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Radio’s Demise Exaggerated?

According to media study, radio is still alive ’n kicking

Radio broadcasters can take some heart from data mined from a major media study.

The study, conducted by Ball State University, the Council for Research Excellence and Sequent Partners, actually was done in 2008 and aimed at “video” viewing habits, hence its name: Video Consumer Mapping Study; however it contained valuable data on many other aspects of consumer media consumption.

The Council just released its radio-oriented findings (PDF).

The takeaway is that radio’s death has been greatly exaggerated. According to the study, “Ninety percent of adults are exposed to some form of audio media on a daily basis, with broadcast radio having by far the largest share.” Also, “Broadcast radio is the dominant form of audio media at home, work and in the car.”

Another take-home goodie is, “Audio media exposure has the highest reach among those with higher levels of education and income.” Package that in your sales kits.

However, all is not smiles and wagging puppy dog tails, the sample was described as nearly unaware of the MP3 player/iPod, “with under 90 percent of the sample not listening at all.” A hard-to-believe number these days.

Areas studied were broadcast/satellite radio (79% daily penetration), CDs/tapes (37%), portable audio (e.g. MP3 players) (12%), digital audio stored on computers (10%), digital audio streamed on the computer (9%) and audio on mobile phones (1%).

The study used a small (less than 400 people spread across Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Indianapolis, Philadelphia and Seattle) but thoroughly observed sample and offers a number of interesting observations on media use in these rapidly changing days of media options.

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