Radio

Radio is everywhere: in our living room stereo systems, bedroom as clock radios, kitchens as household intercom radios, cars, subscription radio in stores and health spas, on our computer screens, headphones while jogging as Walkman's, through digital cable systems, telephone systems when on hold...everywhere.

While Radio has much in common with Television as a broadcast medium, they are very different in usage habits, cost, audience, audience measures, buying and scheduling patterns and so on.

To understand how to schedule and use radio and other media for effective advertising, we should begin by looking at the audiences and their usage habits.

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Most radio listening is done in vehicles, with household listening and walkman style listening following way behind. There are approximately 227,924,767 vehicles registered in the U.S. or a population of
288, 033, 073 persons living in the U.S.
Source:
BTS TransStats
Also see the Bureau of Tranpsportation Statistics
http://www.transtats.bts.gov/

The U.S. Population is currently at 288,033,073 people acording to the U.S. Census Bureau's population clock. http://www.census.gov/ With the world population at 6.2 billion, this equals 4.65 % of the world's people.

The U.S. population lives in 104.7 million households (HH's), with an average of 2.62 people per house and with 25.5% of the households being single resident. http://www.census.gov/statab/www/part1.htm

There are approximately 127,448,586 U.S. workers and about 120,000,000 of them communted to work in a vehicle with a radio.
U.S. Census Bureau Quick Tables

The mean travel time to work is about 24.5 muniutes.

Listener Habits

• 99% of HH's have one; 5.6 per HH
• According to the Radio Advertising Bureau there are 576,500,000 radios in the U.S. http://www.rab.com/
• About 365 million radios in homes; 180 million in cars
• 96% of all cars have radios
• 95% of commute drivers listen to radio, not tapes
• 97% of Americans over 12 years of age listen per week
• 4 out of 5 adults listen per day
• 3 out of 4 adults are reached weekly in their cars
• over 61% of adults have radios at work
• loyal to 2-5 stations, 2 primary choices
• fragmented audience
• many commercial establishments & organizations have radios
• Before 5 pm there are more radio listeners than television viewers
• average person listens 3 1/2 hours per day
• serves as background (lo-involvement), especially during non drive time

Media Description

• good supply of air time
• a more segmentable audience by demographics compared to tv but other media offer better segmentation
• little or no cable effect on listener habits
• network = 5% share (ABC, CNN, AP Network News)
• spot national syndicated = 5% share (Westwood One, Satellite Music Network)
• spot (local) accounts for 90% of all radio advertising
• There are 9,000 local radio staions in about 260 radio markets in the U.S.
• high frequency - due to loyal listeners, fragmented audience
• poor reach - due to loyal listeners, fragmented audience
• maintains awareness/inhibits forgetting (the theatre of the mind)
• best for events, short term learning, retail messages
• best for short simple messages
• Broascast range is based of transmitter wattage; higher towers extend range (signals travel farther after dark and the FCC often requires that stations reduce their power):
  • 250 Watts = 15 miles
  • 50,000 Watts = >100 miles
  
  

Radio Buying & Scheduling

• 60 second standard, can buy 15 to 120 seconds
• Can pay to sponsor a specific program or event
• cost per insertion is $8 to $500 (avg. cost = $20-200)
• National Radio cost is $5,000-10,000 per 60 seconds
• no exact times or dates; unless sponsoring a specific program
• Usually bought by total budget, then negotiating the number of ads & time groups
• short lead time, 2 days to 14 days
• audience reach limited to about 55%
• Time periods are usually given as options on a rate card:
  • AAA - Prime time (commute 7-9 am; 4-6 pm but usually extended as noted in the chart below)
  • TAP - Total Audience Participation, radiospeak for ROS
  • AA Fringe
  • A Day part
    

• Overall budget is moderate, cost/person about 1 cent, CPM = $10-50
• Good customer discount - save 10-40%
• Radio ads can be live or taped; the majority are taped

Some disadvantages of radio

• Poor audience attentiveness (verbal wallpaper - a comfortable background while doing something else)
• Audio-only make sit dificult to get and keep attention
• Hard to demonstrate product or benefits or show use
• Fragmented audience, hard to generate 100% reach
• Station by station buying - few national and syndication buying opportunities
• Local radio sellers may use peculiar selling and scheduling terms and patterns

Radio Media Measurements

Radio has some measurements that are peculiar to it as a medium.

• Audience often measured by person, not household
• DMA - Designated marketing areas: radio frequency can overlap, so the FCC controls broadcast power and geographic reach
• ADI - Area of Dominant Influence: measures prime geographic reach
• CUME - Cumulative auidience; same as reach
• AQH - Average Quarter Hours