Nielsen: Classic Rock Format Enjoys Biggest US Audience Growth of the Summer

In its latest format review, NIELSEN AUDIO noted that for the second straight year, Classic Rock saw the most growth in audience share in the SUMMER months of JUNE, JULY and AUGUST. The format’s audience grew 8% in the SUMMER, ahead of Classic Hits (+5.7%), Country (+4.1%) and Urban (+3.2%).

In 2017, the race came down to Classic Rock and Classic Hits, which have become shoe-ins for the format of the SUMMER crown over the past few years. It’s important to note that this distinction does not go to the format with the largest overall audience share (News/Talk). Rather, it goes to the format that sees the most growth during the summer months. There were four formats in the race for format of the summer this year, with Classic Rock emerging on top again.

The formats that have taken the biggest hit on the SUMMER of 2017 are News and Talk stations, which NIELSEN attributes to 2016 being an election year.