Commercial Radio has traditionally been seen as a young people’s medium, and this is still true despite the significant growth in older audience groups.

Each week Commercial Radio is listened to by 72% of 4-15 year olds while over the course of a month reach rises to 89%. Each of these listeners tunes in for an average of 9 hours of Commercial Radio each week.

However, reach is not uniform across all age groups (see chart below) since penetration is greater among the older groups.

This progression is related to two factors. Firstly, the likelihood of personally owning a radio increases with age. Youth TGI shows that the proportion of children who have a radio in their bedroom rises sharply between 7 and 15, peaking at 90%. Secondly, for older children the desire for personal space becomes more important. This explains why there is a marked shift in the main location of radio listening to the bedroom.

The peak time for young people to be listening to the radio is in the mornings - ratings peak just before school, fall away during school-time, and then pick up again after 3pm.

Weekend listening starts later and there is a clear peak on Sunday afternoons when the Pepsi Chartshow is broadcast.

Beyond music - While music is at the core of radio for young people - they cannot imagine replacing radio with other music sources - radio’s importance seems to go beyond simply music. Qualitative research reveals that radio helps young adults to develop an identity, allows them to demonstrate individual choice, it acts as an antidote to ‘outside’ pressures and it also provides the ‘social glue’ which allows them to feel part of a peer group.

This positioning of radio in young people’s minds as a ‘me-medium’ (as opposed to a parent-medium) enables the advertiser to speak from inside the so-called "youth fortress", thus enhancing brand perceptions of currency and acceptability.

Click here to read the RAB guide to using radio to reach youth markets