How Many Are Addicted to Radio in 2020?

For our latest NuVoodoo Ratings Prospects Study – our fifteenth – we’ve updated our information about addiction to devices and services. And since some managers are finding opportunity in serving Baby Boomers, this new study includes a proportional group of nearly eight hundred 55-64’s (and pushes our total sample to nearly 4,000 respondents). Though we’ll be focusing mainly on the money demos up to age 54 in the first installment of our spring webinar series: 20 Things to Put Your Station on Top of the 2020 Ratings. This new webinar kicks off Thursday, February 13; register for any of three sessions at nuvoodoo.com/webinars.

In addition to media choices – including Social Media – we asked respondents whether they felt addicted to their smartphones. And smartphone addiction is immense: three-quarters of our sample overall and 6 in 7 among Millennials say they’re addicted to their smartphone. Addiction to favorite FM radio stations holds up well, given the many media choices today: nearly half the Gen Xers and fully half of the Millennials in our sample. The number addicted to an FM station drops to just a third of Baby Boomers (not surprising, since few stations are targeted at them).

The numbers addicted to FM and AM radio actually go UP when we drop the Baby Boomers out of the sample. Most importantly, the FM-addicted numbers shoot up to roughly 7 in 10 among the subset who’d be likely to participate in either Nielsen methodology and the AM-addicted numbers push up to well over half among those Nielsen likelies.

We’ll get deep in the weeds to show which format P1’s are most likely to feel addicted to their favorite stations in the webinar. We’ll also dive deep into our latest information on:

  • Social Media usage (including Twitch and TikTok)
  • Workplace listening (How much of an impediment is headphone listening?)
  • National and local contests
  • Marketing messages that drive tune-in or boost TSL
  • Programming benchmarks that move the needle

We promise to get through it all in less than 30 minutes and we’ll stay on as long as needed to answer your questions. This new webinar kicks off the day before Valentine’s Day, February 13. Register for any of three sessions at nuvoodoo.com/webinars.