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At Alan Burns & Associates, a leading radio programming consultancy that specializes in female-based formats such as Top 40/Contemporary Hit Radio and Adult Contemporary, the tastes and interests of women have been a constant focus. Beginning in 2010, we started a series of industry studies called “What Women Want” to examine the attitudes, media content desires, and priorities of American women.

This year, we have teamed up with the Cumulus Media | Westwood One Audio Active Group® to conduct a brand-new study in the “What Women Want” series. 1,001 U.S. women aged 15-64 took an online MARU/Matchbox survey from September 28-October 6, 2023. In addition, the Audio Active Group® analyzed data from Nielsen, Edison’s “Share of Ear,” Katz Media, and the just released Jacobs Media Techsurvey 2024 to seek insights on the female listener.

6 key findings:

1. Women love their favorite AM/FM radio station almost as much as their phone and more than Amazon, Netflix, Apple, Spotify, and TikTok; Advertisers can leverage this radio station affection and connection to build their brands
2. Streaming has become more important as working women commute less, impacting their time spent with AM/FM radio in the car
3. Radio station programming features do not align well with the key priorities of women – family, health, and relationships
4. AM/FM radio personalities and non-music elements dominate the reasons why women listen to AM/FM radio; “Free” tops the list; Two-thirds of women say AM/FM radio hosts are the main reason they listen, according to Jacobs Media’s Techsurvey 2024
5. Annoying ads and the number of commercials are noted as a reason for listening less for AM/FM radio
6. Universally, six out of ten women feel “today’s music is not as good as it was years ago”

Recommendations for radio stations: Turning learnings into action

1. Completely rethink how streaming a radio station is marketed and explained
2. Adapt to the new world of commuting and market to at-home workers
3. Rethink programming features and better align them to the three key priorities (family, health, and relationships)
4. Rethink commercial stop sets, ditch the bow tie, and stop demonizing AM/FM radio ads
5. Be part of the solution to fix Top 40 music; Proactively find songs that diversify CHR’s sound
6. Engage with Gen Z and give them something to connect with

Recommendations for advertisers:

1. With a monthly reach of nearly 90%, AM/FM radio should be in the media plan of any marketer who targets women
2. The ideal audio media plan allocation to target women is 69% AM/FM radio, 19% podcasts, 9% Pandora/Spotify, and 2% SiriusXM, based on Edison’s “Share of Ear” ad-supported audio shares
3. Advertisers using AM/FM radio can leverage the trust and affection of women who have listened to their favorite radio station for an average of 18 years
4. The most compelling AM/FM radio content among women offers marketers many sponsorship and integration opportunities

Post-COVID, working women indicate they are commuting less, impacting their time spent with AM/FM radio in the car

Pre-pandemic, working women estimate they used to work outside the home 5.3 days. Now they say it is 4.8 days. A greater proportion are working one to three days out of the home (19%) versus pre-pandemic (9%).

Working from home holds many benefits for women: No commute, more time spent with the family, better focus, and a quieter environment

Reduced time in the car is cited as a major reason for spending less time with AM/FM radio

Volume of ads (28%) and “annoying commercials” (30%) are also cited as reasons for listening less.

Recommendation: Adapt to the new world of hybrid commuting

Market to at-home workers: The increase in work-from-home opportunities has disrupted commuting. Have fun with it and create “work-from-home” kits for at-home working women: gift cards for Uber Eats, Chewy gift cards for the pet, and toys for kids to play with.

Consider promotions to encourage at-work listeners to maintain their listening habits while working at home. Create features that highlight people who work from home.

Streaming represents 10% of female AM/FM radio listening, steady since 2018

While nearly 30% of AM/FM radio listening among men occurs via the online stream (mostly powered by spoken word programming formats), female AM/FM radio streaming has been steady at 10%, according to Edison’s “Share of Ear.”

