Radio the Key Channel to Latino Voters

As those vying for the presidency of the United States (or any elected position for that matter) begin to up their ante for 2012, one medium that presidential hopefuls could and should use to reach out to potential voters – specifically minority voters – is radio.

Earlier this month at the Arbitron Client Conference and Jacobs Media Summit held in Baltimore, Ron Rodrigues of Arbitron presented findings on a politics and radio report.   Rodriguez claims that “radio reaches all voters,” according to a Dec. 16 issue of Taylor on Radio-info.

With that being said, for any candidate trying to gain a significant portion of the Hispanic vote to help win his or her campaign, radio is a perfect option to do so.

In addition to being the fastest growing minority population in the country, Hispanics are also leading in increasing radio’s weekly audience. Of its 1.4 million additional listeners, nearly 1 million of radio’s new listenership was Hispanic, according to a forthcoming RADAR 111 National Radio Listening Report.

Arbitron’s Hispanic Radio Today study also found that, “whether Spanish-dominant or English dominant, radio reaches at least 91 percent of Hispanic men in every age group, and attracts more than 91 percent of Hispanic women in every demographic cell 12-64.”

Because radio is an inexpensive and ubiquitous medium, Hispanics use it for many reasons, including keeping themselves abreast of political campaigns, according to a Pew Hispanic Center report.

The Pew study found that “38 percent who obtained campaign news from the radio did so in English, 31 percent listened in Spanish, and 31 percent obtained campaign news from the radio in both languages.”

Rodrigues also urged media buyers to expand their purchases from stations that are primarily News Talk to other formats such as Mexican Regional – whose listening audience is 35 percent Democratic and 13 percent Republican – as well as Pop Contemporary Hit Radio (CHR) – where 38 percent of the listenership are Democrats and 32 percent are Republicans.

Coincidently, the Hispanic Radio Today findings suggest that the Mexican Regional format attracts the largest share of the Hispanic radio audience and the Pop CHR format attracts the fourth largest share of Hispanic listeners, while the News Talk format ranked eighth out of 16 formats tested in the study.

Overall, a candidate attempting to reach a massive number of Hispanics who are of legal voting age should consider purchasing airtime on various radio stations across the country that have a format where Hispanics have the highest share of listenership. It may help him or her win potential voters on an issue and, more importantly, win an election.

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