Arbitron's 'Radio Today 2013' Study Looks At The Strengths Of Each Format

New Study

ARBITRON has released the "Radio Today 2013" study to its clients. Among the highlights:

Country and New Country, already the #1 format in the report last year, grew again to remain in first place and reach another record audience share. The format benefited most from an influx of listeners aged 18-24 and is even #2 among teen listeners nationally.

News/Talk/Information and Talk/Personality remained #1 in PPM markets and #2 in the rest of the U.S. The 2,121 rated AM, FM, HD Radio and streamed stations in these formats far exceed any other format. Like other spoken word formats, N/T/I + T/P rank prominently in highly educated, high income listeners.

Top 40 continued its pace of recent years, and this year moved from the fourth to the third-most-popular radio format when ranked by AQH share. What’s more, Top 40’s 72 million weekly listeners is tops among all radio formats, supplanting AC and Soft AC as the #1 format on a cume basis. Nearly 30% of teen females nationally listen to Top 40 stations.

Adult Contemporary and Soft Adult Contemporary’s 69 million 12+ listeners is off from previous years, due in part to the surge in Country, Top 40 and Hot AC listening. The formats boast high-income, highly educated (mostly female) listeners and they remain strong in the midday daypart, reinforcing their reputations as "at-work" strongholds.

Classic Hits has steadily replaced Oldies as the format to play pop hits from recent decades. As such, it reached a ratings high in SPRING 2012.The format has a near-equal male-female gender share and it performs equally well in all market sizes.

Classic Rock registered its highest audience share in a decade and remains a reliable performer in all market sizes and rates highly among its core demographic of 45-54 men (the format’s 70% male composition ranks fourth-most-male among the 22 formats in this year’s study).

Hot AC experienced the second largest growth spurt in this year’s study and achieved a national historical high. Its gains were notable among teens, adults 18-24, and adults 35-44.

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