As of Dec. 31, more inroads have been made by women executives in this historically male-dominated industry. The Mentoring and Inspiring Women in Radio Group has released the latest numbers on women’s roles in U.S. radio stations with the 2017 MIW Gender Analysis Study.
Women accounted for just over 18% of the general managers at the 11,301 AM and FM radio stations counted by PrecisionTrak, which gathered the data for the study. That’s 1,974 female-led stations. The numbers were better in the Top 100 markets, which came in at 18.5% (a jump from 2016’s 17.7%).
In 2016, 17.8% of the stations nationwide had female GMs, and the numbers were worse in 2004 — only 14.9%, according to MIW Group.
There’s also good news on the sales side. Female sales managers account for just under 32% of those in that role nationally, up about a half point from 2016. Again, in the top 100 markets, women have made more progress, and 32.7% of sales managers were female in 2017 — up about one point year-over-year.
However, the percentage of female program directors nationally “has basically remained flat for the last 11 years” at 10.5%, according to the announcement. Keeping with the trend, women program 11.7% of the stations in the top 100 markets, but that number is actually down from 2016. But the MIW Group is not taking this lying down; they launched the MIW-Nielsen Music Mentoring Program in 2017 to encourage more women to pursue this track.
“Our hope is that the MIW Gender Analysis sparks conversation within each company, and at each radio station, about ways to develop internal efforts that encourage the advancement of female leadership,” MIW Group Spokeswoman Denyse Mesnik said in the announcement.
