Car Makes & Models with No AM Band.

[boombox4]

Practically nothing. The 14k cume listeners to KHHO in Seattle represents 0.3% of the market. You could reach that many people in a week marching outside a Safeway with a bullhorn.

.3% of the entire market, perhaps, but few stations target the entire market in Seattle.

And likewise, the entire market is not necessarily BIN's target audience. They're targeting African Americans generally, and probably targeting older blacks in the region primarily. There's around 310K blacks in the metro, most of them south of the Seattle border with many of them in Federal Way, Burien, SeaTac, and other cities in SKC, and also Tacoma. BIN's cume is much closer to 5% of the overall black audience, and if they're targeting older demos as I suspect, they probably have a higher percentage of their target audience than 5%.

It would take someone with connections to BIN or Neilsen to give an accurate assessment of whether they believe the station is successful. Either way, it's clear that BIN isn't aiming their programming at the tech bros down in Seattle, hillbillies and horse people out in the eastern edges of the greater metro, or the soccer moms on the Eastside.

KYIZ, on the other hand, stays on the air, and has for a couple decades, as has KBMS in Portland -- both owned by the same company, and both having local spots and playing old school R&B.

 

[boombox4]

What you're missing here---and this is a discussion about the future of AM radio, in cars and elsewhere---is that 47 million Americans is 15% of the population, meaning 85% of Americans don't listen to AM.

No, I understand that. That said, 15% is a considerable chunk of the population, though. African Americans comprise about 15% of the US population and no one thinks that they don't count.

But at the same time, the way radio is operated, no one says that radio has to serve each and every demographic. It's a free market.

So yeah, if the AM listener population dwindles, the medium dies.

 

[davideduardo]

U.S. population is 331 million. 16% of that is 52 million. So we're in the rough ballpark here.

Remember, that radio usage data is based on 12+ ratings data. While PPM measures 6+, it only covers about 45 markets (several PPM markets are duplicated embedded markets and two of the top 50 are not measured) and the rest, including the annual national survey, measure 12+ and above.

So the 12+ population is about 50 million below 331 million, or approximately 280,000,000.

POP1 Child population: Number of children (in millions) ages 0–17 in the United States by age, 1950–2021 and projected 2022–2050

The official website of the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. The site provides easy access to the forum's annual monitoring report, America's Children, other Forum's reports, national- and state data on children and their families collected and published by various...

www.childstats.gov

And I believe that the number being cited is 12+ share (nowhere is it qualified) , and the cume number is higher.

I looked at a couple of major markets for January and February, and found that based on cume, about 1 in every 4 radio users used AM radio.

 

[davideduardo]

It's just slicing and dicing. The US has 330 million people total, and according to the demographic breakdown stats I could find, age 20-49 adds up to 130-135 million. Versus 47 million who listen to AM radio. The raw numbers don't matter.

As mentioned just a moment ago, radio measurement nationally is based on persons 12 and over. That reduces the base to about 280 million.

And my data shows that a quarter of all radio listeners use AM. That is a clearer figure as it excludes those under 12 and those who do not use radio.

 

[michael hagerty]

As mentioned just a moment ago, radio measurement nationally is based on persons 12 and over. That reduces the base to about 280 million.

And my data shows that a quarter of all radio listeners use AM. That is a clearer figure as it excludes those under 12 and those who do not use radio.

Okay, so adjusted for 12+ and a quarter using AM rather than 15-ish percent, we get a base of 280 million, 210 million of whom do not use AM radio.

 

[CTListener]

U.S. population is 331 million. 16% of that is 52 million. So we're in the rough ballpark here.

Remove all of the very young and many of the very old from that number and you get the real numbers.

EDIT: Didn't see David and Michael's most recent posts, which render the above redundant. Sorry.

 

[boombox4]

Your comments that "a lot of": represent your personal anecdotal beliefs more than actual data. There's a reason the majority of right wing talk programming is on AM, because older white males are accustomed to listening there. Is there other programming? Sure, but the numbers of other particular demographics do not come close to approaching senior white males listening to talk radio.

Again, your personal anecdotal belief, not representative of a national audience.

Two weeks ago a guy on a different radio forum complained about AM in his metro (market #4) being "nothing but angry white guy talk".

So I am exposed to this sort of anecdotal opinion making all the time.

