Each week, according to Nielsen, more than 3.6 million adult consumers tune-in to a Philadelphia radio station. This is significantly more than watch local TV or cable. More than stream video channels like Netflix or Hulu. More than read local newspapers. More than use Facebook or Instagram. More than listen to online audio services like Pandora and Spotify.

But almost everyone knows (including many who advertise on Philadelphia radio) that consumers only listen to local radio stations during the day. Right? Wrong!

According to Nielsen, 45% of local consumers listen to Philadelphia radio stations each week between 7:00pm and 12:00am. This is a larger audience than Pandora, Spotify, and Instagram combined reach during an entire week.

For Philadelphia small business owners, radio's immense nighttime audience offers a unique value proposition.

Delaware Valley consumers are expected to spend upward of $72.1-billion at retail in 2021. This would be, at minimum, a 6.5% jump over 2020. The forecast is based on newly released estimates by the National Retail Federation.

“Despite the continuing health and economic challenges COVID-19 presents, we are very optimistic that healthy consumer fundamentals, pent-up demand and widespread distribution of the vaccine will generate increased economic growth, retail sales and consumer spending,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said.

“From the outset of the pandemic, retailers have gone above and beyond even the most conservative safety guidelines to protect and serve their associates and consumers alike."

To capture the largest possible share of spending growth, local retailers will need to advertise. By the most crucial marketing metrics, the best best way to reach consumers is by advertising on Philadelphia radio.

Delaware Valley business owners are expected to invest $1.3-billion during 2021 to advertise to consumers connected to the internet. This forecast was produced by Borrell Associates, a company that tracks business advertising expenditures across the country.

These online marketing dollars will be spent on banner advertising, search engine marketing, email, as well as audio and video advertising. This is all to capture the attention of shoppers and buyers as they go about their connected days.

According to Nielsen, 95.2% of adult consumers in the Philadelphia area have access to the internet. They connect, primarily, with desktop and laptop computers; smartphones; or tablets.

Ninety-seven percent of Delaware Valley adults spend at least one hour per week online, with most spending at least 10 hours connected.

Since 1922, advertising on Philadelphia radio has helped small business owners survive and thrive during times of peril. This includes world wars, natural disasters, depressions, and recessions.

Even during a pandemic, by almost every key marketing metric, radio advertising remains the best way for a Delaware Valley business to market its goods and services.

To prove the point, here are five statistics that vividly demonstrate the value of advertising on Philadelphia radio.

There are 2,218,500 adult women in the Delaware Valley. Based on research from the Harvard Business Review, as a consumer group, females account for 70-80 percent of all consumer purchasing through a combination of their buying power and influence.  According to Nielsen, this will amount to between $74.4 billion and $85 billion this year.

Overall, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the US Census Bureau:

• Single women across all income brackets spend, on average, $34,817 on goods and service
• Working married women contribute over a third of their families’ incomes
• Over a quarter (29.4%) of wives earned more than their husbands in 2018, an increase from 15.9% in 1981.

Furthermore, according to research published by Forbes:

• The top homebuyers after married couples are single women (18%, double the percentage for single men at 9%).
• Women are 50% more likely than men to regularly watch online how-to videos.
• 94% of women between the ages of 15-35 spend over an hour per day shopping online.
• 70% of travel consumers are women.
• 85% of women say that if they like a brand, they will remain loyal to it.

For Philadelphia  area small business owners to successfully capture a meaningful share of the local female economy requires advertising.

Philadelphia's first radio station, WGL-AM, began broadcasting in March of 1922.  The process of getting the station's programming from the studio into the home of local listeners required tall-transmitting towers with miles of underground copper wire in the middle of massive fields.

For the next 69 years, this massive investment in real estate, steel, and cooper was the only method of delivering a radio advertiser's message into the ears of Delaware Valley consumers.

In 1993, however, new technology permitted Philadelphia radio stations to augment the reach of their tall towers by simultaneously streaming its over-the-air programming via the internet. This provided local consumers with the choice of listening to their favorite stations on their car radios, clock radios, and boom boxes or on an internet connected devices like computers, smartphones, or tablets.

Today, based on estimates from Edison Research, 11% of listening to local radio stations occurs on a streaming media device.  The ability for AM/FM to migrate from their tall towers to internet streaming allows Philadelphia radio to reach more local consumers every week than all other media.

There are 38 radio stations serving listeners in the Delaware Valley. Each provides a unique format of news, sports, music, entertainment, and inspiration. Some stations broadcast in English. Others serve Spanish speakers. Some stations cater to millennials. Others appeal to Baby Boomers.  No doubt, there is a local radio station that fulfills the preferences of every listener.

Each week, according to Nielsen, 3.6 million adults tune-in to their favorite Philadelphia radio stations. This is more people than watch local TV, cable, or streaming channels. This is more than use Facebook and Instagram. This is more than read newspapers or connect to Pandora and Spotify. 

Despite the abundance of Philadelphia radio stations to choose between, Nielsen reports that, on average, adult consumers only listen to 2.8 each week.  So, which stations do local consumers choose?

Radio came to Philadelphia on February 8, 1922, when The Bureau of Navigation, Radio Services Division, of the United States Department of Commerce granted a license to station WGL. This station was the 42nd to be licensed in the county. 

Little is known about WGL except it was owned by Thomas Howlett who broadcast from home at 2303 North Broad Street near Temple University.

From that day, many predicted radio's success would succumb to advances from new technologies. In 1927, the challenge came from talking movies. In the 1940s, the predators were 13-inch TV sets. In the 1970s, it was 8-track and cassette tapes. In the past 20 years, there was a multi-flank attack from iPods, Zunes, YouTube, Sirius, XM, Pandora, Spotify,

So far, all of these challengers have failed. Not even a pandemic has been able to remove radio as a vital force in the life of Delaware Valley consumers.

Every week, according to Nielsen, more adults tune-in to Philadelphia radio than watch TV or cable. Use social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram. Read newspapers. Or, stream music from Pandora or Spotify.

How important is Twitter to Delaware Valley consumers? Yesterday, for instance, the social media platform was mentioned in at least ten articles published by the Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday.  Almost every local TV newscast included references to the site as well.

Twitter's outsized presence in the news, however, is enormously disproportional to the importance of the micro-blogging app in the life of Philadelphia's consumers.

According to Nielsen, only about 17% of adults in Philadelphia use Twitter during the course of a month. This is minuscule compared to other social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook.

Twitter offers 20 different options that Delaware Valley small business owners can utilize to market their goods and services to local consumers.  The platform's minimal reach, however, can hamper the success of any advertising campaign.

Local radio came to Philadelphia on February 8, 1922, when The Bureau of Navigation, Radio Services Division, of the United States Department of Commerce granted a license to station WGL. This station was the 42nd to be licensed in the nation. 

Little is known about WGL except it was owned by Thomas Howlett who broadcast from home at 2303 North Broad Street near Temple University.

In March of 1922, however, the second radio license in Philadelphia was awarded to WIP owned by the Gimbel Brothers Department Store. Early programming included remote-broadcasts of live  music featuring Charlie Kerr and his orchestra from the Cafe L’Aiglon at 15th and Chestnut Streets.  

For almost 100 years, Delaware Valley small business owners have depended on local radio stations to successfully market their goods and services through depressions, recessions, wars, and natural disasters. Even now, during a pandemic, advertising on Philadelphia radio remains a dependable way to make cash registers ring.

Here are five facts every Delaware Valley small business owner needs to know about local radio in 2020.