Local businesses have been marketing their goods and services on Boston radio since December 1921. That's when WBZ became the area's first radio station broadcasting live from the Easter States Exposition in Springfield. Who could have guessed that 102 years later, advertising on Boston radio would still be the best advertising option for all types of retailers and business owners.

Every week, according to Nielsen, Boston radio reaches 3,333,841 adult consumers. This reach is significantly higher than all other advertising options including local TV, cable, social media, streaming video, online audio, and newspapers.

Reach, according to Nielsen, is the audience metric most responsible for driving the success of an advertising campaign. Only the message itself carries more sway.

Local business owners have been advertising on Boston radio since WBZ first signed-on in 1921.  But, back then, there were only two options for reaching a mass audience: newspapers and radio.

Today, though, advertisers have an over-abundance of marketing options both over-the-air and online. But every week, according to Nielsen, 3.4 million adults listen to a Boston radio station, giving the 101-year-old medium, by far, the biggest reach amongst local consumers.

A new report released last week by Nielsen underscores AM/FM radio's durable reach among all media.

Father's Day this year is on Sunday, June 19. Based on projections from the National Retail Federation (NRF), Boston shoppers are expected to spend $317.1 million on the dads in their life. This is on par with the record-breaking $318.6 million spent in 2021.

“Despite growing concerns about inflation, consumers plan to spend approximately the same amount as last year in celebration of Father’s Day,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. “Spending patterns also reflect the sentimental nature of the holiday as consumers are prioritizing unique and meaningful gifts.”

The NRF projects that nearly 60%, of all Father's Day purchases in Boston, will be for special outings, clothing, gift cards, and electronics. Although most category spending will be down slightly from last year, the amount of money spent on special outings such as dinner is expected to increase by over 8%.

.Here is how this large pool of Father's Day cash in Boston is expected to be distributed in all retail categories.

Every week, 2.8 million Boston adults watch video programs delivered via the internet. This content goes by several interchangeable names, including OTT (Over-The-Top Television), CTV (Connected TV), and Streaming Video. For this article, we will refer to this type of content as Streaming TV.

Unlike traditional TV, cable, and satellite where the viewer needs to be in a fixed location, Boston consumers can access streaming TV anywhere using an internet-connected device. These include SmartTVs, Firesticks, Roku, smartphones, computers, laptops, tablets, and gaming consoles.

In all, according to Nielsen, 95.4% of Boston households have one or more devices capable of connecting to streaming TV. Although this medium is still new, streaming TV now rivals legacy media in its ability to reach local consumers.

Every week, Boston consumers are spending more-and-more time engaged with streaming TV.

The current high rate of inflation is tempering how much Boston business owners can spend on advertising.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are approximately 206,000 small businesses in the Boston area. There is one thing each of the owners of the companies has in common, whether they own a hardware store in Quincy, a furniture store in Welsely, or a restaurant in Charlestown. They are all experiencing the negative consequences of inflation.

In a monthly survey conducted by the National Federation of Independent Business Owners (NFIB), inflation now ranks second as the single most important problem companies face. A year ago, inflation was barely an issue.

Inflation has not hampered the enthusiasm to spend among Boston area consumers keeping retail sales hovering above pre-Covid levels. But, inflation is taking a dramatic toll on the amount of revenue business owners can keep.

According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, small business owners see inflation-fueled price increases in almost every cost of operation, including inventory, utilities, rent, and wages.

Because of these rising operational costs, Boston business owners are looking to cut expenses where they can, including advertising expenditures. But, because there is still robust consumer demand for goods and services, these companies need to make sure that the amount they do invest in advertising has the best return possible.

By almost any marketing metric, advertising on Boston radio provides the greatest return-on-investment (ROI) of any medium available to local business owners.

Boston area business owners are expected to spend $2.3 billion advertising online in 2022. This, according to Borrell Associates, a company that tracks advertising expenditures across the country.

Borrell's forecast indicates that almost 50% of Boston's online expenditures will be in the form of paid search. The most recognizable type of this advertising is the paid ads that appear adjacent to the results of almost every search query on Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

Borrell's forecast also indicates that approximately 27% of online expenditures will be in the form of display advertising. This consists of traditional banner ads that appear across millions of websites and apps, including social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. According to SmallBizGenius.net, the average Boston area consumer is served more than 1700 of these ads per month.

Video advertising in Boston is forecast to account for 22% of all online ad dollars in 2022. Like search and display, millions of websites can support this type of advertising. This includes sites, apps, and platforms like YouTube, Roku Channel, Hulu, Paramount+, and most social media sites.

The remainder of online advertising dollars is expected to be spent on audio advertising, including streaming sites like Pandora and Spotify; or email marketing campaigns.

When WBZ-AM became Boston's first radio station in 1922, there was no Facebook, no Xfinity, no Sirius/XM, no Netflix, and no podcasts. It would be 26 years before there was even a local TV station.  Consequently, it was pretty easy for radio to become the number one reach medium among local consumers.

Over the past 99 years, Boston business owners have come to depend on the mammoth reach of radio among local shoppers to successfully market the goods and services they sell. Advertising on Boston radio has helped New England companies to survive and thrive during world wars, natural disasters, recessions, depressions, and even a pandemic.

Heading into 2022, local consumers have more media choices than ever before. But, despite the overabundance of social media, video streaming, audio streaming, cable, and other technological marvels, Boston radio is still the most used advertising medium.

Based on projections from the National Retail Federation (NRF), Boston consumers are on track to spend $72-billion with retailers by the end of this year. This would be 13.5% higher than was spent in 2020.

To earn a significant share of these retail dollars, Boston area business owners are expected to spend $3.2 billion to advertise by year's end, according to Borrell Associates. This company tracks advertising expenditures in local markets across the U.S.

To ensure they are spending their advertising and marketing dollars wisely, many Boston business owners research how to best target prospective customers by using local media. An exceptional resource for local business owners to investigate the media habits of localconsumers is on the advice section of AdvertiseInBoston.com.  

Here are the top five most-read articles on the site in 2021:

When Boston's first radio station, WBZ, began broadcasting on September 21, 1921, the station needed a tall antenna and lots of buried copper cable to transmit its signal.  Radio receivers at the time were mostly homemade and involved a piece of crystalline mineral and a wire coil.

Over many decades in Boston, both the broadcasting and receiving equipment improved. In the mid-1920s this meant store-bought radios. In the 1930s this meant car radios. In the 1960s this meant transistor radios. In the 1970s this meant boom boxes. And, in the 1980s this meant Walkmen. But, despite these improvements, the fundamental technology of big towers sending a signal through the air to a radio receiver remained the same.

In 1994, there was a new way for Boston consumers to listen to the radio. That was the year local stations across the country began streaming their signals over the internet and listeners could use their computers (later their smartphones and smart speakers) as receiving devices. No big antennas, no wires, and no actual radio needed.

In 2021, according to Nielsen, Boston radio reaches more local consumers than any other advertising media option.

Neilsen finds, too, that 32% of all consumers who listen to a Boston radio station over-the-air will, at some point during the month, also connect to a local station via the internet.