September 18th, 2015
That’s according to Harker Research namesake Richard Harkerwho has been crunching the numbers on what he characterizes as the “unprecedented growth” of radio listeners over the past six months.
“After years (some say a decade) of deteriorating listening, local radio turned a corner in January,” writes Harker in his latest Radio InSightsblog.
“For the first time since PPM was implemented radio put together six consecutive months of year-over-year listening growth. In August radio managed to continue that trend, notching another month of growth.
Radio listening, as measured by average quarter-hour ratings (AQH), swung from a loss of 4.3% in 2014 to a gain of 3.0% last month, a swing of over 7%.
Equally significant was the proportion of markets that gained listening. Nearly three-quarters (72%) of PPM markets increased AQH compared to 2014.
Considering that only four markets managed to expand listening the year before, that is quite a turnaround in one year.” As you might imagine, Harker has a theory about just what could be behind all that spontaneous listener growth.
Read his full post HERE.
