Urban accounts for a modest share of total radio listeners, under one in five, but the category is increasingly popular in major metropolitan areas.
   The issue for advertisers is just what comprises urban radio and who exactly listens to it. The Scarborough study, conducted between February 2003 and March 2004 of more than 200,000 adults aged 18 and older in 75 U.S. markets, offers some answers. It reveals a lot about those listeners, as well as their spending patterns. 
   In some ways urban radio is hard to define, both because it covers a range of subgenres and draws such a diverse group of listeners. But there are unifying qualities.
   "The demographic group that defines the urban radio listener is young and tends to be very influential in their community," says Howard Goldberg, senior vice president of radio services at Scarborough Research. They tend to be single. Many but certainly not all are African American.
   "The urban radio listener is more broadly defined than rhythm and blues. It is following suit with what the industry has defined as urban formats," says Goldberg. That includes urban contemporary, urban adult contemporary, urban oldies, gospel, rhythmic contemporary hit radio and contemporary inspirational.
    There are roughly 38 million urban radio listeners over the age of 18, according to Scarborough, making urban radio listeners about 18 percent of the total radio listening population over age 18. And that share has grown, increasing from just under 12 percent in 1999.
   Within the urban radio category, rhythmic contemporary hit radio and urban contemporary hit radio are the most popular, with about 19.6 million listeners tuning into rhythmic contemporary and some 16 million listening to the urban contemporary.
   The top cities for urban radio listeners are New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta and Philadelphia. Currently, there are 13,843 commercial radio stations in the U.S., and of those 855, or 6.2 percent, are urban-formatted.
  Women hold a slight edge among urban listeners, at 56 percent, as compared to representing 52 percent of the overall radio listening population. Fifty-eight percent of urban radio listeners are 18-34, compared with 31 percent of the total radio listening population over 18.
   Urban listeners have higher incomes than one might suppose, considering their youth, with 42 percent having annual household incomes above $50,000, as compared with 46 percent of the overall radio listening population.
   They are also big radio listeners.
   "They are one of the highest consumers of radio as a medium. African Americans index higher in the heavy listening category than the rest of the country," says Mario Christino, corporate director of sales and marketing for Radio One, a broadcasting company that targets urban radio listeners.
   Yet he says their listening preferences are narrower. "The average person has up to six radio stations that they listen to. There are far fewer formats for African Americans to listen to. Therefore they are spending more time with their favorite stations." 
   Top retail categories for urban listener spending are automotive, sports apparel, wine and wireless.
   "There are some pretty traditional categories that are top for the urban radio listener, but one of the things that was unique was that the urban radio listener is more likely to spend $20 or more on a bottle of wine and the fact that their spending habits on wireless are above the national average," says Goldberg.  
   Urban radio listeners are 43 percent more likely to spend $20 or more on a bottle of wine. Their monthly cell phone bills average $64, 10 percent above the national average.
   "It demonstrates that not only are they purchasing these products, but they are spending a certain amount of money on these products," Goldberg says. 
    In electronics, urban listeners spent $20 less on televisions and about $30 less on cameras and camera accessories than other radio listeners.
   But 53 percent of urban radio listeners own video game systems compared with 39 percent of radio listeners overall, and 68 percent own DVD players versus 59 percent of all radio listeners.
   Twenty-one percent of urban radio listeners have taken at least one trip or vacation in the past 12 months, while 19 percent have taken three to four trips or vacations.
   Additionally, urban radio listeners account for more than one-quarter (27 percent) of intended luxury vehicle purchases in the coming year and more than one-third (35 percent) of the consumers who spend at least $500 on athletic apparel annually. They spend an average of $19 more on athletic shoes than other consumers.