I don’t get why its a big deal when most of the people are watching these daily briefings on youtube or tv anyways. Who is sitting at home listening to the the briefings on the radio like its an Eisenhower fireside chat? This is not the 1940 s or 50 s. Obviously a lot of newspapers are looking for content to write stories about. If they think running a briefing on the radio is really going to affect the voting process then they aren’t living in the real world in my opinion. And the stations that are terrestrial that might have a younger audience that are simulcast on Sirius XM wouldn’t even run those. Like 102.7 Los Angeles Kiss FM you think they would be playing that? Probably not. They are too busy with playing ryan seacrest and sisanie to care about Trumps briefings.
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Broadcasters Face Tough Choice
- Thread starter TheBigA
- Start date
I don’t get why its a big deal when most of the people are watching these daily briefings on youtube or tv anyways. Who is sitting at home listening to the the briefings on the radio like its an Eisenhower fireside chat? This is not the 1940 s or 50 s. Obviously a lot of newspapers are looking for content to write stories about. If they think running a briefing on the radio is really going to affect the voting process then they aren’t living in the real world in my opinion. And the stations that are terrestrial that might have a younger audience that are simulcast on Sirius XM wouldn’t even run those. Like 102.7 Los Angeles Kiss FM you think they would be playing that? Probably not. They are too busy with playing ryan seacrest and sisanie to care about Trumps briefings.
That's a completely different subject. However, I haven't seen any data to indicate it's true. We know who's watching broadcast tv.
In my view "most people" aren't watching the briefings at all.
"Eisenhower?" I know: Forget it, he's rolling. Just forgot when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor, that's all.
Just kidding. We know what you meant.
Roosevelt's "Fireside Chats" were in the 30's and into the 40's. They were born of the Great Depression, so the situation is not totally unlike today.
You are right in the point you were making.
Today, there are so many alternative entertainment options, from video games to pay per view that no single program reaches the majority of people... even the Superbowl.
Until the FCC relaxed program requirements, even teens got their hourly newscast on the radio because there was no alternative. Today, most youth oriented stations have no news at all, or just a few sapling-like newscasts in the morning. So younger people have not acquired a habit of hearing the news, and they use sources that are certainly different by the standards of the older generations.
Roosevelt had a captive audience. People cared, because the Great Depression created a common need for information. Today, every interest is fragmented and every subject has multiple perspectives.
Yes, your point was actually very perceptive.
Thank you very much David. Obviously you are someone who's point of view on these things I really respect and your one of the most knowledgeable people on radio on the internet I think. As for the point I think personally it's sad that younger people do not care about radio like they use to even fifteen years ago. It is unfortunate. Hopefully something happens to where am radio is brought back into interest with millennials and they start to get their news from radio again but that is probably unlikely.
You have a good point. Since we moved five years ago, we have not had a "radio" in the house. We have 4 of the Apple devices, and several phone chargers linked to actual speakers so they can play whatever stream we like.
I'm in a market outside the top 100. There is nothing here I want to listen to, particularly with the 18 minutes an hour of often badly produced local spots.
That, in the macro sense, is what is going on everywhere.
Until radio finds a way to run well under 10 minutes of spots an hour... I think in today's world 6 is the tipping point... radio will continue to decline.
Since the pandemic and stay at home orders, live TV news viewing; whether local or Cable Network, is very high. The thing I have to agree with POTUS, is the appointment viewing of their daily pressers was very high. ("Huge ratings"). Much greater viewership than YouTube, or other on-line sources. Many local news operations stopped carrying the daily POTUS Bizarre-O-World-Daily- Show because it was cutting into their local newscasts. These days with struggling ad revenue, stations want their newscasts on the air with the revenue it carries.
Of course as you have admitted many times, you're not in the target demo, and your taste is more suited to ala carte. Which is fine. That's why it's available.
And the natives of the smaller markets have no problem with the "poorly produced spots." That's what they've always heard on local radio. They often know the voices in those spots, because they are the voices of local businesspeople or professionals, or the familiar voices of the radio stations that air those spots. A slick spot voiced by a smooth L.A. or New York voiceover pro -- with all sorts of self-aggrandizing audio whiz-bangery showing off just how big-time the agency people who put together the ad are and how much they drool over winning some industry award so they can pat themselves on the back some more -- might just roll on by the small-market folk with little impact while the few big-city folk in their midst admire the dulcet tones and slick sales pitches of someone who lives on the Upper East Side.
