Country's Audience Shares Drop, But Revenue Shares Increase

As the RAB reports more "green shoots" in the haggard economy, country radio's format conversion ratio improved even as 12+ audience shares dipped in Miller, Kaplan, Arase's latest annual data.

Last year, there were 104 country stations reporting in the top 100 markets with a 4.69 share of listeners and a 6.66% share of radio revenues.

Power ratio = 1.42, which was up from 2007's 1.36, based on an average audience share of 5.06 and a share of marketing dollars of 6.90. In 2006, country's 12+ average share of audience was 5.36 and the format got 7.01% of local radio dollars, making the power ratio trend 1.31, a "good news/bad news scenario."

Let's build reveues by growing audience, eh?