Women who stream AM/FM radio indicate they prefer it to music streaming services; They also stream as they do not have a physical radio

Only 38% of women have downloaded their most preferred station streaming app, according to Jacobs Media’s Techsurvey 2024

Men (42%) are slightly more likely to have downloaded an audio streaming app from their most preferred station. 48% of Hot AC listeners have downloaded an app, followed by 37% of CHR fans and only 28% of AC listeners.

Recommendation: Deal with the lack of station app awareness head on

Get serious about marketing your station listening mobile app: 60% do not have a listening app for their preferred station. Meanwhile, the number of households without a radio keeps growing. The industry has done a horrible job marketing AM/FM radio streaming. We blurt out how to listen online, assuming everyone understands what we mean.

Assume nothing. Put listeners on the air and walk them through a step-by-step tutorial: how to download the listening app, set it up, and register. Give them a prize. Award them a gift card for their first hour of listening on your station app.

Treat your listening app as if it were a brand-new product that has never existed. The quality of the creative determines 50% to 70% of the sales effect. Put an effort into emotion-based creativity.

Make it fun. Don’t bewilder people. Make it super easy. Explain exactly how to start listing online. Reward users.

When asked to think about their personal lives, women prioritize family, health, and relationships over money and career, providing clues for relevant content

These priorities can provide insight into potential content for call-in topics and non-music programming content. While lurid “bad date stories” can be titillating, content that focuses on family, health, and relationships might prove more meaningful to listeners.

How can marketers reach women as they begin their day? AM/FM radio, the dominant morning media platform

AM/FM radio towers over TV, social media, online music streaming services, and online video during the 5AM to 8AM time period. AM/FM radio is the accompaniment to women’s lives and the media platform they consume as they get ready for their day.

The most compelling morning AM/FM radio content among women offers marketers many sponsorship and integration opportunities

Companionship, local information (weather, news, traffic), being funny, inspiring conversations, and interesting stories top the morning AM/FM radio content rating for the strongest “very/somewhat important” evaluation among women.

Throughout the day, women want a mix of music and entertaining talk/chat; Morning/midday desires lean more to entertaining talk while during afternoons/nights, the optimal mix leans more towards music

For call-in AM/FM radio shows, women first desire unusual stories, news/current events, and entertainment/pop culture

Next in preference are bad date stories, cooking, health/exercise, and financial advice, followed by relationship advice and books.

There are distinctions with call-in show content preferences by demographic that make intuitive sense. Younger women favor entertainment/pop culture while older women show greater interest in news/current events. Unsurprisingly, over the age of 35, bad date stories are not a major draw.

Recommendation: Tailor content to women and their values

Rethink features: AM/FM radio station features do not resemble the major priorities of women (family, health, relationships, and friendships).

Examine your station features. What about highlighting family? Does contesting align with what’s important to women? Give away prizes that matter, like a gift certificate to companies that help kids after school who are having challenges with their school and homework.

Much of the formatics of Top 40 and AC stations were designed by single male PDs 40 years ago. Our stations act like kids do not exist. 

Study media that really know female content – women’s magazines and morning TV: Buy an armload of women’s magazines and study the topics and content. Watch all three hours of the Today Show, Good Morning America, and The View. 

These magazines and TV shows invest heavily in research to understand their female audience and provide relevant content. Notice the guests they have: women’s health experts, nutritionists, etc.

Women love comedy – so give it to them: The number one podcast genre among women is Comedy. 41% of the weekly female podcast audience listens to Comedy podcasts, per Edison Podcast Metrics. Comedy crushes the next genres which are True Crime (30%) and Society & Culture (28%).

Women love their favorite AM/FM radio station almost as much as their phone and more than Amazon, Netflix, Apple, Spotify, and TikTok

Women were asked to rate their degree of affection of a variety of media brands. Ranking the platforms based on the proportion who said they “love it,” 51% said their mobile phone, closely followed by their favorite AM/FM radio station (46%). AM/FM radio generates more “love it” responses than audio and video streaming brands as social platforms.

