Over Half of Female At Work Listening Goes to Radio

RADIO ONLINE | Tuesday, February 21, 2017

54% of women who listen to music at work source it through radio. According to a Alan Burns and Associates/Strategic Solutions Research study of 2000 women, three out of four women (74%) who work full-time listen to music while they work. 40% of them listen to over the air radio, and another 14% listen to the online stream of an AM/FM radio station. Pureplay music streamers now account for 21% of women's at work music choice. Counting YouTube, 85% of all women now listen to a pureplay at some point during the typical week.

"Women still love the radio station they listen to most (58% love, 96% love or like) and in most areas, radio's images are very consistent with our data from five years ago," said Burns founder Alan Burns. "They still feel like their P1 radio station is a good or even best friend (76%), and the 'best friend' vote has actually grown to around one in five women."

Noted Strategic Executive VP Hal Rood, "Amazingly, more women told us they felt understood by the radio station they listen to most (78%) than by their significant others."

This national study of 2,000 15-54 year-old women found two areas of concern for radio. "Just over half (53%) of all women agreed that they could foresee a day when they might not need radio for music, and almost six in ten (58%) agreed that 'radio is kind of old,'" added Rood. "Technologically, radio is feeling dated in the context of all the digital choices out there, and needs to work on that."

The other concern is some weakness with the youngest consumers. According to the study, nearly half (48%) of all women who don't listen to radio are ages 15 to 24, and almost 1 in 4 (23%) of the teens who do listen gave "I can't get the Internet in the car" as one of the top three reasons they still listen.

"There are definite bright spots for radio with 15-24s, though," noted Burns. "The vast majority (90%) like radio, radio has higher 'love' scores than Pandora, Apple, or Spotify, and more than eight out of ten 15-24s (82%) look forward to listening and would be disappointed if they couldn't."

The Thursday installment of "What Women Want-2017" will reveal not only radio's best defense against pureplay encroachment, but also what's happening in connected cars. Register for the free 30-minute webinars at www.burnsradio.com or www.strategicsolutionsresearch.com.