Radio Reaches 94 Percent of African-Americans Each Week According to Arbitron Black Radio Today 2010 Edition

COLUMBIA, Md. Sept. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB) today announced the availability of Black Radio Today, 2010 Edition, an analysis of audience demographics and listening patterns of the ten most popular radio formats for Black Americans: Urban Adult Contemporary, Urban Contemporary, Rhythmic Contemporary Hit Radio, News/Talk/Information, Gospel, Adult Contemporary, Pop Contemporary Hit Radio, All Sports, All News, and Religious.  

"Radio continues to be a vibrant and relevant part of the lives of Black Americans with 94 percent aged 12 years and older listening each week," said Julian Davis, Arbitron Inc. "In today's media landscape, Radio plays a vital role providing entertainment and information so that regardless of age, time of day or location, it is the true media companion of Black consumers."

Highlights from the report:

• Urban AC consumed nearly 31% of their radio listening—an increase of 9% from 2009 and more than 11 percentage points ahead of the next-most-listened-to format.
• Following spectacularly high ratings during the 2008 presidential campaign, African-American listening to News/Talk/Information stations tapered somewhat in this report.
• The All Sports format increased 50 percent from 2008 to 2009 and attracted the most affluent black listeners and was the #1 format among high-income households.
• Young Black consumers spent more time listening to Urban Contemporary radio than any other format.
• Pop Contemporary Hit Radio (Pop CHR) experienced a surge in ratings in all dayparts.
• Despite the youthful age profile of the Urban Contemporary format, nearly two-thirds of its African-American listeners lived in households that earned at least $25,000.
• Nearly eight million African-Americans tuned into Rhythmic Contemporary Hit Radio (Rhythmic CHR) every week, representing an 8% increase from the previous report.  
• Due largely in part to its age and gender composition, Gospel once again held down the No. 2 position for at-home listening as it has for many years.

About Arbitron

Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB) is a media and marketing research firm serving the media – radio, television, cable and out-of-home – as well as advertisers and advertising agencies. Arbitron's core businesses are measuring network and local market radio audiences across the United States; surveying the retail, media and product patterns of local market consumers; and providing application software used for analyzing media audience and marketing information data. The company has developed the Portable People Meter and PPM 360, new technologies for media and marketing research.

Portable People Meter™, PPM™ and PPM 360™ are marks of Arbitron Inc.

PPM ratings are based on audience estimates and are the opinion of Arbitron and should not be relied on for precise accuracy or precise representativeness of a demographic or radio market.

SOURCE Arbitron Inc.