According to Nielsen, 2,226,951 adults tune in to their favorite Tampa radio stations every week. This is significantly more consumers than are reached by all other advertising-supported media, including local TV, local cable, streaming video, social media, online audio, and local newspapers.

Tampa radio's unchallenged reach is why many local business owners depend on the medium to capture the largest possible share of the $65.6 billion dollars consumers are expected to spend at retail this year.

Other local small business owners, however, may be surprised to learn that by most marketing metrics, radio remains the best way to advertise in Tampa.

Here are four more facts about AM/FM radio that may surprise many local marketers.

Every week, according to Nielsen, Tampa Bay radio reaches 2,226,951 adults. This is more consumers than use any other medium, including local TV, local cable, streaming video, social media, online audio, and newspapers.

Reach, though, is only one component used to calculate ratings.  The other metric that contributes to the rating formula is the time spent using each medium. So, although for the past 10 years, AM/FM radio's reach has been significantly higher than the reach of local TV, consumers spent considerably more time watching TV. As a result of the math, TV has enjoyed higher ratings than radio.

For the first time, however, AM/FM radio ratings have exceeded local TV ratings by three percent among the key advertising demographic of 18-49-year-olds, according to Nielsen's Total Audience Data for the third quarter of 2023.

In the Tampa Bay area, there are 1,243,935 18-49-year-olds, the majority of whom are millennials, a generation that now accounts for nearly one-third of all retail spending.

Tampa Bay radio reaches more local consumers each week than any other advertising medium.

According to Nielsen, 2,226,951 adults tune in to their favorite AM/FM stations every week.  This is significantly more consumers than are reached by Tampa Bay TV, cable, streaming video, streaming audio, social media, or newspapers.

AM/FM radio's dominance among local consumers is driven, in large part, by the 2.5 million Tampa Bay area adults who take to the road in their car or truck every week, according to Neilsen.

Every week, according to new Nielsen data, 2,225,469 adults tune in to a Tampa Bay radio station. This is more consumers than use social media, access local cable, watch broadcast TV, stream video channels, listen to streaming audio, read a newspaper, or download a podcast.

Based on per capita estimates from the National Retail Federation (NRF), Tampa Bay consumers are expected to spend between $50.5 and $51.4 billion at retail in 2022, a six to eight percent growth over the previous year. Utilizing radio's enormous advertising reach, local business owners can compel shoppers to spend this large pool of cash in their stores and on their websites.

The number of consumers reached is critical to the success of an advertising campaign.

According to a Nielsen study, after the actual content of the commercial message itself, reach is the most potent advertising element that can drive sales. Reach is more important than brand, recency, or even context. Tampa Bay radio provides local business owners with the most significant reach among consumers.

There are about 2,000,000 registered passenger vehicles in the Tampa Bay 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 Tampa 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 Tampa 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 Tampa 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?

In 2020, there were 168,983 new cars and trucks registered in the Tampa Bay metro area. This number is based on projections from the National Auto Dealers Associaton (NADA) and the U.S. Census bureau.

In all, says NADA, there are 878 new-car dealerships in Florida. Despite the pandemic, these dealers, including those in the Tampa Bay area, sold $83 billion worth of new vehicles.

Through June of this year, these same dealers have already rung up $51.8 billion in new car sales.

When it comes to buying new vehicles, Tampa Bay consumers have a broad range of preferences. Some buyers want Fords while others want Chevrolets, Toyotas, or Teslas.  Some buyers want pick-up trucks, while others want sub-compacts, SUVs, or sports cars. Of course, some want blue vehicles, while others want pearl white, orchard green, or redolent red.

There is one purchase criterion, however, that most Tampa Bay car buyers can agree on. They want an AM/FM radio smack-dab, in the middle of their dash.

In 1922 when WDAE-AM became the first radio station in Tampa Bay, many considered the medium a fad.  Even in 1937, a hit song by George Gershwin, Our Love Is Here To Stay, considered radio to be a "passing fancy and in time may go".

Tampa radio, however, has survived the advent of talking-movies, television, eight tracks, and cassettes in stereo.  More recently, radio has withstood a tsunami of digital options including, YouTube, SiriusXM, Pandora, and Spotify.

As the Coronavirus pandemic rolls over into a second year, Tampa radio has hung tough and not ceded its ground despite listener's shifting lifestyles.  This is crucial news for local small business owners who depend on local stations to market their goods and services.

Since 1922, advertising on Tampa 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 Tampa Bay business to market its goods and services.

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

Local radio came to Tampa Bay on May 31, 1922, when WDAE signed-on. The station was owned by three-time Tampa mayor and publisher of the Tampa Daily Times newspaper, D.B. McKay.

The station broadcast from the sixth floor of the Citrus Exchange Building at the corner of Zack and Tampa Street. The building would later become the downton location of the Maas Brothers department store.

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 Tampa Bay consumers.

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

There are more than 2,000,000 car radios in the Tampa Bay area. On April 3, though, many of these devices became quarantined along with their owners. That was the day when the Governor of Florida shut down the state to slow the spread of COVID-19.

According to the Apple Mobility Index, the Governor's public-safety order caused traffic on Tampa Bay roadways to plummet to 25% of pre-pandemic levels.

By the beginning of July, however,  the AMI indicates that traffic in Tampa Bay began to return pre-Covid levels. The surge in mobility is due, in part, to work-from-home, furloughed, and laid-off employees returning to their workplaces.

According to Nielsen, during the week of April 30, only 39% of adults with jobs were working outside-the-home.  During the week of October 1, though, that number had expanded to 61%.