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Recently, Ron Stone, president of Adams Radio Group, formed a new organization, Independent Broadcasters Association (IBA). While still in the formulation state, the launch of IBA should occur in the near future. I had the privilege of talking with Ron about the IBA.
An advantage we have in working with radio stations across the country is greater perspective. We see data from a wide variety of markets and formats. This affords us the opportunity to see broad trends in how listeners are consuming radio. While our sample size does not encompass every station in the country, it is large enough to make some solid observations.
Like markets that are slowly opening up and commerce that is starting to return, radio listening has started to rebound. In the major markets, which are measured by PPM methodology, radio listening quickly fell in the second half of the March survey and the entire April survey. In most markets, the majority of the drop was with away-from-home listening.
The recent May survey, which was conducted between April 23rd and May 20th, showed the first signs of radio listening returning to previous levels. While most offices, restaurants, and retail locations were still shut down during the May survey period, radio listening across just about all PPM markets experienced increases, with most of that listening occurring away from home.
Earlier this week we spoke about Nielsen’s special study dividing consumers into three groups concerning their attitude to commerce during the COVID-19 pandemic. They classified consumers into three groups:
Clearly most advertisers who are ready to jump-start their business need to focus on the ready to go segment of the population. In the first survey (4/30-5/2), this group comprised 34% of the sample. Things are moving fast, and people’s attitudes are changing. Nielsen repeated the study (5/27-5/29) and this ready to go group is now 54% of the sample, a big jump in just a month or so.
As markets start to slowly reopen, a recent Nielsen study shows that radio is a strong choice of those who are characterized as “ready to go.” Nearly one-third of the sample, conducted April 30 through May 2, were classified as “ready to go” – planning to return to commerce faster than the balance of the sample. Over 80% of this group strongly agreed or somewhat agreed that they will resume most normal activities in the next month. When compared to the other two groups:
