France: radio wakes
Patrick Jaquin, Deputy head of Communications

More and more people in France are waking up to the radio

Half of listeners tune into the radio during the week before 7:30 in the morning, whereas it isn’t until 2:00 o’clock in the afternoon that that many viewers have turned on their television. 

Thirty-seven per cent of the audience start listening to the radio within 15 minutes of waking up and many prefer the familiar tones of their chosen radio station to the sound of an alarm: three out of every four households are equipped with a radio-alarm clock. Some families have more than one, as there’s an average of 1.3 radio-alarm clocks per household.

Morning call

According to a Médiamétrie* survey there is a category of listener called “waking listeners” who say they listen to the radio within 15 minutes of waking up. The listeners in this category represent more than one-third of the French population and actually have quite a lot in common. 

First of all they are early risers: almost all of them have already turned on their radios before 8:15. Without them, audience figures would follow a somewhat . . . er . . . sleepier curve.

During the week, more than half of those 13 years and older are awake before 7:15. Two-thirds of the French population in this group wake up between 6 and 8:30 during the week. If we consider the average waking time during the week people get up earliest on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays (7:12). Conversely, on average they rise latest day on Wednesdays and, to a lesser extent, Mondays. 

And this is quite logical, when you think that people don’t go out to work as much on those days. You need only consider the time people get up to go to work and compare it with the time of those who don’t have to: 6:49 on average in the first instance; 07:54 in the other. Those who don’t need to go to work give themselves over an hour more in bed. These differences are obviously reflected in the audience curve. The “waking listeners” are therefore, during the week at least, early risers. And the similarities do not stop there.

The survey profile of “waking listeners” reveals that they are usually men between 35 and 49 years, who go out to work and belong to a higher socio-professional category, city-dwellers, in particular those living in the greater Paris area. While they tune in earlier, these “waking listeners” also stay tuned for longer, half an hour more than the others on average: 2 hours 55 minutes, compared to 2 hours and 25 minutes. And - this will come as no surprise - while they represent over one-third of daytime listeners (37%), they also constitute 43% of the mass of large radio consumers. These radio fans are also more likely to tune in during the day.

Zappers too

There’s no surprise therefore that they are more likely to zap from station to station: 1.8 on an average week day between 5 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. as compared to 1.6 for other listeners.

At the weekend it’s obviously another matter. The study shows which station they listen to when they get up. Almost half (45.6%) listen to a general-interest station but a third (32.6 %) wake up to a music station. Theme stations (France Info, for example) are chosen by more than one in ten. And 9% prefer local radio. 

To summarize we can define the “waking listener” as Mr More: he’s more likely to get up early, spends more time listening to the radio, tunes in more often, and to more radio stations. Do early birds catch the worm listening to the radio? Whatever the case, these “waking listeners” are the key for the radio economy.

Radio junkies

The 13-24 age range is the sector that’s the most hooked on radio. A total of 91.6% listen to the radio during the week, as compared to 83.7% of the whole population above the age of 13. This strong addiction has repercussions on the number of radios owned.

Having a person in the 13-24 age range in a household is an amazing catalyst for the purchase of radio equipment: whereas on average a French household has 5.6 radio receivers, the number rises to 7.6 in those homes with someone between the ages of 13 and 24.

Not only are young people the motors for owning radio equipment but their influence extends to the quality of receivers: whereas 75.9% of the 13+ population have a programmable radio, the proportion rises to 87% in the 13-24 age group. 

The main receiver they tune in on is their stereo unit (50.4%), whereas the traditional radio-cassette player or radio-CD player is the radio of preference for 22.5%. As for the walkman it would appear to be reserved for listening to CDs: the 13-to-24 age group doesn’t use it much as a radio (only 3.4% use it as their main radio).

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Médiamétrie survey carried out from January to March 2003 among more than 18,000 French subjects aged 13 years and over as part of the survey “75 000 + Radio”.