News Radio Audience Jumps Following Hurricane Maria

RADIO ONLINE | Friday, May 18, 2018

Nielsen Audio

Radio broadcasters stay attuned to what's happening in their local communities, particularly during times of hardship or natural disaster. Its unique capacity to reach remote areas during times of catastrophe, radio continues to be a lifeline to the most vulnerable in times of crisis. The fall of 2017 was one of the most active Atlantic hurricane seasons on record, and results from Nielsen Audio showed a 100,000+ gain in Puerto Rico news radio listeners in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

In Puerto Rico, which is a Nielsen radio diary market, the just-released winter 2018 survey reveals the rise in listening to news-formatted radio stations as a result of last year's tumultuous weather. Nielsen's fall 2017 survey was not conducted after measurement operations were suspended following Hurricane Maria's landfall on September 20, 2017. As infrastructure recovery has progressed, however, Nielsen has been able to resume surveying on the island.

As detailed in the chart below, which combines all of the news-formatted radio stations Nielsen measures in Puerto Rico (16 of them carrying the News/Talk format and another five broadcasting Spanish News/Talk), tune-in across Puerto Rico spiked significantly during the winter survey when compared against previous survey periods.

During the Winter 2018 Nielsen audio survey in Puerto Rico, more than 991 thousand listeners each week (aged 12 and older) were tuning to a news-formatted radio station. This marks an increase of more than 100,000 weekly listeners from the most recent survey, Summer 2017.

This mirrors the same patterns we observed in both Texas and Florida with audiences tuning to the radio for news and information following such a disruptive hurricane season. During the September portable people meter (PPM) survey, Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas (on Aug. 25th) while just two weeks later Hurricane Irma came ashore in Florida (on Sept. 10). Nine different major markets were affected by these two storms. While each one was unique, there is a common thread of tune-in to local news radio stations increasing dramatically during the week those storms arrived. Regardless of evacuations, flooding, or power outages, the reach of local news radio stations spiked during the specific week those hurricanes rumbled into town.