NAB Study: ‘Americans Love Their Radio’
The NAB is spotlighting a new survey that the author says reveals “uniform support” for radio among Americans.
According to the Zogby International poll of 1,200 adults, released at a press conference this week days in advance of the NAB convention, 85% of Americans say their local radio stations play an important role in providing news and information, and 81% say they are satisfied with the job local stations do in providing listeners with news, information, and entertainment.
Other findings:
19% said their station always plays the kind of music they like, 40% say they hear their favorites most of the time, and 19% say “sometimes.” 15% said their favorite station rarely or never plays the music they like;
56% of adults said they get news, weather, traffic information, sports news, and word about community activities on a daily basis, while 19% listen several times a week. The remaining one in four listen on a weekly basis or less;
Asked to compare radio programming to that of five years ago, a third say there is more variety today, while four in ten say they feel it is about the same. Approximately one in six feel there is less variety;
“A majority or plurality of people within every region of the country, every age group, every education level, every political persuasion (Democrat, Republican, Independent and Libertarian), every income level and every religion have a positive impression of local radio stations. Contrary to occasional reports of listener dissatisfaction among young people, the Zogby survey found that more than 80% of 18-29 year-olds are either ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with the performance of local radio.”
Zogby also found that 96% of Hispanics expressed overall satisfaction with radio, and 96% of Hispanics and 87% of African-Americans believe radio plays an “important” or “very important” role providing news and information.