Almost half of women say they really feel a sense of connection with their favorite station, +24% more than men, per Jacobs Media’s Techsurvey 2024

Jacobs Media’s just released Techsurvey 2024 study of 31,413 AM/FM radio listeners reveals women are more likely to feel connected to their most preferred station. 47% of women strongly agree they “really feel a sense of connection” with their favorite station. That is +24% more than among men (38%).

The vital role of personalities: 64% of women say AM/FM radio hosts are the main reason they listen, according to Jacobs Media’s Techsurvey 2024

Versus men, women are +14% more likely to cite DJs, shows, and hosts as the main reason they listen to AM/FM radio (64% versus 56%). Of all AM/FM radio programming formats, listeners to Hot Adult Contemporary and Top 40/Contemporary Hit Radio have the greatest appeal for AM/FM radio personalities. 73% of Hot AC listeners and 71% of CHR fans indicate “I like particular DJs, shows, or hosts” as a main reason they listen to AM/FM radio.

Among women, personalities have caught up to music as a main reason for listening to AM/FM radio in 2024

Since 2014, Jacobs Media’s Techsurvey has been asking AM/FM radio listeners the main reasons they listen. Ten years ago, music beat DJs/personalities as the main reason women listened to AM/FM radio by 20 points. Today, the proportion of women who say they “like particular DJs/shows/hosts” and those who say “I want to hear my favorite songs/artists” are equal.

Why so much affection and connection to a favorite station? Katz Media finds women have been listening to their most preferred station an average of 18 years

Working women have been listening to their favorite AM/FM radio station for an average of 15 years. No wonder ads work so well on AM/FM radio as the listening habits and trust for a favorite AM/FM radio station average nearly two decades.

Among women, the sense of connection and affection for their favorite AM/FM radio stations translates to massive reach and outsized shares for AM/FM radio

Nielsen’s Audio Today study reports nearly nine out of ten women are reached by AM/FM radio monthly.

Edison’s “Share of Ear”: AM/FM radio dominates ad-supported audio but podcasts are a strong number two in shares; Surprisingly, Spotify and Pandora music streaming shares are quite small

Among women 25-54, one out of four minutes of ad-supported audio are spent with podcasts. Every AM/FM radio broadcast must consider their podcast strategy.

In the 1970s, as radio audiences migrated to FM, radio broadcasters had to consider their FM strategy. Podcasts are the new “FM” and radio stations need to bring their content to this fast-growing audio platform.

Recommendation: Stop demonizing commercials

Rethink commercial stop sets and ditch the bow tie: Annoying ads and the number of commercials are a reason women say they are listening less. Programmers mistakenly think ads cause tune-out and thus have hidden ads away into two breaks an hour. A massive Coleman, Media Monitors, and Arbitron study found 90% of PPM P1 tuning occasions occur due to “radio on, radio off.” In other words, there is very little switching between stations.

The whole notion of clumping ads into two long breaks around the quarters is nonsense. Kill the bow tie. Instead schedule more breaks of shorter duration to make each ad more effective.

Stop the self-destructive demonizing of commercials: Have you ever seen a promo page in a magazine exclaiming, “The next 10 pages are commercial free!”? Have you ever seen a TV newscaster announce, “The next ten minutes of news are coming at you without ads!”? Have you ever seen anything in your Facebook feed saying, “No ads in the next ten posts!”

AM/FM radio is the only ad-supported media that routinely sticks a finger in the eye of our advertisers by demonizing commercials. Ads are our only revenue source. Why the constant hate?

There is no logic to our self-destruction. “It’s what we’ve always done” is not a good answer.

Part of the negative associations AM/FM radio has about ads is self-induced. We so breathlessly demonize ads, we are a big part of the problem!

Instead we need to be very focused on improving the impact of our ads for our advertisers. 

Non-music elements dominate the reasons why women listen to AM/FM radio; “Free” tops the list

When asked to name the three biggest reasons why they listen to AM/FM radio, a wide variety of non-music elements rise to the top.

