Why Do the Study?
“We really wanted to take a fresh look at the radio platform and the role it plays in people’s lives, particularly to help media buyers,” explained Susan Leland, NPR's Associate Director of Audience Insights. In an increasingly digital world, it was important to prove out that radio is still very important. And it is.
The current state of radio is robust. Leland shared that, “Radio consistently has the largest reach of any media. It was 88% in the latest Nielsen data, just ahead of smartphone apps. It also counts for the largest share of audio listening and when in the car, radio counts for the majority of listening time.” In addition, Edison Research found that 63% of Americans listen to AM/FM radio each day and 89% listen each week.
For NPR in particular, this study comes at a momentous time. “This spring, NPR celebrated its 50th anniversary. We have a great legacy in the radio space,” explained Lamar Johnson, NPM Vice President, Marketing. “Part of that legacy involves having an understanding of the radio listenership and the audience. It is an ongoing objective for us,” he added.
Radio: Live on Air and Everywhere Methodology
NPR and Edison Research used three studies for this report. “First is share-of-ear which is a diary study of over 4,000 people age 14 and older that we conduct in the U.S. quarterly. We measure the amount of time people are spending with audio. That’s how we identified the growth in time spent with spoken word,” explained Megan Lazovick, Vice President, Edison Research who added, “We followed up on that share-of-ear information by conducting some in-depth interviews via zoom. Things that we learned from those in depth interviews were used to put together an additional survey … a national online survey of 1,000 monthly spoken word audio listeners, which is about 75% of the US population.”
Six Unique Radio Audience Segmentations
One of the major takeaways from this study is the clear delineation of the radio audience into six distinct and unique segmentations, each with their own preferences, demographic skew and behavioral patterns. “One of the interesting things about the six groups and the spectrum is that the more engaged group is, the more open they are to advertising,” stated Leland.
Radio Heads. These super fans essentially use radio for everything. They are more likely to be female under the age of 54 and over-index among African Americans. They listen to all formats on all platforms and spend more time with AM/FM than any other segment. Not only are they advertiser-friendly, they have the money to spend to purchase products and services because they have high employment, higher education and higher average income. Radio Heads represent 9% of all radio listeners.
Connection Seekers use radio as a way to connect and understand. They tend to be older women and are the second heaviest users of the medium. They gravitate to the spoken word, tend to listen at home and are also very advertiser-friendly. They represent 16% of all listeners.
Infomaniacs where listening is driven by news, skews male. They tend to listen in the morning, prefer the spoken word and gravitate to formats such as news, sports, personalities and talk. They index high for NPR listening and are open to advertising and sponsorships. They represent 18% of listeners.
Rhythm Rockers whose listening is driven by music, is heavily younger female, Latinx and of lower incomes. They are more likely to stream, but AM/FM is king in the car. They represent 27% of all listeners.
Laid-back Listeners who listen to radio in the background tend to be age 35+ who are radio-centric, preferring to listen on traditional platforms rather than streaming. More than half of this group listen to ads and prefer music over other formats. They are 17% of all radio listeners.
Habitualists listen to radio when it’s the only option available. They also skew 35+ and are not that interested in audio in general. Yet, more than half say that they listen to ads on radio and still spend three hours listening in an average week and would miss radio if it were no longer available. They prefer to listen on traditional platforms and not on streaming ones and their preferred format is music rather than the spoken word. They represent 13% of all listeners.
NPR Listener Segments
For NPR listeners specifically, “You will find them in every segment, but they are particularly likely to be Infomaniacs, which are news driven users, which makes a lot of sense, and they also tend to be pretty heavy listeners,” noted Leland. They're also more likely to be Radio Heads and Connection Seekers. “Our audience tends to be heavy listeners to radio. It keeps some listeners company throughout the day with the news and especially the conversations. It’s like having a friend in your house who's with you all day,” she added. “The thing the thing that most distinguishes the NPR listener on any platform is that they tend to be really interested in learning and have a sense of real civic engagement and responsibility.”
For Johnson, a notable takeaway from the study was, “the increase in listenership among African American Latino and female women listeners, particularly in the younger 13-34. It's important for us at NPR to attract more diverse and younger audiences. Those are two fairly big takeaways that were pretty eye opening for us.”
Open to Advertising
The heavier the listener, the more receptive they are to advertising but, according to Lazovick, all segments of radio listeners, even those who are less engaged, are open to advertising. “They are getting exposed to advertising. They (may not be) as engaged but they are still there they're still open to the messaging, just not as intensely as other segments. The more engaged a group is with radio, the more likely you can influence them with the advertising.”
She added that, “Most people believe that ads are a fair trade for their listening time. They understand the value that they're getting through radio in exchange for listening to a few ads.” When it comes to NPR, “We asked specific questions to NPR listeners and a final key finding is that NPR listeners are very open to sponsorship members’ messages.”
According to Leland, “We asked people on the survey about actions people have taken as a result of hearing advertising and we saw that the more engaged a listener is, more likely they are to say that they considered a product and purchased a product because of an ad they heard on radio.” Lazovick noted, “And because we know NPR listeners tend to be that more engaged listener, their numbers are higher in terms of those same questions about gathering information about a company product or service, purchasing things, recommending products. They are more likely to have done that than the average AM/FM radio listener. The numbers are high on both sides, but NPR listeners are a bit higher.” Local advertising in particular can benefit from a radio presence.
Radio Compared to Television
When it comes to attracting a focused consumer, advertisers are strongly advised to turn to radio. Even compared to television, radio shows superiority in terms of focusing attention. “When we watch TV, most people these days are doing it while they're distracted with another device. They may be watching streaming that doesn't have any advertising and they may be watching broadcast and avoiding the ads by switching to their smartphone. But when people listen to NPR content, they really are engaged,” stated Leland who added, “We find that people are much less likely to multitask when they're listening to our content in part because they are less likely to multitask with other media. They're going to be multitasking other ways - doing chores, cooking dinner, going for a walk - but they're not going to be trying to listen to a conversation on Fresh Air and watch TV at same time. You need to give you the whole attention of your brain.”
Pandemic Impact
While broadcast radio declined early in the pandemic when lifestyles were disrupted, it has been on the upswing and getting back to normal now. “While we saw people shifting away from broadcast radio, we also saw more people tuning into station streams,” Leland noted. In fact, NPR’s listener hours on streams were up from last year. But, as Leland explained, as Americans get back into their cars and commute, there will be a strong return to AM/FM listenership.
Next Steps
This is the first study of its kind for NPR but not the last. “This study was really enlightening to us in terms of understanding the segments and the behaviors. We'll be talking further about what we might do in this lane in the future,” Johnson concluded.
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