Over the past couple of decades, I’ve written a lot about what is happening to radio in our Digital Age. See here and here. Or, if you want to read just one post, look here. In this post, I’m adding some of the latest studies on the topic.
Here is Nielsen, via Radio World, also from 2023.
Edison Research says AM-FM radio’s share-of-ear was 34% in 2023, down from 50% in 2014.
This Edison Research report (supporting Amazon Ads) in 2023 says streaming audio at that time had a 40% share of total audio time among U.S. adults, which was up ~160% in ten years.
And this Pew fact sheet has more numbers, some of them from Edison.
Meanwhile public radio listening has fallen. But its shares have not. You’ll see they have held steady or have grown by looking at the ratings at Radio Online. So the pie is smaller.
At best AM-FM radio (and over-the-air television) are what investors call distressed assets. The three top radio owner groups—Cumulus, iHeart, and Audacy—are financial worthlessness, Cumulus was de-listed by NASDAQ in May of this year. iHeart filed for Chapter 11 November 2017, with $2.4 billion in debt, and since then has had lots of layoffs and restructurings. Audacy filed for bankruptcy in January and has been shedding people and assets constantly since then.
Last July, as we were having a sidewalk sale/give-away at the place we were about to leave in Manhattan, I asked a bunch of people if they listened to radio. None of the young people still did. Some of the old people (such as I) still did, but less. As for the rest, the most representative remark was made by a neighbor on another floor of our building. She said, “Yes, I still listen to radio. On my phone. Spotify.”
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