While businesses scramble to find the most effective mediums to spend their ever shrinking marketing dollars. One medium many thought was on the decline, not only remains strong: It’s actually growing. In fact 234 million Americans every single week listen to local radio. This data comes from Arbitron – (The radio equivalent to Nielson ratings in TV). This number shows us that radio listening is actually up by 2million listeners since June 2007.

What makes this so interesting is the fact that the other main mediums consumers use for entertainment such as TV are seeing drops in viewership due to increased competition from the ever increasing and super segmented cable networks and other mediums. Radio being one of the oldest mediums for entertainment and information remains one of the strongest. One of the reasons that we have seen such a spike in radio listenership is the fact that radio remains a free, local and viable option to the consumer.

On the same note: Radio remains to be one of the most cost effective ways for advertisers to reach their target clientele. When you compare the cost of radio commercials to that of direct mail, network TV, or even cost per click the difference is stunning.

To break it down: Cost conscious small and medium sized business are discovering just how much more sense it makes to advertise with radio compared to other mediums. With radio you can on average reach 1,000 potential customers for around $ 0.14. Yes – that means it costs on average fourteen cents or less to reach one thousand people as a whole with radio commercials. By contract the cost of reaching one individual consumer would cost a business $ 1.00 to $ 2.00 dollars per direct piece, $ 1.00 – $ 2.00 dollar for an ultra expensive network TV spot, or $ 1.00 – $ 20.00 per click depending on the targeted keywords in an online campaign. It clearly makes more sense to reach one thousand consumers for quite literally pennies, as opposed to reaching only one individual consumer 40x times the cost of radio.

Even when economic times are good, radio has proven to be one the most effective mediums to reach consumers. As long as radio remains free, provides compelling and entertaining content, and Aunt Hellen can have the opportunity to be caller number ten for free movie tickets…. Radio will remain one of the strongest mediums in the marketplace.

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