Blacks, Hispanics Make Up One Third of Listeners

RADIO ONLINE | Wednesday, July 11, 2018 | 4:00am CT

Nielsen

Nielsen's newly released "Audio Today" report focuses specifically on Black and Hispanic consumers, which make up a third of American radio listeners. The report profiles those audiences, their listening preferences, technology trends and the unique value they offer advertisers. It finds that not only is radio America's top weekly reach platform, it's also number one with Black and Hispanic consumers, as 75 million tune in each week.

The Nielsen report finds that Audio plays an important role in the daily lives of hundreds of millions of Americans, and that listening audience is as varied and diverse as the U.S. Here are some interesting stats from the report:

• Radio is America's top weekly reach platform, both overall and with Black and Hispanic consumers; 75 million of whom tune in each week. In the first quarter of 2018, radio reached 92% of Black consumers each week and 96% of Hispanic consumers.
• In each of the past five years, more than 30 million Black consumers and 40 million Hispanic consumers have tuned in to the radio each week for entertainment, music and news. And when we look at the overall radio audience, the national radio audience is approximately 14% Black and 17% Hispanic.
• Black and Hispanic consumers are also trailblazers when it comes to interest in and adoption of smart speakers and audio streaming services. According to Nielsen's new syndicated MediaTech Trender Report, 52% of Black consumers and 45% of Hispanic consumers use streaming services for music, radio and podcasts.

More than 30 million Black consumers, age 12 and older, tune into radio each week. Forty-seven percent are male and 53% are female, and the most popular time of day to listen is Monday-Friday between 3-7pm, commonly referred to as "afternoon drive." Urban AC is the top format among Black listeners, with nearly one-third of all radio usage going to stations in the Urban AC format.

Meanwhile, the gender divide among the Hispanic listening audience is 53% male and 47% female. Regional Mexican is the number one format overall, and the most popular time of day for radio occurs during middays (Monday-Friday 10am-3pm). Regional Mexican is also the top format in terms of share of audience with almost every demographic, except among Hispanic teens (12-17), where Pop CHR and Rhythmic CHR lead the way, with Regional Mexican ranked third.