In Market #4, a small minority of the AM stations on the dial are conservative talk. They are far outnumbered by other formats and other types of programming, with some other AM stations that actually gain significant ratings not being conservative talk at all (KCBS, KNBR mainly).

It would be like someone saying FM is all autotune rap... Or all autotune country... "Nothing but autotuned garbage". Etc. Comments one an see on YT and elsewhere when FM radio is mentioned... Anecdotally based opinion.

 

[davideduardo]

In Market #4, a small minority of the AM stations on the dial are conservative talk. They are far outnumbered by other formats and other types of programming, with some other AM stations that actually gain significant ratings not being conservative talk at all (KCBS, KNBR mainly).

Further, a considerable number of AMs in San Francisco (the market, not the city) are in Asian languages and Nielsen does not have weighting / proportionality for that group. They do not recruit and moderate the PPM panel in Mandarin Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Korean, Hindi, or even Arabic and Armenian so we can assume that those groups are nearly unmeasured among the first generation immigrants who, in all cultures, are hesitant to participate in surveys for fear of triggering some kind of immigration issue.

 

[CTListener]

How many of these California racial/ethnic minority stations shift into all-hands-on-deck, immediate-info mode when an earthquake, flood, or some other emergency happens? Any? Or do they just continue with whatever programming, live or prerecorded, they're running? Remember, the argument being made by the NAB, Sen. Markey of Massachusetts and some posters here is that automakers should be obligated to include AM radio on all models' dashboard entertainment systems because stations on that band are an important source of critical information during emergencies. Whether just-arrived-in-America Filipinos have the music they grew up with on the radio here is of no concern to the FCC, nor should it be.

 

[davideduardo]

How many of these California racial/ethnic minority stations shift into all-hands-on-deck, immediate-info mode when an earthquake, flood, or some other emergency happens? Any? Or do they just continue with whatever programming, live or prerecorded, they're running?

Most are live and local, and they will do reporting... generally based on taking the "best" local TV coverage and using the data in their particular language.

Even the brokered stations with blocks in different languages are mostly live and will react to emergencies in the same way.

Remember, the argument being made by the NAB, Sen. Markey of Massachusetts and some posters here is that automakers should be obligated to include AM radio on all models' dashboard entertainment systems because stations on that band are an important source of critical information during emergencies.

Those AM station in languages other than Spanish and English are the only source of breaking news for most first generation immigrants.

 

[Kelly A]

Those AM station in languages other than Spanish and English are the only source of breaking news for most first generation immigrants.

Except: Facebook, Instagram, Centro de Periodismo Investigativo, Palabra, Blavity, The Grio, News One, Ebony, Essence, AfricanNews.com, Allhiphop.com, I could go on..

 

[davideduardo]

Except: Facebook, Instagram, Centro de Periodismo Investigativo, Palabra, Blavity, The Grio, News One, Ebony, Essence, AfricanNews.com, Allhiphop.com, I could go on..

For timely live local news?

And you named a number of Spanish language sources, which I excluded. I did that because there is plenty of live local news coverage on radio and TV in Spanish in most significant US markets and nearly every "less than" significant one in the Southwest.

Note that Hispanic first generation immigrants under-index in new media usage. The reason is that most new media usage requires reading skills, and, using Mexican data from their own consulate in LA, less than 50% of male immigrants have over a 6th grade education and even fewer women do.

In the immigrant "flood" of the last two years, even fewer of the Mexican and Central American immigrants are literate.

If we go to Florida, among Haitians over 60% are illiterate. They can't read Kreyol, French and much less English.

A lot / nearly all the Faceebook and Instagram information on breaking emergencies is "did you feel it?" or "is it flooding / burning / blowing where you live?" And, of course, using them requires literacy, too. The bulk of today's immigrants from underdeveloped nations are the least educated and of their home country's population.

As to the ones in Spanish you cite, "CPI" is only Puerto Rican and does not cover breaking news; it specializes in infrastructure investigations and its most recent news item is a week old as of today. "Palabra" is a storytelling site about Hispanic experiences in the US, it is not a breaking news site.

As to others, ones like africannews.com cover Nigeria and Burkina Faso, not breaking US emergency situation news. And alihiphop.com is "a valuable resource for hip-hop on the internet"... not where I'd go for a local emergency unless you consider Dr. Dre's "cache of unreleased songs" to be a response to an actual quake, not a rhythmic shaking!

 

[Kelly A]

For timely live local news?

