Talk radio ... and its old listeners

[oldmanradio]

http://www.sacbee.com/1190/story/2324415.html

[OKCRadioGuy]

Yup.  Most of them are old and crotchety men.  Personally, I can't understand why the ad agencies would buy talk radio but neglect older formats like oldies and smooth jazz, etc.  It's the same OLD people demo, but if it's talk, all of a sudden it's OK with agencies it seems.  I suppose it's about a logical as the big boys overpaying for stations up to something like 15 times cashflow or so.  Lots of things in radio just don't make any sense at all...

[donicus]

Yup.  Most of them are old and crotchety men.  Personally, I can't understand why the ad agencies would buy talk radio but neglect older formats like oldies and smooth jazz, etc.  It's the same OLD people demo, but if it's talk, all of a sudden it's OK with agencies it seems.  I suppose it's about a logical as the big boys overpaying for stations up to something like 15 times cashflow or so.  Lots of things in radio just don't make any sense at all...

Just for the record, I'm not crotchety. And I'm only 50, so I don't consider myself old. While I don't listen to local radio, except for Hal Jay, I do listen to some talk shows on my sat radio. And personally, I hate smooth jazz, I like my rock and roll (even a little metal now and then). So where do I fit in? Apparently, nowhere.   

[radioaircheck]

Agencies will not think outside the box.  They think they know more than anyone else.  I worked in radio and hated dealing with agencies.  I have no use for them.  They don't have the radio stations best interest in mind when it comes to advertising.  They miss the boat on so many demo's such as an older demo.  They spend money too.  Agencies need to get their head out of their a---- s and wake up!

[salemjedi54]

Its real simple, those crotchety old men have money to spend.  Talk is a demo made for 35-54 year old men.

Radioaircheck, I agree with you.  Folks over the age of 45 buy things as well.  My father is 63 years old, never owned a PC or Mac, but has an iPhone.  Why would he need a iPhone but can't even use half of the stuff? 

Folks over 45 need toilet tissue and soap too.

[little1]

They need shampoo and soap, but they're also MUCH more likely to tell you "I've been using Head and Shoulders for 30 years, why change now?"

While that 30 year old is much more likely to believe that women will smell their hair in a nightclub and try to rip his clothes off right there on the dancefloor, all because he used Axe bodywash and shampoo... 

Google it. Older people are much more set in their buying habits. So Johnson and Johnson can spend twice as much trying to convince the 50 year old to buy product B instead of product A, or they can take the same  shampoo formula, market it under a different brand ('Product C, it'll drive the women crazy!!!) and spend half as much to get twice as many 20-somethings to start using their product. 

See:  "product life cycle".


(And SJ- your dad doesn't 'need' an iphone, especially if he's not using half it's features. Most likely he got sucked into the 'with it' trap- why go with that old phone, that's just a phone, when all the cool kids are getting these iphones.  But do you think Apple (or AT&T, whoever) is going to talk Dad into that boring plain cell phone when their profit margin is higher on iphones....)

[salemjedi54]

They need shampoo and soap, but they're also MUCH more likely to tell you "I've been using Head and Shoulders for 30 years, why change now?"

While that 30 year old is much more likely to believe that women will smell their hair in a nightclub and try to rip his clothes off right there on the dancefloor, all because he used Axe bodywash and shampoo... 

Google it. Older people are much more set in their buying habits. So Johnson and Johnson can spend twice as much trying to convince the 50 year old to buy product B instead of product A, or they can take the same  shampoo formula, market it under a different brand ('Product C, it'll drive the women crazy!!!) and spend half as much to get twice as many 20-somethings to start using their product. 

See:  "product life cycle".


(And SJ- your dad doesn't 'need' an iphone, especially if he's not using half it's features. Most likely he got sucked into the 'with it' trap- why go with that old phone, that's just a phone, when all the cool kids are getting these iphones.  But do you think Apple (or AT&T, whoever) is going to talk Dad into that boring plain cell phone when their profit margin is higher on iphones....)

You are right, he does not NEED and iPhone, but he bought one.  So again he saw something in it for him to buy it.  I still think you can market products to the over 50 crowd.  I don't care what the numbers say.

[317C50KW]

Tom Taylor mentioned in today's Radio Info column that NPR just conducted a study and found it too suffers from aging listeners.

It wouldn't surprise me if their P-1's had psoriasis and warts.

But it also answers the musical question "where have all the hippies gone."

[Lancer]

Likely most young people are less tolerant of the same ole same ole talk day after day.  Why listen to that when you have an Ipod with 20,000 songs on it?  Or at least music radio has a new song every now and again, unlike talk which is the same tired drivel over & over.

[sayitaintsojoe]

There’s a reason agencies and advertisers spend a lot of money with talk radio and not with smooth jazz.  Talk radio gets results!  They move product!  And they are talking to an audience that has the money to spend.  Good old capitalism at it’s best.  If it didn't work....would you hear ANY spots on talk radio?

If you want to hear Smooth Jazz…get an iPod.  If you want to hear what’s going on in the world around you…listen to talk.