It's Nice To Be "Flat" .. When Overall ARB Shares Are Down

Click on the ARB 'average persons using radio" trends and "format" track for all the stats, even regionally. But, here's the big picture from a country format point of view:

Radio's average rating for persons aged 12-plus fell again in the Summer Arbitron survey. This Summer’s 14.2 rating average (persons 12-plus, Mon.-Sun., 6 a.m.-12 midnight) also marks a new drop from what had been a stable plateau during the prior three survey periods. A year ago, in Summer 2004, the average 12-plus rating was a 14.6. During the next three periods, Fall 2004, Winter 2005 and Spring 2005, that average held steady at a 14.5. This Summer’s 14.2 shows that the 12+ average has fallen again and it has hit a new, all-time low. This downtrend is present across virtually every age and sex demo and holds true for both the Spring-to-Summer falloff and for the year-to-year comparisons. The only exceptions: A 2.1% Spring-to-Summer gain for teens 12-17, due to a 3.9% rise in listening by boys 12-17 during that period. Also, listening by men 25-34 was flat, at 15.8%, for both Spring-to-Summer and year-to-year comparisons.

That's why country's four book trends (flat, overall) look pretty good to me:

12+ 8.5 8.2 8.6 8.6
12-17 4.9 4.7 5.0 5.6
18-24 6.6 6.5 6.8 6.8
25-34 7.2 6.9 6.9 7.2
35-44 8.9 8.6 9.1 8.9
45-49 9.2 8.9 9.1 9.0

Country format gains 12-34 made up for losses 35+ from Spring '05 to Summer '05.

But, looking even BETTER: A&O client stations who resisted the temptation to move too young and managed to keep the tastes of young/old and male/female in balance, while surfing on the hot current music trend too .. and thus beat these national averages by being UP, again.

If you'd like to know more about how they did that and hear about some case histories, contact Jaye or Mike. We are very proud to work with some of North America's most successful country broadcasters. They make a lot of informed, smart decisions and A&O is proud to be ONE of them!

Thanks to the Arbitron folks for tracking these trends.