If the statistics are to be believed, the 18-24 demographic is a dying market for radio stations. This information can be spun and used in a variety of ways; and it has been by private radio which claims that the loss of that market segment means a loss in revenue and the beginning of the end of radio.
I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit, more so this weekend while I spoke at and attended the Radio Without Boundaries Conference in Toronto. My theories are still in development so I’m treating this entry as a way to better understand my thoughts and possibly hear from others who have their own ideas.
Let’s open with a tour I recently had of the Rogers radio facility in Ottawa. Four radio stations broadcast from the building:
- CHEZ 106 (Classic Rock)
- KISS FM (Top 40/CHR)
- Y105 (New Country)
- OLDIES 1310 (Oldies)
The tour took place at 7pm so the radio station was empty — even the studios. Well, not all of the studios. CHEZ 106 had on-air talent that evening in order to take phone calls for their 10pm music face-off. The other three stations were voice tracked.
If you’re unfamiliar with voice tracking, think of it as an iTunes playlist on the radio. Earlier that afternoon someone sequenced some music and ads, recorded the voice interjections and programmed the whole night into a computer. The studios were empty because the computers were playing that program; like a robot. In fact, Oldies 1310 uses voice tracking for the entire day with the exception of the morning drive (probably 3 or 4 hours out of a 24 hour day).
Let’s consider what that means. Overnight time slots were historically reserved for rookies to develop their talent during the hours that listenership was down. If the talent became good, they were considered for other timeslots — evening, midday, afternoon drive and eventually the coveted morning drive. It was like the farm system in a baseball organization; you start in the minor leagues and eventually work your way up as a starter in the majors. Overnight voice tracking means radio stations no longer have a farm system to develop talent. Who will replace the pros?
More importantly, how do you appeal to the younger audience? How does a radio station cater to the 18-24 market with a Program Director and a jockeys that grew up wearing bell bottoms (or perhaps pastel colours and thin leather ties) when they first became a fashion craze? Research? Ratings?
As near as I can tell, the 18-24 market is listening to their iPods because they can program what they want to hear. Why?
- They don’t have to hear the same songs every 90 minutes.
- They can hear more than 200 songs.
- They can use the shuffle mode and be surprised by which songs come up.
- They don’t have to listen to long commercial breaks.
- The person that’s programming their local station may not even live in the area so the programming decisions being made may not accurately reflect the interests of the area.
By picking formats that may be cost effective now, radio stations have established what I’ll call auto-obsolescence — as the people who grew up listening to radio when it was a significant player continue to… well… grow up, there’s very few people who will take their place as listeners. Radio isn’t going to die, it’ll just outgrow its purpose.
MAKE OLD NEW, AGAIN
I have this crazy idea. I don’t know if it would work. Certainly, some people I’ve shared it with think it’s too risky and wouldn’t be profitable. I’ll share it anyway.
What if one radio station in a particular metropolitan area replaced voice tracking with real people around the clock? What if that radio station expanded its playlist from 300 to 3000 (or more) songs? What if that radio station trusted its on-air talent enough to collaborate with programmers and make something fresh and exciting? What if that radio station thought of 18-24 year-olds as more than part of the CPM formula (to attract advertisers) and having a more important role at the station than just being interns that do the jobs nobody else wants to do?
I think those ideas could put personality back into radio. The novelty alone should make the radio station attractive to those who care about radio and intriguing to those who haven’t yet become interested in it. Advertisers might similarly be excited about being part of something out-of-the ordinary and might commit to be a part of the change.
The shift might buy the radio station six or twelve months of time to prove that this format could work. It could die miserably or it could eek out profit enough to continue. It could be wildly successful, marginalizing the competition and transforming radio in the process. It could put the soul back into private radio, something Paul Ingles claims was sucked out in full back in 1999. Not that saving private radio is something people are lining up to do, though I do wonder if the death of private radio could have a cascading effect on all radio.
Public radio (which I love) suffers from different challenges and I’m still working on my thoughts about those. Thankfully, though, there appears to be a healthy group of 18-24 year-olds actively involved in public radio.
