While helping my fiancée move this past weekend, we spent a lot of time listening to the radio.
After all, radio is made for times like that: task at hand, need something to fill the silence, the more enjoyable those sounds are, the better. You’re out in the garage where you keep that old alarm clock or “boombox” on your favorite station, flick the power on and you’re good to go. You’re ready to work.
We had the same thing in mind.
So when she was packing up her old place, the very last thing she packed was her alarm clock. When we got to her new apartment, she unpacked it first.
The radio industry has to realize alternative options are increasing. (Photo courtesy of JVCAmerica on Flickr.)
She put her iPhone 4 in its dock. She opened her Pandora app, set it to State Radio radio, and we enjoyed some really great songs, most of which I had never heard. Crystal clear, very few commercials, fairly-intuitive playlist (with the ability to ‘thumbs down’ any song that doesn’t belong.) It provided a near-perfect soundtrack for the mood, the weather, the event, everything.
My fiancée is 23 years old. She very rarely listens to regular broadcast radio, even though her future husband works in radio. I don’t blame her one bit.
Alarm clocks. Car stereos with USB interfaces. 4G mobile devices. Forget satellite radio (which I own and enjoy); the majority of people in the 18-34 age group own smartphones. With apps like Pandora and Spotify, the consumption of music is still evolving long after iTunes changed the measure of music sales from records to singles. Factor in the innumerable online stations and streams for niche formats (dubstep, anyone?) and the increasingly-homogenized playlists of terrestrial broadcasters, and you have a recipe for the relegation of traditional broadcast radio among younger audiences.
It’s time we pull our heads out of the sand and face facts: generations are growing up without the need for conventional radio broadcasting.
I’ve heard all of the rebuttals: ‘they said the same thing about cable TV killing networks,’ ‘they said the same thing about TV killing radio,’ ‘they said the same thing about (X) killing (Y).’ Those arguments are simply denial from the old guard, and the reason is simple, though it takes some explanation.
See, broadcast news did not kill newspapers. TV did not kill radio (though it did move acted dramas to the more visual medium). Cable did not kill TV networks. These things did not happen because they were never a threat to each other; each medium serves a purpose and fills a need that cannot be satisfied by the other.
In short, you can’t watch TV in the car, you can’t see physical comedy on the radio, you can’t do super in-depth news reporting on radio or TV, and on and on and on.
Radio is in trouble because of the threat of radio. Print media is in trouble because of the threat of print media.
It’s not another medium that threatens these mainstays; it’s the same medium being delivered through entirely different means that poses a significant challenge. By delivering content through the digital sphere, more and more generations are learning how to subvert traditional broadcasters to satisfy all tastes, from mainstream to the most unique (I have a customized Pandora station based on Buddha-style down-tempo lounge). While a given broadcast market is limited to 50-ish stations at the most across FM and AM radio (“AM radio?” said most people under 30), the Internet provides countless formats and delivery systems, not to mention instantaneous ownership of .mp3′s.
If you think this is just another situation where Chicken Little screams about the sky falling, you’re fooling yourself. Go ahead, ask the closest 16-20 year-old you see how often they listen to broadcast radio. If you’re happy with the response “in the car with my mom,” you’re part of radio’s problem.
Traditional radio has to realize that – in a competition based solely on delivering music people like – they’re already losing with younger audiences. This idea that smartphones are some kind of fad that will disappear eventually is completely misguided, as there is no evidence whatsoever that supports that. Content delivery systems are only getting more diverse.
So what can broadcast radio do?
It’s easy: broadcasters have to fill the gaps that none of those aforementioned sources can. The person who just wants music and nothing else will leave for the infinite digital realm sooner rather than later. They can’t be catered to anymore (unless you’re running a PPM-friendly soft AC jukebox meant solely for storefront noise).
As my friend and colleague Andy puts it: “LOCAL! LOCAL! LOCAL!”
This is why I believe the best radio today is being done in very small markets. Think about it: in major cities, to know what’s going on you can turn on any TV station, or go to any number of websites or Twitter feeds before even thinking about turning on the radio (which is probably voice-tracked anyway).
In small markets like where I am, we (local radio stations) are all we have. Car accident? Major fire? Flooding? Road closure? The first thought is to tune into the radio station. If we don’t have the info, we not only have the means of obtaining or verifying it, but getting it on the air and disseminating any important message, critical or not.
But it goes beyond just emergency communications. Small communities know each other, and the more a station can present itself as a friend of the community and not just songs and DJs, the better. Stations need to make themselves interactive, friendly, informative, and LIVE. You have to be live. Have to. I work for a station that has a live body in the studio for 18 hours a day, seven days a week. We get calls all the time thanking us just for answering the phone (!!) because the guys down the street can’t/won’t.
It’s time for broadcasters to stop treating their stations like jukeboxes; “if you play it, they will listen” may have worked in 1990. Not anymore. Radio stations (especially in small communities) have to be full service again, providing both entertainment and information.
Otherwise, I have a Pandora station that will relegate you out of existence.