Blackwell Reference Online

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Radio is the medium with the highest relevance for media users in daily life – at least with respect to the amount of exposure time (→  Radio ; Radio: Social History ). In western industrialized countries, people listen to radio for about three hours each day, with about 80 percent of daily reach ( Table 1 ). Table 1  Exposure to radio in selected countries Country Daily reach (%) Listening duration (min) Source : IP Networks (2002) Poland 77.4 325 Germany 81.8 218 UK 80.2 205 France 83.6 191 Romania 46.4 191 Spain 56.0 185 Italy 67.8 182 USA 76.9 180 Sweden 77.5 163 Switzerland (German part) 93.1 131 Radio consumption has decreased massively since the beginning of the twenty-first century, especially among people under the age of 40, due to the increasing use of mobile music media like MP3 players ( Schramm 2006 ). About 90 percent of the radio consumption occurs while people pursue other activities at the same time, such as eating, working at home (e.g., cleaning, cooking, ironing), working outside home (e.g., gardening, office work), or car driving. For instance, 85 percent of US Americans listen to the radio during morning drive time (6 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekdays), and 80 percent listen during afternoon drive time (3 p.m. to 7 p.m.; MacFarland 1997 ). Studies have shown that radio music listening can positively affect reaction time during simple routine driving (for ... log in or subscribe to read full text