• by Frank Saxe , March 5, 2003

Formats targeting African-Americans and Hispanics continued to grow in the Fall 2002 radio ratings survey, according to an analysis of the formats and ratings by Katz Media Group. It also shows that the country format, which has been sliding downward for a number of years, may have hit bottom.

“The study strongly suggests that a greater number of ethnic formats are now the top formats in popular markets, says Lisa Chiljean, VP/director research dimensions for Katz Media. The number of stations with one of four formats – urban, urban AC, rhythmic CHR, and Hispanic – has risen from 407 in 1998 to 561 last Fall. The ratings share of the four have also increased by an average of 20%, says Chiljean, with 28.8% of all listening done to one of the four formats.

Country formatted stations also received some good news in the report: the erosion of listeners that has plagued it for several years seems to have stopped. From the Spring to Fall, country formatted stations held steady, accounting for 13.1% of all listening. While it remains to be seen whether this is an indication of an upturn for the format, country is still clearly very popular. It has the largest share of 12+ listening, with a 36% advantage over the second most listened-to format, urban.

Rock stations suffered through a downturn in the Fall. Album rock stations took a 6.1% of listening, off from 6.5% in the Spring. Classic rock fell from 6.4% to 6.2%, while alternative rock had 4.2% of listening, down from 4.4% from earlier in the year. Meantime, soft rock stations surged ahead to account for 6.9% of all listening, even beating out stations programming the slightly softer adult contemporary format.

With terrorism and possible war making headlines, news/talk stations moved ahead in the Fall, climbing from the tenth most-listened to format, to ninth. All-news stations were flat.

There are also some numbers that would make Rat Pack croon again. The format that grew the most in the Fall was big band/adult standards. Its share of listening jumped 0.8% to account for 3.6% of all 12+ listening. At the same time, smooth jazz has reached its highest point in a number of years, while audience shares of classical stations have more than doubled since 1985. All more proof, apparently, of the graying of America.

While the shifts in demographics of the U.S. population have certainly affected radio programming and formats, ownership consolidation has also played a major role says Chiljean. Contrary to the beliefs of some, she says the evidence suggests that common ownership has actually helped accelerate the pace of program development. “Station formats are designed to attract listenership and generate advertising revenue. Prior to duopoly, when owners could control only one station on each band in a specific market, stations had to be programmed to appeal to the widest possible audience. As a result, many competitors sounded alike as they battled for the biggest share. Common ownership and cluster selling has made it possible to target different audience with each station, or to point each station tow

The Katz Media Group analyzed 4,117 radio stations in 286 Arbitron markets to produce the figures for this study.