• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, March 6, 2007

Sometimes, it pays to go wide. That's the finding of the Katz Media Group's report on Radio National Formats Averages released Monday. Program formats targeting narrow demo groups were more unstable in terms of ratings. By contrast, formats with broad demo appeal fared best last year. The Katz study--which now tracks more formats--covered 4,000 radio stations and about 50 formats in 298 Arbitron markets, using both average quarter-hour and weekly listening measures.

Formats targeting a broad age range--25-54--did particularly well in 2006. They include industry standards like adult contemporary, soft adult contemporary, country, news and news-talk. The broad appeal acts like a diversified stock portfolio, limiting the damage if a particular sub-demographic group experiences a sudden drop.

However, Katz discovered that more tightly targeted radio formats--those catering to a specific ethnicity or age group--are far more prone to instability in ratings on a season-to-season basis. Thus, "big band" and "adult standards" saw declines, as did "'80s," "classic rock," and "Oldies" formats. But urban adult contemporary profited from the volatility, with overall ratings rising sharply from 2005.

An interesting anomaly was the slight decline in Hispanic radio formats, which seems to contradict the general perception of an exploding Spanish-language media market. The report speculates that the upsurge in Hispanic radio broadcasting has brought the medium to areas that are more marginal in terms of Spanish-speaking populations, thus creating the appearance of a dip in overall ratings.

Katz was careful to note that its findings may be partly due to changes in listening habits among younger audience members, who favor Internet radio streams and satellite radio. Still, this explanation does not necessarily apply to formats that cater to older consumers, who are less likely overall to adopt these new delivery mechanisms.