Inside Story: Why PM Drive Is Radio’s King—and a Brand Kingmaker

Story by Inside Radio

Radio stations have always made it a priority to corral listeners with strong morning drive shows that amp brand loyalty and ratings. It is, however, actually afternoon drive that draws the highest cume. This fact may not be a news flash to programmers, but the difference in audience between AM and PM drive is indeed profound—as are potential opportunities for stations to better mine the daypart.

“That huge line of cars going home is a goldmine,” says Brian Demay, PD of Cumulus AC “Lite Rock 105” WWLI, Providence, RI and a Westwood One afternoon AC personality. “Recycling into evenings is a key part of my show every afternoon. The afternoon commute starts earlier and ends a lot later than people think.”

Information provided to Inside Radio from Nielsen RADAR for December 2015 reveals that PM drive (3pm-7pm) reaps the highest percentage of radio listeners 12+, with 73.5% of all Americans tuning in. Compare that to AM drive, at 66.7%, middays at 69.5% and evenings at 48.2%.

Furthering the point, in the top-ranked New York City market, iHeartMedia’s 6+ leader AC “106.7 Lite FM” WLTW had an average 1.3 million monthly listeners in AM drive—and 2.2 million in PM drive—from May-July 2015. In market No. 2 Los Angeles for the same term, iHeart leader CHR KIIS-FM (102.7) averaged 1.0 million monthly listeners in AM drive and 1.6 million in PM drive.

Agreeing with Demay that those superlative PM drive numbers offer potential for stations to keep a hold on listeners from morning to night, Maurice DeVoe, corporate PD for Cumulus Kansas City and PD of urban AC “Magic 107.3” KMJK, says, “In some cities, drive-time goes into the early evenings when night shows are starting, so it’s to a station’s advantage to have the afternoon show promote what’s coming up at night to help recycle that audience.”

Keith Cunningham, PD of classic rock KLOS L.A. and Cumulus’ head of corporate programming for rock formats, agrees that the relationship between afternoons and mornings “is the larger goal. “Evening cume shrinks, as many listeners simply go home and park the car,” he says. “If a brand has them locked in when they pull into the garage, listeners start their morning with the brand when the engine fires up. Now repeat each day.”

Circling the clock of opportunities, consultant Pat Welsh with Pollack Media Group agrees that the bigger fish is reconnecting listeners from PM to AM drive. “The number of listeners drops dramatically after 6 pm. So if you’re going to invest time in promoting the station and encouraging tune-in occasions, you’ll get more of return backing into the big dayparts: mornings, middays and afternoons.”