"Frank Dresser" wrote in message
news

"David Eduardo" wrote in message
. com...

Good post. Good luck convincing Peter...

You can convince neither of us, as the listening figures show only minute
erosion over historical levels. Today, average individual listening is 20
hours 15 minutes a week. In 1950, during the freeze, listening was 21
hours.
In 1970, about 94.5% of Americans listened to radio. today, the figure is
between 93% and 94% in every US market.

Wow. That's impressive. Just about a statistical "everybody". So how
many
more people will be listening after IBOC is fully rolled out?

HD could, with HD2 channels, bring light users up in listening level.
However, since total radio cume has been so flat for decades, it is
unl,ikely it will increase reach. On the other hand, it reduces the appeal
of paid media significantly by doubling the FM offerings.

To be fair, there has always been about 5% to 6% that do not listen in a
week, and another 6% to 10% that listens very lightly.

Many of these non-users or light users are potential satellite users. 15% of
the US adult population is around 40,000,000 persons who don't much use
radio right now.

On the other hand, before changing to the Portable People Meter, the BBM in
Canada (the broadcaster owned ratings company there) a study was done to
show why that 5% did not listen and why the light listeners were light.

The 5% in Canada was made up of about half who did not use radio, period.
the other half did not use that week due to travel, a family emergency,
hospitalization, travel, etc. but usually did.

The light users were often people who only listened when they could, but
could not listen while commuting on public transportation, at work, etc., so
they listened avidly but less. The rest listened less because they did not
find what they wanted on the radio.

These figures have been pretty consistent for decades.