NEWS FLASH: PEOPLE ARE LISTENING LESS TO RADIO!

[Rob Stutson]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/15/business/media/15radio.html

An interesting tidbit: According to the article Clear Channel is thinking about following CBS's lead and selling off some underperforming smaller-market stations.

[e-menace]

According to the NAB--RADIO HAS NEVER BEEN BETTER!!!

So don't let slipping numbers, stations sales, and declining TSL deceive you!

[LITTLEBOYBLUE]

According to the NAB--RADIO HAS NEVER BEEN BETTER!!!
So don't let slipping numbers, stations sales, and declining TSL deceive you!

Looked at exhibit floor layout ... you could cover that in about 15 minutes, basically!!  Gone are days when vendors feel they "have to be there or they will miss".  Talked to a couple companies that used to make a big deal of going and same response from everyone ... "it's now a class reunion for about 5 group heads and three or four of their lieutenants who still have group permission to even ATTEND a convention".  Combining NAB & RR conventions probably a good effort ... but it also kind of sends the signal to the community that this is last-gasp effort on behalf of both groups to get people to attend to make the event financially viable.

[AQH]

Looked at exhibit floor layout ... you could cover that in about 15 minutes, basically!!  Gone are days when vendors feel they "have to be there or they will miss".  Talked to a couple companies that used to make a big deal of going and same response from everyone ... "it's now a class reunion for about 5 group heads and three or four of their lieutenants who still have group permission to even ATTEND a convention".  Combining NAB & RR conventions probably a good effort ... but it also kind of sends the signal to the community that this is last-gasp effort on behalf of both groups to get people to attend to make the event financially viable.

Sadly, I have to agree.  I remember when it was here in Seattle in '97 or '98.  That seemed to be the first show that the group heads were really starting to crack down on that expense.

About e-menace's post: of course the NAB is going to say radio is thriving.  No one expects Chuck Heston to tell everyone to hand in their guns either.

[TowerLamp]

So, what to do?

We, the programmers, GMs and airtalent need to get radio back to its basics. We need to remind the bean counters, stock holders, owners that its what happens between the songs that makes radio great.

If we continue to sell music by the pound we reduce radio to a commodity and we'll lose. CD's, XM, Sirius, iPod and WiFi will deal us a slow death unless radio responds with the one thing none of these others can provide, LOCAL personality.

It's already started. How many surveys do we need to see that show radio has become irrelevant to 18-20 year olds. FM is as foreign to them as 45 RPM records are to us.

If you're a GM, PD, owner, jock and are just hanging on hoping to rack up the $$$ in your 401K, do us all a favor. Get a job with XM and leave local terrestrial radio to those who have the passion and skill to make it work...to fix it before its too late....OK, I'll get off my soapbox now.

[e-menace]

I guess I should have forseen NAB as a toady, it's just the propagandist contradiction is too funny to go without mention!

[Oldbones]

So, what to do?

We, the programmers, GMs and airtalent need to get radio back to its basics. We need to remind the bean counters, stock holders, owners that its what happens between the songs that makes radio great.

If we continue to sell music by the pound we reduce radio to a commodity and we'll lose. CD's, XM, Sirius, iPod and WiFi will deal us a slow death unless radio responds with the one thing none of these others can provide, LOCAL personality.

But is "LOCAL personality" what the audience wants?  If, as you say listeners are abandoning radio in droves for CDs, IpoDs, satellite radio, etc. maybe they're trying to get away from yappy djs who think they're "personalities".  Isn't that like saying that if only Ford went back to building the Country Squire and the Pinto they'd be successful again?  The world has moved on, if you can't adapt to the new ways you get left behind. 
Radio is a mass-appeal media, and alas, there is no mass-appeal anymore.

[LITTLEBOYBLUE]

But is "LOCAL personality" what the audience wants?  If, as you say listeners are abandoning radio in droves for CDs, IpoDs, satellite radio, etc. maybe they're trying to get away from yappy djs who think they're "personalities"....

I think it's local CONTENT.  Talent tends to assume it's local personality ... with is one form of local content.  Talk shows tend to do better when they are local call-in --- listeners feel like they have a shot at participating instead of listening to someone else's tastes, opinions and what-not.  Local news tends to be more interesting than international (unless, of course, they're just dwelling on a fire or something long after it's timely).  Where this disconnect seems to be the widest are local music stations who scream "we're local" and then nail the switch that sends the automated voice tracks from another land out to the local transmitter that runs nationally-researched liners in between the nationally selected and researched hits.  Soon to be followed by internal and external memos from the company about how "local is their biggest asset". 

If local PERSONALITY means nothing more than a local name issuing bland verbage ... it's not really a local personality. It's a local throat.  When the talent knows how to engage and entertain ... it's local personality and THAT seems to be the only lifeboat of stations hanging in there.  Dave Ross may be one of best examples...wraps show around local issues, involves local callers, and has enough of a brain to keep the pacing on-track.  You know the show on Wednesday is probably much different than the show on Monday -- and that's perhaps why I'm having a harder time trying to think of music-based local show examples (obviously it's much easier to 'mix it up' when you're an issue-based program instead of functioning as a transition or glue between the hits!!).

[RadioCoug]

KCMS is alive!  However, all other formats (except live sports) are dying.  iPod and all of radio's competitors are in, and radio is out.  Do you think college students are walking around in between classes listen to their local FM on their Walkman?  I don't think so.  Apple and Satellite radio have destroyed radio in America.  When TV was launched in the fifties, there was still plenty of room for radio.  Today, becuase of so much competition, radio is getting tougher sell.  KCMS is the real deal, and maybe a KOMO or KIRO, but most of the FM's and AM's are basically history.  BTW, I love KCMS and I love my Sirius.  Once you go Satellite, it's hard to go back.  The writing's on the wall.

[Oldbones]

Apple and Satellite radio have destroyed radio in America. 

Satellite radio is nothing more than a bit player...total listenership amounts to less than a 1 share.  If it doesn't find a way to turn a profit pretty soon, it's not going to be a player at all.