Appropriate care in interpretation is recommended. The Statistics Canada radio listening data bank integrates files from different sources. The underlying listening data are acquired from the BBM Bureau of Measurement and include the demographics of survey respondents. The CRTC provides the information on the formats of specific stations. In British Columbia, the average listening time declined slightly from the fall of 1998 to 18.4 hours per week.
Adults listen almost twice as much as teenagers Listening time and habits differ according to age.
Adult radio listening varies significantly according to employment status. However, the order of preference of station format varies according to province and audience category. In Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick and British Columbia, adult contemporary music is the first choice of listeners. Teenagers, aged 12 to 17, and adults 18 to 24 prefer the contemporary music format. The talk format and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation draw very few listeners from the younger groups.