Is Radio Really Dying?

I believe radio doesn't have the audience it once did because people don't listen to radio at home like way back when and smart phones and formerly MP3 players with downloaded music are preferred over radio.

Mark

Apparently according to the statistics (which were taken before the latest copyright licensing fiasco), while online radio listening is increasing, it's not increasing by all that much.  Very few listen on computers - most on cell phones & tablets.

Both statistics are correct, Artisan. They are just different metrics. The 90% figure reflects how many different people listen to radio *at some time* during the week. The figure that mentions a 13% drop is a reflection of *how much total time" is spent listening to radio.

In other words, a LOT of people still listen to radio. But (at least in the PPM markets) they are spending less total time listening.

Radio actually died in the early 1950s according to reports of the time because of the public rush to television.

Meanwhile, a St. Louis school teacher named Roy McCarthy, on the air as Roger Bell, hosted a new telephone call-in show during prime evening time on 5 kW KXOK 630 AM and quickly developed a large inter-active audience.

The town's CBS 50 kilowatter headed by Robert Hyland hired Mr. McCarthy to bring the show to KMOX, converted the entire station from a variety format to all talk and called it "At Your Service." KMOX shot to # 1 in the market where it remained for decades and made KMOX the most profitable CBS station in the U.S.

At the same time Allan Freed introduced the new rock and roll music on WJW Cleveland under the name "Moondog". The popularity was like fire quickly spreading across the nation. Freed moved up to WINS New York, started appearing as himself in Hollywood films, but was destroyed by the payola scandel in the early 1960s.

Of course "payola" was when record companies paid disc jockeys to play their records, now we have reverse payola in which stations pay record companies for playing music.

A second death of radio results from corporate owners eliminating disc jockies from rock and roll programs, tantamount to giving radio a lobotomy.

Recognizing the significant influence held by radio talk personalities over large audiences, the government infiltrated talk radio by introducing right wing propaganda slingers like Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck, and today a small number of special school rejects actually listen to these characters.

The audience lost to radio includes most people with IQs above 75 who detect no useful human quality to what they find on the air.

Response to all.

This is what I have noticed in my personal observation.

There are different types of radio listeners.

1) Those who only listen while they are in the car driving from point A to point B (they will often say they weren't paying attention to what the announcer said or what commercial or commercials was played though)

2) Those who channel jump and stop only when they hear a song they like, but channel jump once a song they do not like comes on or a commercial comes on.

3) Those who only use radio for background noise and often do not acknowledge what is actaully playing or happening.

4) Those who like talk radio, whether it be politics, sports chatter, or NPR radio where announcers speak about local or world affairs. This can also include local news casts. This generation of people are very serious radio listeners and are broadcast radio's biggest supporters.

To add to number 4:

There are a lot of stations that now do 'morning' talk radio. Specially for the drive to work crowd. There is more talk during those hours with multible radio announcers talking about world events and allow listener call in time, to enhance the program content. They often have a lot of local listeners tuned in during those hours. Think "Imus in the morning" as an example.

A lot of FM stations do their own in studio talk radio during those hours, but play music from mid morning and onward.

Some do a drive home from work program in the late afternoon hours as well.

Bruce.

@marosborne - I wonder if that reflects more on the attention span of people these days, as opposed to the quality of the programming.

Personally, I can't stand listening to most radio stations, no matter what the genre.  I dislike DJ's that talk incessantly to hide their lack of anything meaningful to say, and I absolutely loath what passes for humour.

If you listen to the announcers from the 1930's, 40's and even a lot of the 50's, they were professional, giving out information about what they were playing, and not insulting your intelligence with a lot of crap.

I prefer radio as a medium over and above virtually everything else, including movies, television, etc.  I like listening to sports, as you can do other things while getting the gist of the game (it doesn't work for Olympic sports, but then, that's an Event that deserves to be watched).  I prefer dramatic/comedy programming on the radio, as you have to use your imagination - you can't just sit like a zombie and suck it all in.  Compared to most modern day TV shows and movies, the old stuff is akin to Shakespeare.  I abhor most modern music (to use the term lightly), but I do enjoy a wide variety of other, older genres, including jazz, classical, doo wop - even classic country.

