U.S. AM and FM radio stations extended their...

U.S. AM and FM radio stations extended their reach by half a million listeners year-over-year, according to a Nielsen report released Monday. Some 244 million Americans ages 12 and older use radio during the Monday-Sunday midnight to midnight hours, with daily time spent listening to radio holding even at roughly 2 hours and 41 minutes per day, Nielsen said. Nielsen’s radio measurements don’t include streaming or Internet radio stations outside of listening done through broadcasters’ Internet radio streams, a Nielsen spokesman told us. While Nielsen doesn’t currently measure “pure plays” such as Pandora or Spotify, “we are working right now on developing a measurement that would capture all online and digital listening sources,” the spokesman said. Nielsen will make an announcement on additional radio measurement offerings later this year, he said. Pandora CEO Brian McAndrews last week applauded the Media Rating Council’s accreditation of Triton Digital, which will benefit Pandora’s measurement of listening hours versus local radio hours as it competes for advertising. The Nielsen report, which covers Jan. 3-Dec. 4, 2013, includes data from all 48 Nielsen Portable People Meter markets. It measures 46 individual radio networks operated by AdLarge Media, American Urban Radio Networks, Crystal Media Networks, Cumulus Media Networks, Premiere Networks, United Stations Radio Networks and WestwoodOne.