And radio, Jordan notes, is generally a much more fragmented medium in local markets. What s more, he says, radio station web sites are attracting visitors despite the fact that few radio stations appear to be reaching promotionally beyond their existing audiences when it comes to driving traffic to their web sites. For instance, says Jordan, many newspapers have taken to promoting their web sites with outdoor advertising. Nine other formats were represented on the list. All were formats seeking young to middle-aged adults.
Market size appears to have no connection to whether stations are attracting web site visitors.
The 23 stations on the list come from markets ranging in size from roughly 300,000 to 3 million. The implication here is that radio stations have an opportunity to make sizable inroads on the web something that might have a lot to do with the relative ease with which they can put their existing product straight onto the web in terms of streaming their programming online. Media Audit is careful to note, however, that it is not measuring an online listening audience but merely reporting on visitors to stations web sites. Jordan believes radio is a medium particularly well-suited to the web because of its local orientation. There will be little reason, he believes, for web users to flock to generically programmed stations that don t give them a sense of their own communities.