by Nico McLane & A.M. Arno
October 9, 2009

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Nielsen is measuring radio listening in 51 markets, according to a report on Crains New York, and 18-to-34-year-olds listen to radio an average of 21.5 hours per week. That puts their listening in line with all people over the age of 12, but what exactly are we talking about when we call it radio?

You can get radio programs on your iPod via iTunes, or often you can subscribe directly from the programmer's website. Nielsen claims their sample represents 98% of the population in the markets they cover, thanks to their address-based sampling (ABS), which uses randomly selected home addresses rather than telephone numbers.

Of course, there is a lot of missing detail to this “offering” from Nielsen. What are the parameters of the survey questions that were asked? How do these “younger listeners” perceive “radio” Did they specify that radio meant an actual FM tuner sitting on the kitchen counter or are we talking about streaming audio? Nico doubts this demographic is savvy enough to differentiate streaming radio from tuner radio, nor reliable enough to keep a “diary” of radio listening habits. Have you spoken to a 12-year-old lately?

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