Today is Nation Radio Day! AM/FM still dominates ad-supported listening

Nielsen released its latest stats on U.S. audio listening habits in Q2 2024, showing that much-maligned broadcast radio still dominates ad-supported listening.

Radio still dominates ad-supported listening

August 20, 2024, is Nation Radio Day, marking the invention of broadcast radio.

While the medium is under increasing pressure from digital and streaming, AM/FM radio still claims 67% of daily time spent listening to ad-supported audio, according to Nielson.

However, as the chart below illustrates, time spent varies greatly by the station’s format, genre players, and audience age.

“Americans spend almost 20% of every day with audio; in Q2 2024, that translated to 4 hours and 5 minutes of daily listening across both ad-supported and ad-free platforms like radio, podcasts, streaming music services, and satellite radio,” according to the study.”

Read the Nielsen & Edison Research survey here.

Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a Berklee College Of Music professor.