There are about 3,500,000 registered passenger vehicles in the Philadelphia area. Some are cars. Some are trucks. Some are Hondas. Some are Fords. Some are Teslas. Some have four doors. Some have two. Some go fast. Some go slow. Some guzzle gas. Some sip. Some are red. Some are blue.

The one thing that almost every car and truck in the Philadelphia area have in common, though, is the AM/FM radio smack-dab in the middle of the dashboard.

The first car radio went on sale in 1930. It was an invention of the Galvin Manufacturing Company. The company named the radio 'Motorola,' and its cost was $130, around $2000 in today's dollars. By 1935, more than three million car radios had been installed.

Today, AM/FM radio is part of every car and truck on Philadelphia area roads. In addition to the radio, many of these vehicles also provide drivers with other audio options, including a CD player, Sirius/XM, Pandora, Spotify, podcasts, and easy access to personal MP3 collections.

It is fair, then, for small business owners who depend on Philadelphia radio to advertise their goods and services to ask: with all the audio options on today's dashboards, is anyone listening to local AM/FM radio in the car anymore?

During July, 3.4 million adult listeners spent 2 hours per day listening to their favorite Philadelphia radio stations, according to Nielsen. Despite an avalanche of pandemic induced disruptions, the daily time spent with radio is down by only by one-quarter-hour from a year ago.

Some advertising experts had predicted that as consumers spent more time at home because of COVID-19 concerns, the hours devoted to radio listening would dramatically decrease. That, however, was not the case.

In July of 2019, according to Nielsen, 30.7% of radio listening in the Delaware Valley occurred at home. During July of this year, in-home listening jumped to 41.5%. Despite the reduction in out-of-home activities, though, consumers still spent nearly the same amount of time listening to Philadelphia radio.

Every week, 3,830,493 adult consumers tune-in to a Philadelphia radio station. That is way more than are reached by other media, including local television, newspaper, social media, or streaming audio sites like Pandora and Spotify.

A more significant number for thousands of Delaware Valley small business owners who advertise on Philadelphia radio is how many of these listeners stick around when their commercials come on.

A 2011 Nielsen study discovered that, on average, 93% of listeners stayed with the radio station they are tuned-to when the commercials come on. That number amazed many advertisers at the time who believed that audiences were far more likely to defect when the music stopped.

A lot has changed since 2011. Philadelphia area consumers have many more media options and can instantly connect to each  with a button-push, mouse-click, screen-tap, or voice command. With all of these choices, do radio audiences still stay tuned during commercial breaks?

The chaos created in the Delaware Valley by the onset of Coronavirus has been a disruptive force among consumers. 

Work routines, buying habits, family life, and media consumption have all been palpably affected. These are all factors that need to be considered by small business owners who continue to advertise their goods and services during the crisis.

Before the current chaos, advertising on Philadelphia radio, by any metric, was the best way a local small business could advertise.

For instance, pre-Coronavirus, 3.8 million adult consumers tuned-in to a Philadelphia radio station every week. This is significantly more than watched local TV, read a newspaper, accessed social media, or streamed audio from sites like Pandora and Spotify.

New research released from Nielsen indicates that amidst the current crisis, listening to local radio remains little changed. This is great news for those Delaware Valley small business owners who are depending on advertising for their long-term survival.

Delaware Valley small business owners have been advertising on Philadelphia radio since the first local stations, went on air in 1922.  By almost every metric, the medium remains the best way to successfully market goods and services to local consumers.

Before local businesses execute their marketing plans for this year, here are five facts they should know about radio advertising.

Over 1,000,000 consumers in the Delaware Valley now own a smart speaker. Ownership of these devices, including Amazon Echo and Google Home, has grown five-fold since the beginning of 2017.

According to Adobe Analytics, significantly  more consumers are asking Siri and Alexa to play music than any other activity.

Many Philadelphia area small business owners depend on local radio to advertise their goods and service. So, how does the use of smart speakers as an audio device affect their radio advertising's ability to reach local consumers? The answer is: none at all.

In 1922, the first Delaware Valley radio stations took to the airwaves. Today, 3,830,493  adult consumers tune-in to Philadelphia radio every week. This is significantly more than watch local TV or read newspapers. 

Philadelphia small business owners, however, also want to know how local radio compares to streaming audio platforms like Pandora and Spotify, especially as it relates to advertising. The answer could surprise many of them.

Pandora was created to provide a personalized radio station catering to the musical preferences of each user.  The playlists were determined by a proprietary algorithm and then streamed directly to each listeners' computer. Over the next few years, the service became available on iPads and smartphones.

Philadelphia area consumers cannot get enough pizza.

In 2012, there were just about 1,750 local pizza restaurants. Today, however, that number has grown to 1,900. In 2019, these establishments racked up $890,000,000 in total sales.

Fifty-nine percent of pizza sales in the Philadelphia area are rung-up by one of the top-50 chains like Domino's or Pizza Hut. The remaining 41% of revenue is controlled by independent, small business owners.

To compete for a larger share of the pizza pie in the Delaware Valley  requires local restaurant owners to bring in new customers. A proven way to accomplish this is with advertising.

The US Small Business Administration recommends that every local  small business advertise consistently.  

There's a reason many Delaware small business owners target their advertising towards consumers who have completed a four-year college degree. It's because, typically, university graduates earn $29,106 more per year than those with only a high school diploma, according to The Federal Reserve.

There are, according to Nielsen, 1.5 million college graduates living in the Philadelphia  area. In total, this population generates $112.7 billion in annual take-home pay.

To tap into a similar pool of spending power, a marketer would need to reach 2.5 million consumers who did not go beyond high school. The problem is, there is 100,000 fewer than that living in the Delaware Valley.

The number of people reached by a campaign is, generally, what determines the cost of advertising. So, for a local small business owner operating on a tight marketing budget, spending can be kept in check by targeting those consumers with the most money to spend. In this case, college graduates.

Attention Delaware Valley small business owners. The five busiest shopping days of the year are imminent.

Based on data from the National Retail Federation, more than 3.2 million Philadelphia area consumers are likely to shop beginning on Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday.

“The tradition of Thanksgiving weekend holiday shopping has become a five-day event with consumers spending money in stores, supporting local small businesses, and online with their mobile devices and computers,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. “Even as people are starting to purchase gifts earlier in the season, consumers still enjoy finding good Thanksgiving deals and passing time shopping with family and friends over the long holiday weekend.”

Based on the NRF findings, here are the number of shoppers local business owners can expect on each of these five days: