• by July 25, 2001

Interep, one of the country's largest radio rep firms, has released results from its annual analysis of the share of national spot radio ad dollars by demo in the Top 25 radio metros for 2000. According to the report, the percentage of dollars aimed at those aged 25-54 last year was 48.5%, down slightly from 1999's 50.3%.

While 25-54-year-olds are still radio advertisers' most targeted demographic group, the share of dollars allocated to the Adult, Women and Men 25-54 demos has shown a consistent decline each year since 1995, when the percentage was 55.5%.

From 1998-1999, only a slight majority of the top 25 metros (13 out of 25) saw a decline in the percentage of dollars allocated to the 25-54-year-old group, while last year 17 of the top 25 showed a decline.

In 2000, Interep says, Boston (56.1%) and Phoenix (54.7%) had the highest percentage radio dollars spent on this demo, followed by San Francisco (54.3%) and Cleveland (54.1%).

Miami (39.5%), Los Angeles (41.5%) and Atlanta (41.8%) showed the lowest percentage of total dollars going toward the 25-54 demos.

The 18-49 demo placed second among all demographic segments, receiving 17.5% of radio dollars, an identical percentage to 1999.

Dollars allocated toward the 35-based demos (i.e. 35-64, 35+, etc.) nearly showed a full percentage point gain from 1999, perhaps due to political advertising in 2000 which tends to target older voters. Of the total ad dollars, 7.7% was allocated to 35-based demos in 2000. Percentages vary widely on a market specific basis, however, with St. Louis (11.9%), Detroit (11.1%) and Minneapolis (10.8%) all showing significantly higher 35-based percentages.

Separating demo groups into Adults, Men and Women, Adults 25-54 rank #1, followed by Adults 18-49, Women 25-54, Adults 25-49 and Adults 18-34.

Black demos took in 1.5% of dollars on average in the Top 25 markets. However, there are large variations between markets, with Baltimore at 5.4% and Atlanta with 5.0% of radio dollars in those markets.

The figures were compiled using Interep's Performax database, a proprietary software system designed to track national radio revenue spending. The Top 25 Arbitron radio metros were used as the basis for this analysis, excluding Puerto Rico and the embedded metros of Nassau-Suffolk and San Jose.