Prime-Time Programming

Since the beginning of electronic media, the measure of listenership or viewership reached its highest values in the time between the hours of 7:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. This part of the broadcast was labeled as prime time (in contrast to the so-called off-time, the broadcast time in which listenership/viewership dropped). After the arrival of television, which occupied the most attractive evening time, the interest of radio listeners gradually shifted to the morning hours or the early evening broadcast; therefore, today, radio prime time comprises these portions of the program schedule. When compiling program schedules, media companies tend to place their most attractive and popular programs (primarily news and entertainment programs but also films) into this prime-time time slot. This entry reviews several genres of ...