State of Media 2024 – Rock Radio
In today’s blog, we’ll take an in-depth look into Rock radio listeners.
All the following data comes from Harker Bos Group’s “The State of Media 2024” report, which can be found here (link). As a quick overview of our general radio findings from that report, we found that 65% of media consumers tune into the radio at least once a week. 38% are avid listeners (3-5 days per week) and 27% are casual listeners (1-2 days per week). The morning is the most popular time for radio listeners to tune in, with 58% of respondents expressing a preference for that time slot. 85% of radio listeners lean towards music-centric programming, with 51% engaging with News/Talk radio, 38% tuning into sports programming, and 22% expressing a preference for religious content.
Now, let’s take a deeper look at the Rock radio listener….
Rock Radio – Listeners
62% of Rock listeners tune into the radio 3-5 days per week. Breaking this down further, 63% of Classic Rock listeners, 60% of Alternative Rock listeners, and notably, 70% of Modern Rock listeners tune in 3-5 days a week. The latter is 10 points higher on average than other music formats. When not tuning into Rock, Rock listeners show a propensity to choose Pop (63%) and Top 40 Hits (65%) over any other genres. Rock listeners tune into Country (56%) and Hip Hop (53%) demonstrably less.
Rock Radio – Location & Work
Rock listeners reflect Radio listeners as a whole when it comes to where they live. However, Modern and Alternative Rock listeners are more likely to live in Urban environments and less likely to live in Rural environments. Rock listeners are likewise similar to Radio listeners in terms of their working environments, with Modern and Alternative Rock listeners being slightly more likely to work in the office and slightly less likely to work hybrid.
Rock Radio – Times and Activities
Rock listeners prefer listening to the radio in the morning (55%), which is slightly above average for Radio listeners (52%). They partake in a variety of activities while listening to the radio, the most common of which are driving, relaxing, exercising, and working.
Rock listeners most commonly listen to the radio for 30 minutes to an hour in one session, with sessions lasting less than 30 minutes and sessions lasting 1 to 2 hours being the second and third most common. They largely reflect the listening duration habits of Radio listeners as a whole.
Rock Radio – Reasons
When asked why they listen to the radio, Rock listeners showed a notable increase in listening for the enjoyment of content when compared to all Radio listeners. Rock listeners also showed increased interest in information updates, local content and events and community engagement, suggesting that Rock stations that engage locally with their listeners and keep them informed are more appealing than ones that don’t.
Rock Radio – Listening Methods
Rock radio listeners tune in via traditional, over-the-air radio at a slightly higher pace than all Radio listeners. They are also significantly more likely to tune in via desktop/laptop streaming, smart speakers, and satellite radio streaming. This tendency is seen even more prevalently in Modern and Alternative Rock listeners. Across all listening methods, Modern and Alternative Rock listeners scored 10%-20% higher than the average Radio listener, suggesting that they are more open to using a wide variety of devices to listen to the radio.
Rock Radio – Genres and Mornings
Rock listeners prefer radio stations that play a mix of genres over stations that focus on a specific genre at a higher clip than other Radio listeners. Rock listeners prefer Pop over any other genre (besides Rock), with 63% saying the listen to Pop regularly. Within the genre of Rock, Modern and Alternative Rock listeners are much more likely to listen to Classic Rock (83% and 78%, respectively) than Classic Rock listeners are likely to listen to Modern and Alternative Rock (52% and 39%, respectively).
Rock listeners prefer a variety of segments in their morning show. Music is an essential part of any morning show, as are news and weather/traffic updates. 63% of Rock listeners participate in contests, call-ins, or interactive segments, suggesting that these are a worthwhile addition to any morning show as a means of engaging with an audience who enjoy being engaged with.
Rock Conclusions
Rock radio listeners are an engaged and active group. They enjoy a variety of musical genres as well as a variety of morning show topics and interactive segments. They tune into radio for many different reasons and do so via many kinds of devices. Rock listeners seek variety in all aspects of the stations they listen to and place importance on interactions with local events and the community.