Arbitron: NY Radio 'Sandy' Listening Skyrockets

Arbitron, releasing new PPM data for the New York market, finds increased radio listening during the week of Super Storm Sandy. As the storm hit the coast during the evening of Monday, October 29, compared to the week prior, the average number of people using radio in any quarter hour from 7pm-midnight increased 70%. In the coastal areas within the New York market, radio listening increased by even greater percentages. Nassau-Suffolk had a 245% increase in listening that night, with Middlesex-Somerset-Union up 195%. Stamford/Norfolk radio listening was up by an incredible 367%, while Monmouth NJ saw a 247% increase. On Staten Island, radio listening grew by 42% on October 29. "When the lights went out, when TV and desktop PCs were no longer available, many New York area residents turned on their battery powered radios," says Arbitron. "Many radio stations along the path of the storm, regardless of their regular format, revamped their programming to provide their listeners with weather updates, news and emergency information." Arbitron reports that in the wake of the storm, radio remained an information lifeline to the residents of New York, particularly in the coastal areas of the market. Average radio listening on Tuesday, October 30 in New York was 1,525,500 persons in any given quarter hour between 6am and midnight, up 8% eight from 1,406,700 persons 6+ the week before. The average audience in the New York coastal communities (Monmouth, Fairfield SN, Nassau-Suffolk, Staten Island and Middlesex) totaled 670,200 on the Tuesday (6am-midnight) following landfall (Oct. 30). That's 38% higher than the average of all Tuesdays year to date. The average in the New York coastal communities totaled 651,200 on the Wednesday following landfall, which is 35% higher than the average of all Wednesdays year-to-date.