Las Vegas radio reaches more local consumers each week than any other advertising medium.

According to Nielsen, 1,475,493 adults tune in to their favorite AM/FM stations every week.  This is significantly more consumers than are reached by Las Vegas TV, cable, streaming video, streaming audio, social media, or newspapers.

AM/FM radio's dominance among local consumers is driven, in large part, by the 1.7 million Las Vegas area adults who take to the road in their car or truck every week, according to Neilsen.

Based on projections from the National Retail Federation (NRF), Las Vegas consumers are on track to spend $31.7-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, Las Vegas area business owners are expected to spend $775-million 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 Las Vegas 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 AdvertiseInLasVegas.com.  

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

Some Clark County small business owners believe that local consumers have ditched their favorite Las Vegas radio stations in favor of music beamed to their cars from space. Is this true? 

The short answer is no. Here are the facts.

There are 1.6 registered vehicles in the Las Vegas area.  Nearly 44% of these cars and trucks are equipped to receive satellite radio from Sirius/XM. To use the service, however, drivers must pay between $10.99 and $20.99 per month.

According to Nielsen,  though, satellite radio has had no effect on the number of people who tune-in to Las Vegas radio stations each week.  For that matter, neither has Pandora, a streaming audio service that is also owned by Sirius/XM.

Last week, for instance, nearly 90% of all adult consumers tuned-in to a Las Vegas radio station. Only 17.2%, however, listened to Sirius/XM, which is the only remaining satellite service. 

OMG! Did you just call the 1.5 million adult consumers who tuned-in to a Las Vegas station last week a 'nobody'?

If you did make that mistake, then you wouldn't be the first Las Vegas small business owner or media professional to do so. Even, Doug Schoen used to share that opinion. He came clean, however, in a Forbes article.

"You wouldn't know it from all the media coverage focused on streaming video and streaming music," writes Mr. Schoen, "but recent Nielsen data shows radio actually has the most reach among American media consumers. 93% of adults listen to the radio each week as compared to 87% who watch TV, a substantive difference."

This is true in Las Vegas, as well, where radio listeners far outnumber the people who watch local TV; read local newspapers; or stream audio sites like Pandora and Spotify; or log-on to social media sites like Facebook and Instagram.

Next year, according to Nielsen, 38,788 residents in the Las Vegas area will be getting married. This number does not include tourist weddings.

Assuming that those folks are hitching-up with each other, that means there will be 19,394 weddings. 

CostOfWedding.com reports that the average cost for these pending nuptials will be $29,003 including (but not limited to) rings, dresses, tuxedos, flowers, venues, photographers, invitations, limos, and rice (or birdseed for the ecologically inclined).

This means small business owners in Las Vegas who cater to the bridal market will be competing for a share of $562 million.

Mark Twain has some script writing advice for Las Vegas small business owners who depend on radio advertising to market their goods and services.

"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter - 'tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning," advises Mr. Twain.

In other words, fill your commercials with lightning, not bugs!

Currently, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, there are 171,476 words in the English language. A handful of these words, Las Vegas small business owners can't use in their radio commercials. The Supreme Court of the United States says so.

Of all the words that can be used in broadcast advertising, however, there is one word that should be shunned: 'get' and all of its nasty derivative forms including 'got' and 'gotten'.  Here's why.

The typical 60-second commercial on Las Vegas radio consists of 160 words.  Depending on the station, each word in that ad could cost around $2.00.  It is important, then, that each word is carefully selected to engage listeners and then compel them to action.  This is especially crucial when using verbs. 

"One of the best ways of grabbing and keeping an audience is to use strong, descriptive verbs," says the Writing Center at the University of Houston.  'Get' is not that kind of verb.

This year, Las Vegas area consumers will spend $6.3 billion in local restaurants and drinking establishments. There are thousands of local restaurants from Pahrump to Mesquite  hungry for a bite of that cash.

Unfortunately, many of the restaurants that are here today will be gone tomorrow. According to FSR, an industry trade magazine, 60% of restaurants fail within their first year. Eighty percent never make it to their fifth anniversary.

CBI Insights studies why small business owners, such as local restaurants, fail.  Reason number eight is poor marketing and advertising.  Good food and friendly service are not enough to make a cash register ring.

Two things are remarkable about voting day in 1920.  It was the first time, ever, women could participate in the selection of the U.S. President. It was also the first time live election results were broadcast on the radio. Not to mention, it was also the first radio broadcast, ever.

The voters' choice that night was between Warren G. Harding  and James M. Cox.  Both men had derived their political power as successful newspaper publishers.  It is quite ironic, then, that one of these men would reach the highest office in the land on the same night that the nascent radio broadcasting business began its takedown of the newspaper industry.

Nowhere is this takedown more apparent than locally, where radio has become, by far, the advertising medium with the largest reach among Las Vegas consumers.

If you don't have time to read this entire article, then I will tell you right now. The best way to advertise in Clark County is on Las Vegas radio.

A vital function of advertising is to build mental availability, which nudges a consumer toward the purchase of a product or service. It also serves to provide public notice that a product or service exists and is available for purchase.

Consumers in the valley are are expected to spend at least $39 billion at retail this year. To claim a greater share of this giant pool of cash requires local business owners of every size to advertise their goods and services. As Professor Jef Richards at Michigan State University points out, “Advertising is totally unnecessary…unless you want to make money."