Audience Measurement
Cume Persons (Cumulative Audience)
The total number of distinct, different people who tune into a radio station during a specified daypart for a minimum threshold of time.
What is Cume Persons (Cumulative Audience)?
Cume (short for cumulative) counts unique listeners rather than concurrent ones. Where AQH captures how many people are tuned in at a moment, Cume tallies every different person who tuned in at any point during the measured period — usually a daypart or a full week. A single listener who tunes in on Monday morning and again on Thursday evening counts once in the weekly Cume.
Cume is the radio equivalent of reach. Stations lead with Cume in upfront pitches to prove breadth of audience, then layer in AQH to prove depth. Advertisers buying for mass awareness care most about Cume; advertisers buying for frequency care more about AQH.
Why it matters
Measures the total potential reach of the station. A high Cume combined with a low AQH indicates that many people tune in briefly but leave quickly (high churn).
Related terms
- AQH (Average Quarter-Hour Persons)— The average number of individuals tuning into a station for at least five consecutive minutes within a specific 15-minute interval.
- AQH Rating— AQH Persons expressed as a mathematical percentage of the total measured demographic population in a specific geographic market.
- Audience Composition— The demographic, psychographic, or socioeconomic breakdown of a station's listener base, usually expressed in percentages.
- Audience Turnover— The calculated ratio of a station's cumulative audience (Cume) compared to its Average Quarter-Hour (AQH) audience.