Heard and interesting story this morning on NPR about the increasing number of "Swatting" incidents, where prank bomb threats and active shooter phone calls to police targeting seemingly random schools. Some suspects are students, and in a recent surge, the calls were traced to an IP located in Ethiopia. There are even on-line groups who get a kick out of recording or conducting swatting live online. The interesting aspect of the story, was that when news hits that a school is a recent victim of swatting, parents who have children in schools turn immediately to Facebook for timely news about their kid's school status. Not radio, not even local TV, Facebook.

 

[xmtrland]

But your talking about a very local situation. Not something that is City or County wide. In an Earthquake people are not going to go to the local school Facebook page. If the emergency affected several schools in a county. Which Facebook page should they go to. Maybe Wikipedia?

 

[davideduardo]

Heard and interesting story this morning on NPR about the increasing number of "Swatting" incidents, where prank bomb threats and active shooter phone calls to police targeting seemingly random schools. Some suspects are students, and in a recent surge, the calls were traced to an IP located in Ethiopia. There are even on-line groups who get a kick out of recording or conducting swatting live online. The interesting aspect of the story, was that when news hits that a school is a recent victim of swatting, parents who have children in schools turn immediately to Facebook for timely news about their kid's school status. Not radio, not even local TV, Facebook.

Again, the subject here is, or at least was, first generation immigrants who have limited abilities to use general market media due to either language limitations or illiteracy.

I am not disputing the substitution of new media, often unverified and unconfirmed, as a news source for the general population that has English as its first and, generally, only language. I was specifically answering a question about whether stations broadcasting in languages other than English and Spanish covered local breaking news, particularly in relation to emergencies.

In those cases, where programming is nearly always live and local, any bilingual staff will monitor English language media and news sources and provide the same information in the language of the station or a specific program. In various occasions in LA such as the Northridge quake and the 1992 riots, I did the translations for the airstaff to broadcast. Once we became part of Univision, we began using their own extensive news bureau for breaking news coverage.

 

[Kelly A]

In various occasions in LA such as the Northridge quake and the 1992 riots, I did the translations for the airstaff to broadcast. Once we became part of Univision, we began using their own extensive news bureau for breaking news coverage.

You don't think a lot has changed since 1992?

 

[Kelly A]

But your talking about a very local situation. Not something that is City or County wide. In an Earthquake people are not going to go to the local school Facebook page. If the emergency affected several schools in a county. Which Facebook page should they go to. Maybe Wikipedia?

Last year there was a story about a southern state hit by a tornado. Residents were trapped in a church basement after the church had been leveled. They contacted help via Facebook on their phones.
The point being; we on some radio discussion forum are out of touch, when it comes to what people under 50 actually use today in emergencies. It isn't AM radio.

 

[davideduardo]

You don't think a lot has changed since 1992?

Not in the way less-common foreign language stations get news.

In the case of Spanish language, my point was that consolidation brought news gathering in-house in some instances and through associations in others as of today.

Most independently owned Spanish language stations I know have agreements with a local English language TV station that has a news department. None that I know of depend on websites for urgent local news.

Websites, mostly unverifiable, are principally sources of local listener reaction and response to breaking news. For the moment, local TV in most larger markets is the best breaking news source as many are still staffed both in the studio and on the street. They also have the top priority in accessing news sources today, ahead of newspapers, web-based Breitbart to Huffington Post sources and local radio.

 

[xmtrland]

In your example above, did the trapped group DM some one else on FB or did they post to a page hoping some one would notice. In the case of messaging to some one or a group on FB is different than going to FB for emergency information. In todays world, I feel you need to use all sources available to get out information. FB, Twitter, Instagram, Websites, TV, AM, FM and even Ham radio.

 

[Kelly A]

In your example above, did the trapped group DM some one else on FB or did they post to a page hoping some one would notice.

I don't know, wasn't there. The previously trapped woman interviewed on TV said she had contacted the local sheriff's office and family members via Facebook.

In the case of messaging to some one or a group on FB is different than going to FB for emergency information. In todays world, I feel you need to use all sources available to get out information. FB, Twitter, Instagram, Websites, TV, AM, FM and even Ham radio.

Or, more likely, search and rescue, police/sheriff, National Guard. Sure, AM will reach some of the seniors who still use radio as their primary go-to for news and entertainment, but not all smaller communities have radio stations who are staffed for emergencies.