to listen at home and are also very advertiserfriendly They represent 16 of all listenersInfomaniacs skew male Their listening is driven by news They tend to listen in the morning prefer the spoken word and gravitate to formats such as news sports personalities and talk They index high for NPR listening and are open to advertising and sponsorships They represent 18 of listenersRhythm Rockers listen primarily to music They are heavily younger female Latinx and of lower incomes They are more likely to stream but AMFM is king in the car for Rhythm Rockers They represent 27 of all listenersLaidback Listeners listen to radio in the background They tend to be age 35 and are radiocentric preferring to listen on traditional platforms rather than streaming More than half of this group listen to ads and prefer music over other formats They are 17 of all radio listenersHabitualists listen to radio when it39s the only option available They also skew 35 and are not that interested in audio in general Yet more than half say that they listen to ads on radio still spend three hours listening in an average week and would miss radio if it were no longer available They prefer to listen on traditional platforms not on streaming ones and their preferred format is music rather than the spoken word They represent 13 of all listenersNPR Listener SegmentsFor NPR listeners specifically quotYou will find them in every segment but they are particularly likely to be Infomaniacs which are newsdriven users which makes a lot of sense and they also tend to be pretty heavy listenersquot noted Leland They39re also more likely to be Radio Heads and Connection Seekers quotOur audience tends to be heavy listeners to radio It keeps some listeners company throughout the day with the news and especially the conversations It39s like having a friend in your house who39s with you all dayquotThe thing that most distinguishes the NPR listener on any platform is that they tend to be really interested in learning and have a sense of real civic engagement and responsibilityquot she addedOpen to AdvertisingThe heavier the listeners the more receptive they are to advertising but according to Lazovick all segments of radio listeners even those who are less engaged are open to it quotThey are getting exposed to advertisingquot she said quotThey may not be as engaged but they are still there and they39re still open to the messaging just not as intensely as other segments The more engaged a group is with radio the more likely you can influence them with the advertisingAccording to Leland quotWe asked people on the survey about actions people have taken as a result of hearing advertising and we saw that the more engaged a listener is the more likely they are to say that they considered a product and purchased a product because of an ad they heard on the radioquot Leland notedquotBecause we know NPR listeners tend to be that more engaged listener their numbers are higher in terms of those same questions about gathering information about a company product or service purchasing things recommending productsquot Lazovick added quotThey are more likely to have done that than the average AMFM radio listener The numbers are high on both sides but NPR listeners are a bit higherquot Local advertising in particular can benefit from a radio presenceRadio Compared to TelevisionWhen it comes to attracting a focused consumer advertisers are strongly advised to turn to radio Even compared to television radio shows superiority in terms of focusing attention quotWhen we watch TV most people these days are doing it while they39re distracted with another devicequot Leland asserted quotThey may be watching streaming that doesn39t have any advertising and they may be watching broadcast and avoiding the ads by switching to their smartphone But when people listen to NPR content they really are engaged We find that people are much less likely to multitask when they39re listening to our content in part because they are less likely to multitask with other media They39re going to be multitasking other ways doing chores cooking dinner going for a walk but they39re not going to be trying to listen to a conversation on Fresh Air and watch TV at same timequotPandemic ImpactWhile broadcast radio declined early in the pandemic as lifestyles were abruptly disrupted it is now on the upswing and getting back to normal quotWhile we saw people shifting away from broadcast radio we also saw more people tuning into station streamsquot Leland noted In fact NPR39s listener hours on streams were up from last year Leland explained that as Americans get back into their cars and begin commuting again we are optimistic that there will be a strong return to AMFM listenership Leland also notes that amp8220the Radio Research Consortium just recently reported that incar listening was up again in May the second month in a row that incar listening surpassed inhome listening since the pandemic lockdowns began a good sign that the audience is returning to prepandemic listening habitsamp8221Radio Live on Air and Everywhere MethodologyquotIn early 2021 we conducted an online survey of over 1500 interviews of adults age 18 and olderquot said Lazovick quotAll respondents reported listening to AMFM radio traditional or streamed in the last week Then we weighted that data to match the sex age and ethnicity of AMFM radio weekly listeners from the Edison Research Infinite Dial report And as we mentioned we did a segmentation analysis to better understand who radio listeners are grouping listeners based on their motivations for listening and their engagement with what they hear We followed up with indepth interviews with radio listeners We interviewed fans of radio from all over the country over Zoom and we made sure we represented listeners from each of the six segments identified in the surveyquotClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNetamp160

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New Insights from NPR and Edison Research on Understanding the Radio Listener

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Charlene Weisler

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New Insights from NPR and Edison Research on Understanding the Radio Listener

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