Topping the list is the fact that AM/FM radio is free, a welcome attribute given the myriad of subscription streaming services that are busily raising prices. Jacob Media’s Techsurvey 2024 finds 70% of women are very or somewhat concerned about the “growing number of subscription fees I’m paying for media content.”

Other top reasons for listening to AM/FM radio include favorite songs, fun, companionship, ease of use, and mood enhancements. Personalities and key local information elements are also key attributes.

Universally, six out of ten women feel “today’s music is not as good as it was years ago“

This sentiment is consistent by demographic.

While there is always a background level of nostalgia expressed as “music today isn’t as good as it used to be” among older people, we now see this sentiment even among Gen Z. There is a sameness of the pop music sound that is the result of very formulaic production. 

In this study, Top 40 P1s (people who listen to that station the most) are the least likely to complain about today’s music. That makes sense as they wouldn’t be P1s if they didn’t like current music. But Top 40 doesn’t have enough P1s. What programmers in that format need to focus on is the fact that both Top 40’s cume and the age group the format always thrived on are not very happy with today’s music.

Recommendation: Be part of the solution to fix Top 40 and deal with the negative reaction to current music

Alan Burns & Associates has found any song played often enough tends to be tolerable. Reward songs that sound unique and different. Play them for variety. Look at the Top 40 charts of the 80s and 90s. Lots of variety. Ballads. Rock. Dance. Find those songs and play them to diversity the sound. 

Across the generations, free, fun, favorite songs, and companionship resonate

Recommendation: Engage with Gen Z and give them something to connect with

AM/FM radio needs to start offering Gen Z more content: Whether that’s on HD channels or separate versions of our streams, this group needs to be a focus. In addition, we need to find ways to lure more Gen Zs into the AM/FM radio workforce as they’ll bring more of that generation’s values and ideas to the content. Consider Gen Z cast members.

6 key findings:

1. Women love their favorite AM/FM radio station almost as much as their phone and more than Amazon, Netflix, Apple, Spotify, and TikTok; Advertisers can leverage this radio station affection and connection to build their brands
2. Streaming has become more important as working women commute less, impacting their time spent with AM/FM radio in the car
3. Radio station programming features do not align well with the key priorities of women – family, health, and relationships
4. AM/FM radio personalities and non-music elements dominate the reasons why women listen to AM/FM radio; “Free” tops the list; Two-thirds of women say AM/FM radio hosts are the main reason they listen, according to Jacobs Media’s Techsurvey 2024
5. Annoying ads and the number of commercials are noted as a reason for listening less for AM/FM radio
6. Universally, six out of ten women feel “today’s music is not as good as it was years ago”

Recommendations for radio stations: Turning learnings into action

1. Completely rethink how streaming a radio station is marketed and explained
2. Adapt to the new world of commuting and market to at-home workers
3. Rethink programming features and better align them to the three key priorities (family, health, and relationships)
4. Rethink commercial stop sets, ditch the bow tie, and stop demonizing AM/FM radio ads
5. Be part of the solution to fix Top 40 music; Proactively find songs that diversify CHR’s sound
6. Engage with Gen Z and give them something to connect with

Recommendations for advertisers:

1. With a monthly reach of nearly 90%, AM/FM radio should be in the media plan of any marketer who targets women
2. The ideal audio media plan allocation to target women is 69% AM/FM radio, 19% podcasts, 9% Pandora/Spotify, and 2% SiriusXM, based on Edison’s “Share of Ear” ad-supported audio shares
3. Advertisers using AM/FM radio can leverage the trust and affection of women who have listened to their favorite radio station for an average of 18 years
4. The most compelling AM/FM radio content among women offers marketers many sponsorship and integration opportunities

Download the deck:

Pierre Bouvard is Chief Insights Officer of the Cumulus Media | Westwood One Audio Active Group®.

Alan Burns is President and Founder, Alan Burns & Associates.