Is radio still popular in the US

In the modern era - where technology is constantly evolving - have you either pondered whether radio is still popular in the United States of America?

The dawn of radio happened late in the 19th century, so it’s no longer in its infancy to say the least. So it's not hard to imagine that radio’s popularity has waned over the decades. However, the current listening habits of the American people reveal that such a view could only exists in one's imagination. In fact, according to the latest industry data, radio is still very much alive and well within the US.

In this blog post, we’ll explain the latest market research on radio listening habits in modern American society.

What the results say

Let’s begin with The Record, a quarterly report card prepared by Nielsen and Edison Research on how the American population consumes audio content. In their latest report for the third quarter of 2024, they state that nearly 20% of the average American’s day is spent listening to all types of audio. That translates to a whopping 3 hours and 57 minutes of each day spent listening to content such as radio, podcasts and streaming music services (e.g. Spotify).

We just mentioned podcasts and streaming music services, so you may expect these audio formats to be the dominant categories. However, for the American adult (18 and over) audience, 67% of their daily time is spent with radio, while podcasts are at 18% and streaming music services constitute only 11%. Please note these proportions only include ad-supported audio, so services such as Spotify Premium (a paid subscription, where users do not receive ads) are not included.

Further, for every refinement into narrower age groups (e.g. 18-34, 25-54) of how the American audience spends their time with ad-supported audio, radio is the majority category. So no matter their age, the average American audio consumer spends more than half their daily listening with radio.

Online radio’s reach is expanding

Here at Radio Cult, we’re an internet radio provider so we hope you can excuse us for plugging online radio. But it's not for nothing.

If we refer to Westwood One’s analysis of the report we discussed above, it is clear online radio is growing in the United States. The most recent data shows that 13% of all AM/FM radio listening is via digital radio, whilst the remaining 87% is over-the-air. Without a doubt, streaming radio is still the minority method for Americans to listen to radio. But it's gaining on over-the-air - it was only at 8% in late 2017.

We certainly have an agenda. But online radio’s growing share of American listening habits shouldn’t be ignored. Nor should the significant barriers to entry for starting a non-online radio station. So if you’ve ever considered starting a radio station, now is the time. And if you were to sign up to Radio Cult you could be broadcasting in a matter of minutes!

Tying it together

In 2024, Americans of all ages spend more than half of their daily ad-supported audio time with radio. It is the dominant audio category. An emphatic yes therefore, must be given to the question whether radio is still popular in the United States. Finally, with online radio accounting for an ever growing share of radio listening, there has never been a better or easiest time to start your very own radio station!