A Characteristic Study, Take II

In a recent column, we talked about the quarterly PPM Panel Characteristics Report that Nielsen releases for all PPM markets. There isn’t any actual gold in them-thar spreadsheets but, with the amount of information you can mine, there may as well be!

Household Income is pretty evenly spread throughout the sample. The assumption can be made that the higher the income, the more likely that is from the white-collar workforce. It may be time to re-think that assumption. For example, Glassdoor estimates that the average salary for a Master Electrician is $125,380 per year. We know that blue-collar workers are heavier radio users. This makes sense. They are generally on the road, and we know radio continues to dominate the car (or truck). These workers are not part of the new hybrid work environment, so they are potentially exposed to radio more frequently than the white-collar crowd.

It turns out that the more radios a household has, the more quarter hours they give to radio. If you look at your market’s numbers in this category, you’ll generally see that at least 60% of the panel households have at least one radio in the home.

Households without the presence of a smart speaker tend to listen to more radio. Each market is different, but we usually see smart speaker penetration at about 50% in PPM households. You’re likely promoting the heck out of your Alexa skills, but this could be a growth opportunity for your station.

The presence of a podcast listener in the household can be a problem as they tend to listen to less radio.

Streaming is a mixed bag. While the usual subjects rank high in the report, what they listen to can correlate to their radio usage. Those that listen to the pure plays like Spotify and Pandora tend to contribute fewer quarter hours to radio. This makes sense especially for premium users. However, those that patronize Sirius/XM or iHeartRadio are likely to spend more time with terrestrial radio. This seems logical as those two services are more like radio than the pure plays.

You have a lot of data at your fingertips. Delving into the PPM Panel Characteristics Report is another weapon in your arsenal. Remember, this changes every quarter, which is why we never, ever advocate that our clients should program to the panel. However, knowing how it breaks down could affect your overall strategy.

To read the first part click here. To read all the articles in The Power of Radio series click here.