Commercial Radio and Audio (CRA) has released new data that shows commercial radio stations were those most listened to in 26 out of 27 regional markets surveyed in 2022.
Over 5.6 million people in regional Australia listen to commercial radio each week, based on listening numbers from the 2022 Radio Audience Measurement surveys commissioned by the industry body.
Ford Ennals, CEO of CRA, said: “Regional Australians are extremely connected to their community, and commercial radio stations are fundamental to that connection for listeners and advertisers.”
Listener numbers in 2022 grew in two out of the three major regional markets, with 9% more listeners in Canberra and 2.5% more on the Gold Coast. Audience numbers in Newcastle fell 1% year on year.
“Radio is part of almost all Australians’ daily lives, with most listening every week, either live or via catch-up podcasts to radio content. And regional markets listeners are even more committed to local news and local content in regional markets,” Ennals added.
Over 80% of Australians responded that radio music stations and local news reports as either somewhat or very important to them in a recent Federal Government report on the importance of features for listening to AM/FM radio. Radio’s providing emergency warnings was considered the most important feature by 51%.3
People aged 40-54 were the biggest streamers of radio in regional Australia in 2022, with 14% using smart speakers, and 38% listening via websites or an app, according to Xtra Insights.
Podcasting awareness is the same in regional and metropolitan markets, with around nine out of 10 listeners aware of podcasting. While podcasting has more listeners in metropolitan markets (44% listening to a podcast in the last month, compared to 34% in regional markets), regional listeners listen to more content (8:07 hours in the last week, compared to 6:36 in metropolitan markets).
“Regional surveys are a vital way to understand how listening patterns are evolving across Australia,” Ennals said.
Canberra, Newcastle and the Gold Coast are surveyed three times a year by GfK, which also carries out audience listening surveys for the five metro markets on behalf of CRA.
Xtra Insights has conducted surveys in 49 different regional radio markets since it was appointed in January 2014. Listener habits of approximately 10 regional markets are surveyed annually, with other regions surveyed less frequently. Nineteen surveys are currently scheduled for 2023.