Is advertising on the radio just a day job for Tampa Bay small business owners?  

Thousands of local companies depend on radio advertising to market their goods and services. But, most of these business owners choose to buy commercials only between 6:00 am and 7:00 pm.  Is this a good idea? Maybe not.  Here are the facts.

Last week, for instance, 2,193,604 adult consumers tuned-in to their favorite Tampa radio stations. This is significantly higher than the number that tuned-in to a local TV station, read a local newspaper, logged-on to social media sites like Facebook, or streamed audio from Pandora and Spotify.

But radio listeners do not roll-up their ears just because the sunsets. According to Nielsen, 56.4% of Tampa Bay consumers who listen to the radio during daylight hours, also tune in at night.

Did my ears deceive me, or did you just refer to the 2.1 million adult consumers who tuned-in to a Tampa radio station last week as 'nobodies'?

If you did make that mistake, then you wouldn't be the first Tampa Bay business owner or media professional to do so. Even, Doug Schoen used to share that opinion. He came clean, however, in a Forbes article.

"You wouldn't know it from all the media coverage focused on streaming video and streaming music," writes Mr. Schoen, "but recent Nielsen data shows radio actually has the most reach among American media consumers. 93% of adults listen to the radio each week as compared to 87% who watch TV, a substantive difference."

This is true in Tampa Bay, as well, where radio listeners far outnumber the people who watch local TV; read local newspapers; or stream audio sites like Pandora and Spotify; or log-on to social media sites like Facebook and Instagram.