Sports: I Heard It On The Radio

A custom study of sports radio listening by Arbitron showed that 29% of the adult population of New York tuned into sports radio in the week leading up to the Super Bowl. While impressive, that number pales in comparison to Boston, where fully 50% of over-18s listened to sports programming.

Listeners also spent more time with radio on average: New York listened on average 33% more, while Bostonians listened 56% more. These findings were based on a phone survey of 200 New Yorkers and 200 Bostonians conducted by Arbitron on Feb. 4.

Radio was not the preferred medium for the Super Bowl itself, however--presumably losing out to TV: Only 9% of Bostonians and 8% of New Yorkers said they listened to pre-game, game, or post-game broadcasts. However, those who did listen to the game on the radio were glued to their broadcasts, reporting themselves 52% less likely to change stations during the game.

This year's Super Bowl turned out to be a bonanza for broadcast media in general.

In television, the close game between the New York Giants and New England Patriots gave Fox 97.5 million viewers--3% more than 1996's 94.1 million, according to Nielsen. The game was also up 5% versus last year's numbers, which counted 93.184 million viewers.

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