… I’ll say it again, local news is critical. Story after story and report after report on the topic say, readers, listeners and viewers want to be tuned in to their community (and politics).

Let’s expand on the recent study by radio giant, Audacy, which said local news radio flew past all other credible sources. Not to get to deep into the weeds, but ya, profits kind of suck for radio, but radio is the most credible source, hear it loud and clear! This is what we’ve been trying to tell you. It should be easy to sell! (Hire me, I’ll sell the bejesus out of it!)

We work our butts off, getting up at all hours of the night, because we have a passion for our craft. We drag our butts to the computer (or station) with our big ol’ jug o’ caffeine and dig in. And once we get rolling, there’s no stopping us. It is for you that we do get into the weeds. Most busy Americans don’t have time (or the inclination) to sit down and read a newspaper (online only nowadays for most). It seems luxurious at best.

Most listeners do however have time to stick their earbuds in, or play their bluetooth speaker while doing any number of other things. And, as we talked about last week, AM Radio is a big player in this too. There are still so many radio stations out there producing the “news wheel”, you know, national, local, sports, entertainment and weather. And over and over it goes. and there are networks with deep dives into local stories. (Not to mention their online local news products.)

**The Audacy study was done with under 3,000 people, but it showed 85% of those polled found radio to be credible. It showed 94% of local news radio listeners were registered voters, and that the listeners were highly engaged in politics, 74% took an interest in local issues and 77% closely following national politics. 45% were labeled as moderate, 15% as conservative, 9% as very conservative, 19% as liberal, and 12% as very liberal. You can definitely sell them a burger.