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Nielsen: More than 90 percent of Americans listen to radio each week

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Despite an increasingly digital world, the vast majority of Americans still tuned into AM/FM radio each week in 2012, according to a Nielsen report released Tuesday.

According to the report, more than 90 percent of Americans listened to radio each week, with the “average American radio listener” tuning in for over two hours a day.

When broken down demographically, African Americans and Hispanics were the greatest consumers of AM/FM radio. And, broken down by age, Americans ages 45-54 represented the age group most likely to tune in.

“Interestingly, audio reaches a plateau in the morning hours, peaking around noon and then staying fairly constant through the day before tapering off as people start their evening. In addition we know that people who listen to a lot of radio also spend time with online radio, most prevalently the millennials,” the report reads.

Further, Nielsen reports that about 2/3 of radio listeners tuned in outside of the home.

While radio is a relative constant in most Americans’ media diets, television remained the number one most consumed form of media, with radio clocking in at a distant number two.

Nielsen — which first included radio in its media cross-platform report this year — reports that the average American took in about 60 hours of media content a week last year.

Of that roughly 60 hours, the average American took in 35.1 hours of television, 14 hours of AM/FM radio, 5.1 hours of Internet on the computer, 1.5 hours of video on the Internet, 1.5 hours on game consoles, 1.3 hours of video on mobile devices, and 1.3 hours on DVD/Blu-Ray.

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