ABC & Younger News Listeners

[preferprivacy]

My how history repeats itself!

I seem to recall (late 1970's?) when ABC launched the
Contemporary Network, it was an effort to reach yournger
demos with an FM-friendly newscast.

Do you think this is more about FOX NEWS and their one-minute service?

I can't picture the 18-34 stations in my market putting on ANY network newscast.

Anyone seen any research that shows a DEMAND for news by 18-34 listeners?

 

[Les]

> Anyone seen any research that shows a DEMAND for news by
> 18-34 listeners?

Demand? No.

Tolerance? Yes.

Survey showed that if FCC mandated SOME news (on FM ), listeners 18-25
would probably not tune away IF the news were carried only in
the left channel and the stories kept to a maximum of 3-seconds or
10 words; total duration not to exceed 59 seconds. BUT, only if
the regular music were carried, fully modulated, as monaural in
the right channel.

There was a strong presumption, though:

It was that most 18-25's would take longer than 59 seconds to figure
out how to change the balance to they heard only the right channel.

Same survey indicated that most digital clocks built into car radios
owned by 18-25's have never been set to anything close to correct time.
Major dispute between those doing the surveys as to whether the cause
of this is that the owners don't care about time, or haven't figured
out how to set the clocks and, if they did, wouldn't put the effort
into it.

And THESE are the people I'm counting on to get/keep productive jobs,
pay their social security taxes, and keep me in beer and smokes!

OK, so I'm an incurable optimist.......<P ID="signature">______________
"environmentalism is collectivism in drag."
--George Will (or won't)</P>

 

[SaltyDog]

> My how history repeats itself!
>
> I seem to recall (late 1970's?) when ABC launched the
> Contemporary Network, it was an effort to reach yournger
> demos with an FM-friendly newscast.
>
> Do you think this is more about FOX NEWS and their
> one-minute service?
>
> I can't picture the 18-34 stations in my market putting on
> ANY network newscast.
>
> Anyone seen any research that shows a DEMAND for news by
> 18-34 listeners?

I have wondered this myself a lot in the last couple of years. It almost seems as if it's one of those conventional wisdoms that is wrong. Maybe stations air news because they've always done it.

I am no longer in the 18-34 demo myself and radio news has become, for me, a throwaway. At best, I tolerate TOH newscasts only slightly better than commercial breaks. Radio is great for big, breaking stories but when it comes to being informed, I need more than headlines and I prefer the web for that. Radio News is like reading the Cliff Notes AFTER I've read the novel.<P ID="signature">______________
"On average, drug prisoners spend more time in federal prison than rapists, who often get out on early release because of the overcrowding in prison caused by the Drug War."-Michael Badnarik</P>

 

[Oldbones]

> My how history repeats itself!
>
> I seem to recall (late 1970's?) when ABC launched the
> Contemporary Network, it was an effort to reach yournger
> demos with an FM-friendly newscast.
>


I think it was in the late 60s. I worked at a station in 1969 that carried ABC news...it was called "ABC Contemporary News" back then. I know they launched several other networks in the mid-ish 70s, "Direction" being one of them. You're not thinking about NBC's "Source" are you? That dates to the late 70s and was aimed at AOR stations.

> I can't picture the 18-34 stations in my market putting on
> ANY network newscast.
>
> Anyone seen any research that shows a DEMAND for news by
> 18-34 listeners?

Not sure there was a demand for news by that demo 40 years ago, but stations pretty much had to carry it. I think news on a music station today outside of AM drive is perceived as clutter.

 

[robbbc]

> > Anyone seen any research that shows a DEMAND for news by
> > 18-34 listeners?
>
> Demand? No.
>
> Tolerance? Yes.
>
> Survey showed that if FCC mandated SOME news (on FM ),
> listeners 18-25
> would probably not tune away IF the news were carried only
> in
> the left channel and the stories kept to a maximum of
> 3-seconds or
> 10 words; total duration not to exceed 59 seconds. BUT,
> only if
> the regular music were carried, fully modulated, as monaural
> in
> the right channel.
>
> There was a strong presumption, though:
>
> It was that most 18-25's would take longer than 59 seconds
> to figure
> out how to change the balance to they heard only the right
> channel.
>
> Same survey indicated that most digital clocks built into
> car radios
> owned by 18-25's have never been set to anything close to
> correct time.
> Major dispute between those doing the surveys as to whether
> the cause
> of this is that the owners don't care about time, or haven't
> figured
> out how to set the clocks and, if they did, wouldn't put the
> effort
> into it.
>
> And THESE are the people I'm counting on to get/keep
> productive jobs,
> pay their social security taxes, and keep me in beer and
> smokes!
>
> OK, so I'm an incurable optimist.......
>

Now that we have these new fangled watches with their time keeping abilities it seems a little silly to keep updating your car's clock radio. I am not in this demo but my clock radio in my car gets slow on cold days outside (most people in this demo have even older and more problematic cars than I do and rarely have a nice garage to keep their cars pristine in). Even many late model car radios have come out with clocks that require a good bit of figring out to get the correct time (press the bass and hold for 5 seconds and the numbers will flash then blah blah blah). Probably a few people just leave the car on standard or savings time and add an hour or subtract. Not too hard to do.

My guess is once you push beyond age 21 you are getting into more people who know how to turn the station to NPR if they are so inclined at the top of the hour- the news will be far better than what you would get on one of CC's 1 minute Fox blurbs for sure.

All that being said- I think that many of the Mix or Adult Contemporary stations would do well to think about adding a top of the hour news blurb- but keep Fox news and AAR news away from it, you'll put too many people off. Lots of people listen to these stations in Dr's offices and in other public and work places and it does give you a little info. It can't hurt and might make a difference between you and a competitor that goes all music. One less iteration of Celine Dion will not be missed in an hour of pablum. I'd go for CNN or ABC- might as well take the name brands, as long as they're good.

 

[oldiesfan]

> > I seem to recall (late 1970's?) when ABC launched
> > the Contemporary Network, it was an effort to reach
> > yournger demos with an FM-friendly newscast.

> I think it was in the late 60s. I worked at a station
> in 1969 that carried ABC news...it was called
> "ABC Contemporary News" back then.

January 1, 1968 was the launch date when ABC split
into four "weblets"--ABC/I, ABC/C, ABC/E and ABC/FM.

Info net news at :00, Contemporary at :55 (actually 54:30),
Entertainment at :30 and FM at :15.