Radio Continues to Thrive Online

What's the one thing that Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y agree on? Internet radio. According to a recent report, 18% of Internet users visit a radio station online at least monthly. That's 38.6 million visitors per month! I find this somewhat surprising, since I'm used to thinking of radio as an "old" technology.

Turns out, it's not that old -- and radio programmers and distributers are really figuring out how to use the online medium to their advantage. According to a news article on the report:

"The 18% cohort is dominated by frequent radio listeners and Internet junkies, with people most likely to visit a station's Web site when they're at work. According to the Media Audit figures, the top 10 cities where Internet users visit radio Web sites are, in order: Minneapolis, Seattle, Atlanta, San Francisco, Dallas, Chicago, Denver, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, and Milwaukee."

Seems to me that many leaders in the industry have figured out that people are willing and able to use their computers as a radio receiver -- especially in the office. Could this be the start of the great "TV/Radio/Computer Melding" we've heard so much about? In fact, once we're at the point where everyone can access video at broadband speeds (including HD video) we may just find that traditional over the air broadcast will go the way of the land line telephone...

Anyway, I don't know why I'm surprised. My baby boomer husband, who just figured out how to send text messages on his phone, spends more time listening to radio on the Internet than I do!