Mark Ramsey points to this Arbitron study that concludes radio listeners don’t tune out when commercials come on. And wonders about the implications:
“If listeners don’t mind spots then why should they mind mediocre songs? And what ARE they listening through the spots for?”
The whizzing sound you hear is thousands of radio sales reps emailing the Arbitron study back and forth.
Regular readers know I’m a fan of Mark Ramsey’s blog, Hear 2.0. Mark is the president of San Diego-based Mercury Radio Research, which recently conducted a 1,000-person national study of radio listening habits of people ages 12 through 54. Just 11 people said they didn’t listen to radio.
Mark spoke at one of the sessions at the NAB Radio Show, underway this week in Dallas and the Dallas Morning News covered:
“One of the key things that makes radio different from all these others (iPods, satellite radio, Internet radio, etc) and makes it stand out, and valuable, is the fact that there’s stuff between the songs that people value. In fact, the loyalty to the stations, preference for those stations, is driven very much by what’s between those songs. It’s about connecting with other people.”
Here’s Mark’s take on commercials:
“…there’s one group that hates commercials and another that can tolerate them. The issue with commercials seems to be, ‘Look, if you’re a zealot about commercials, well, of course you’re going to listen to an iPod.’ People inherently understand that commercials are a tax that you pay. The issue for radio is whether we demonstrate to them what that tax is buying them. … ‘Are we giving people something that’s worth the price they’re paying in commercials?’
That wasn’t such a scary question when there were no alternatives to the radio.
Note to self: Record a couple of hours of morning drive on one of the local radio stations and edit out everyhing except the “stuff between the songs that people value.”
Comment from Jim M:
“It seems to me the ratio between commercial time and music / content is way out of whack compared to what it used to be. I wonder if there are some statistics on how this ratio has evolved over time? I was thinking about this today, again, when a drive to the store and back treated me to 100% advertising. I like commercial radio for the fact that I can pick up on new music and the variety, but finding music these days seems to be truly hit and miss.”
“What if the notion of a single medium doesn’t exist anymore? When media buyers start thinking more about audiences and less about distribution channels – as they are definitely doing now – the advantage will go to the media that leverage their content across platforms. This places a premium on content – that is, it will be expensive and worth it. And it means that there will be two kinds of radio broadcasters: Those who are in the content business and those who are only in the radio business. The value will flow to the former. It’s not about the “device” – it’s not about ownership of the pipes. In the media business, those days are ending fast.”
— Jim Nail on the blending of media
Mark Ramsey asks: How much are you investing in podcasting vs. HD radio? And points to research comparing the two. As near as I can tell, the radio guys are putting the same old shit on their HD channels while podcasters are doing a million different things. At work they keep telling me, “It’s not about blogging and podcasting.” Uh huh. [via Tod Maffin]
In the future, listeners will buy the content, not the channel. They’ll be more apt to listen to what’s ON your station, not your (radio) station itself. … Talk to the TV networks and they’ll tell you that creating content is a risky, expensive business. But a handful of hits make all the risks worthwhile. The radio industry will have to awaken to new market realities: Investment, trial, failure, success. More programs, less programming. There will be no free lunches and no shortcuts. It will not be possible to operate multi-million dollar franchises like an FCC-licensed CD player.
Once again, Mark Ramsey demonstrates real insight into what’s happening in/to the “radio business”