Marketers looking to reach Hispanic and African-American consumers should be placing down some ad dollars in radio, according to a report issued this week by Nielsen.
Not only has radio consumption across the country grown to a record 244.4 million people per week, but Hispanic and African-American listenership has also reached an all-time high of 71 million persons per week.
The Nielsen report says that combined Hispanic and African-American radio listeners account for nearly one-third (29.6%) of the total national audience. They are engaged with radio across the country in all sized markets, with more than 3,000 different radio stations programming to them specifically.
Nielsen says the growth of radio listening both overall and specifically among multicultural consumers “is remarkable considering the variety and number of media choices available to consumers today over the air and online, via smartphones, tablets, notebooks, desktop computers and digital dashboards.”
Close to 40 million Hispanics listen to radio each week with 53% of them male and 47% female, according to the report. Overall, each person spends 12 hours and 13 minutes each week with radio and the top daypart is midday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
The top music format among Hispanics is Mexican Regional with 67% listening out of home and 33% listening at home. Other popular formats include Pop Contemporary Hit Radio, Spanish Contemporary and Spanish Hot Adult Contemporary, and Rhythmic Contemporary Hit Radio.
Among English-dominant Hispanics 12-plus, Country Music is listened to by 7% of the audience, placing it behind Pop Contemporary Hit Radio (12.5%), Rhythmic Contemporary Hit Radio (10.4%) and Adult Contemporary (8.3%).
Among Spanish-dominant Hispanics 12-plus, Mexican Regional is listened to by 27% of the audience, followed by Spanish Contemporary (12.7%) and Spanish Adult Hits (10.4%).
About 31 million African-Americans listen to radio each week with the breakdown being 53% women and 47% men. Each listener spends 12 hours and 10 minutes with radio every week, and the top daypart with Hispanic listeners is at midday from 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
Urban Adult Contemporary is the music of choice for 31.5% of African-American listeners 12-plus, followed by Urban Contemporary (19%), Rhythmic Contemporary Hit Radio (7.7%), Adult Contemporary (4.7%) and Pop Contemporary Hit Radio (4.4%). The report says Gospel is listened to primarily by African-Americans in the 35-64 age group, with 4.2% of that audience tuning in.
Market Leaders
The top-ranked radio market for Hispanics is Los Angeles, where 4.8 million Hispanic listeners tune in each week. The audience composition is 52% male and 48% female and the top daypart is the 3-7 p.m. drive time. In Los Angeles, the average Hispanic listener spends 7 hours and 15 minutes per week with Spanish music and 5 hours and 15 minutes per week with general market music.
The second largest radio market for Hispanics is New York with 3.8 million listeners per week. Other top Hispanic radio markets include Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood (1.89 million weekly listeners); Houston-Galveston (1.8 million); Chicago (1.6 million); Dallas-Fort Worth (1.5 million); San Francisco (1.4 million); Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif. (1 million); San Antonio (991,000); and Phoenix (927,000).
The top ranked radio market for African-Americans is New York, where 2.7 million tune into radio each week. Second is Atlanta with a weekly average of 1.5 million listeners. Other top African-American radio markets include Chicago (1.4 million); Washington, D.C. (1.3 million); Philadelphia (923,000); Houston-Galveston (888,000); Dallas-Fort Worth (844,000); Detroit (829,000); Los Angeles (798,000); Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood (776,000); Baltimore (679,000); and Memphis (500,000).
Nielsen issues its Audio Today reports quarterly and uses assorted methodologies to collect data, including Portable People Meter technology that is used to survey respondents in the top 48 radio metro markets in the United States. Nielsen’s Diary service also surveys respondents in the other 217 radio markets.