That was how I got into Part 15 radio - I wanted to listen to a variety of programming, without intrusive chatter.  I wanted to listen to music that was hard to find on ANY radio station.  And I wanted Old Time Radio.

The concept for Artisan Radio was born.

That's exactly what happened to me.

That's exactly what happened to me.

This, right here:

"That was how I got into Part 15 radio - I wanted to listen to a variety of programming, without intrusive chatter.  I wanted to listen to music that was hard to find on ANY radio station.  And I wanted Old Time Radio.

The concept for Artisan Radio was born."

Artisan said that only minutes ago. Change the last sentence to: "The concept for KDX Radio was born".

What we are seeing here is not the death of anything... it's the Evolution of Radio.

Instead of ganging up at the trough of high powered corn mush, we each have our own corn trough with part 15 radio.

We're in the future.

The original savior of radio was the introduction of the top 40 format in the mid to late 50s. Talk Radio would then save AM radio in the 80s.

Had radio not adapted in the 50s and instead stayed with the old style of doing things, it undoubtedly would have faded into the sunset.

Radio as it is today will always remain relevant as an immediate information medium. To date nothing can catch the mobility and speed of radio, not even the internet.

IMHO radio hit its real stride starting in the 60s and started losing its grip when computerized automation become more popular.

You see, I like the old style of doing things (even though I wasn't around when they were doing it).

To me, radio can be much more than just music.  Or vapid talk.  It used to be and still can be a complete entertainment medium.  Not only music, but information (I hate to say news because so little of what is called that is actually news), dramas, comedies, variety shows, sports, interesting personalities - you name it.

Video dumbs everything down (sorry, but I had to say that, given recent events).  Interesting personalities get transformed to good looking fluff, intelligence need not apply.  Music to good looking, dancing fluff, talent need not apply.  You get the picture (and I did intend for that to be a pun).

While radio station owners may not like it, I believe it's good that consumers have choices now.  You don't have to blindly listen to whatever is on the air.  You can go online, or <and this is the punchline> listen to Part 15 radio.  We ARE the future, in that we offer alternatives, just as many of the online stations do (or at least, did, before the copyright fiasco).

I personally don't think radio stations as they exist today will die.  But I'd like to think that they will evolve to more of what Part 15 radio is - small, locally owned, creative, and most important of all, different (and not just catering to the lowest common denominator).

@ Artisan:

Would you know how many radio stations(commercial ones) there are in Canada and what would the #1 format would be?

Just to compare to the USA. Willing to take a guess and say "adult contemporary".

And agree with Artisan that the past was best....when radio stations(and TV) were privately owned and each individual owner could do what they wanted.

Mark

If wikipedia is to believed at all,

The biggest music format in canada is Country with 110 stations. Next biggest is CHR with 54 stations. Supposedly Soft AC has 119 making it #1. I can't seem to find a good list.

I really didn't look for Canadian statistics.

So I just did.  The government of Canada says that there were 695 licensed stations for the year ending August 31, 2014.

I found this from Statistics Canada - it's 2007, so it's a bit old.

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/arts17-eng.htm

This measured listening time, and Adult Contemporary, followed by Golden Oldies, were at the top of the list.

I also managed to dig up more recent listening time from 2013, which split the data a little more finely.  Both diary markets (I assume that the data is from listener reports collected from Numeris and the CRTC) and PPM markets were included separately, as well as language.

For English language diary stations, country was #1 at 17%, followed by Adult Contemporary at 12%.  For French language stations, Adult Contemporary was #1 at 29%, followed by Top 40 Mainstream at 14%.  However, it should be noted that there are far fewer French language stations (mainly in Quebec).

In PPM English markets, News/Talk was 15% & Adult Contemporary was 14%.  In PPM French markets, News Talk was 28% and Hot Adult Contemporary was 28%.  It should be noted that there are very few PPM stations in Canada, either in English or French, so these numbers are not representative of the radio industry as a whole (if you believe that people fill in their listening diaries faithfully & correctly).

Here's a link to the report containing these 2013 numbers, but it is rather long, which is why I summarized.

http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/publications/reports/policymonitoring/2014/cmr4.htm