Local businesses have been marketing their goods and services on Tampa Bay radio since May 31, 1922. That's when WDAE signed-on as Western Florida's first station.

WDAE was owned by three-time 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 downtown location of the Maas Brothers department store.

Who could have guessed that 101 years later, advertising on Tampa Bay radio would still be the best advertising option for all types of retailers and business owners.

Every week, according to Nielsen, Tampa Bay radio reaches 2,226,951 adult consumers. This reach is significantly higher than all other advertising options including local TV, cable, social media, streaming video, online audio, and newspapers.

Reach, according to Nielsen, is the audience metric most responsible for driving the success of an advertising campaign. Only the message itself carries more sway.

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.

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?

Every week, according to Nielsen, 89% of adult consumers tune in to a Tampa radio station. This is significantly more people than watch broadcast TV, local cable, or video streaming services. It's more than use social media sites like Facebook or Instagram.  And, it's more than read local newspapers.

Tampa radio is also the medium with the greatest reach among millennials, a generation that not only has embraced an abundance of online media options but also accounts for nearly a third of all local consumer spending.

This reach advantage is a crucial reason why local small business owners depend on Tampa radio to market their goods and services.

A study released this week by Edison Research and NPR discovered that their six distinct types of radio listeners. The study also examines how each group of listeners engages with both programming and advertising.  These distinctions are important for Tampa small business owners to understand.

The six listener categories as described in the study are: