The average American teen now sends and receives an average of 3,339 texts per month. A new study from Nielsen points out that usage of SMS text messaging is up 8% from last year—averaging six messages for every hour that the average teen is awake. The most common texter: teenage girls. Teen males also far outpace other male age groups, sending and receiving an average of 2,539 texts per month.



Why so much text? Consumers say that it is faster and easier than voice calls. In fact, while text activity has gone up, phone voice calls have declined slightly in usage. Neilsen reports that voice activity has decreased 14% among teens, who average 646 minutes on the phone per month.

For radio stations who are not using text messaging as a way to communicate with their audience, there could be a significant missed opportunity here to stay “top of mind” and accessible to their younger listeners. It is worth noting too that while the most active texters may be 13-19 years old, ALL other age groups show increased text and mobile usage over the least year.

Perhaps the most relevant finding in Neilsen’s study that should tweak the attention of radio’s next generation leaders is the sharp increase in data usage for mobile internet, software downloads, and streaming from apps like Pandora and Youtube.



Across all age-groups, there is undeniable growth in data usage. There was a 12% increase in activity among teens from year-to-year, specifically related to apps like Facebook, Pandora, and Youtube. Usage of the mobile web has also far surpassed any activity from pre-installed games or ringtone clients. Mobile and text alerts have also increased substantially.

What is your station’s mobile presence? How can listeners find you on their mobile device?

Even beyond another “distribution point” for your station (that’s the kindergarten-level easy part of this), what other services or unique products are you offering on mobile? On your team, who is responsible for innovating in the mobile space?

Mobile is the new interactive Walkman. Will you have a place “on the dial” there?

Coming up in Radio3D in the next two weeks, we will feature some of the creative mobile applications and approaches that broadcasters around the world are taking.