When I visit Market 222 (Lebanon/Hanover/White River Junction), I love hearing the local spots. They sound like real people telling real people about their stores, garages, hospitals, services. The occasional Firestone or McDonalds or Progressive spots are just so much noise. But then, I'm just a listener, as is every person in that market who doesn't work for the local radio stations.
I assume this is what you are describing.
A local station this morning which plays Good Time Oldies and used to be America's Best Music had a commercial where a man with a definite Southern accent said his restaurant's drive-thru "winder" was open.
Having ads with local business owners seems to be a popular thing with small stations no matter how ridiculous they sound.
Yet any time I talk about radio to people of all ages, I get as the first comment "too many commercials... and they are mostly bad commercials". Before Corona stopped being a beer, I was involved with a number of local activities where we had folks from their teens to seniors.
Music wise, I am actually more like a Gen X than my own generation. I'm quite a follower of reggaetón, and my last concert attendance before the pandemic was Pitbull and I had several more shows in that genre scheduled to attend... probably to atone for going to see Barry Manilow's Christmas charity show last year!
Interestingly, the teens do use radio, but it is not the end-all of their entertainment spectrum. The idea that teens don't listen that we see in lots of posts here is just mistaken. They listen, but far less than in the older generation groups. The decline started with Millennials and now Gen Z (or whatever we call Teens) listens even less. But they listen.
Interestingly, up until recently, Hispanic teens and Millennials would mention specific programs as often as stations, with Art Laboe's shows being the most mentioned of all. And that is interesting, as Art does mostly ultra-oldies-but-goodies in his shows, but he has an amazing cult following.
It makes me think that the youngest generation that likes things in tidbit size may be more susceptible than any to music podcasts if that medium becomes enabled to use music. And, although few stations have done due to music restrictions, would personality show podcasts be more attractive than live broadcasts.
No problem. I'm pretty sure all broadcasters would prefer a different revenue stream to commercials, but so far, nothing practical has appeared.
Wait, (Kelly rubbing eyes in disbelief). Had David finally succumbed to anecdotal listener comments???
I started hearing those comments (remember, I supervised over 100 AMT's a year for a decade and and a half...) when the PPM made stations go to two stopsets an hour with 6 to 8 minutes of spots in each.
Added to that was the idea that selling two 30's got about 50% more revenue than a 60 alone, so those long stops had as many as a dozen spots in them on some stations.
I don't think anyone researched the long term effects of those loooooong stopsets. People looked at audience flow minute by minute, but did not consider both horizontal and vertical recycling. The little I was able to study showed that the incidence of "too many commercials" as a complaint shot up when those twice and hour long stops were widely introduced.
The abundance of minute by minute data... you can even see when during a bad song people tune out... made us as an industry look at the brush strokes with a magnifying glass while forgetting to appreciate the whole picture.
I base the more current comments on two decades of managing a research department... where we saw a huge increase in over-commercialization complaints when the PPM "forced" us into the two long stopset an hour system.
I see nothing in my less formal contacts with listeners in the last year that negates that observation.
I think a great deal has to do with commercial placement and stopset length.
It's dangerous to say "Well, KHJ and WLS and WABC all ran full commercial loads.." because there were no alternatives back then.
However, the idea that people will put up with 8 minute stopsets in the long run is untenable. As I mentioned, the issue is creating large commercial islands twice an hour as opposed to smaller islets more times an hour while cutting back on the total commercial load.
A valid radio to radio comparison can be seen looking at how FM killed AM in the mid 70's: they ran 8 to 10 minutes of spots an hour when AM was doing the full 18.
Depends on what you mean by "long term effects." But yes, there has been research on practically any aspect of the stopset issue.
What I'm asking for is a practical alternative to commercials completely.
Except there were many other reasons, including the fact that FM was in stereo, with a cleaner signal, the music was perceived as better, and there were formats not available on AM. This coincided with the home stereo explosion. And as FM became more successful, the commercial load increased.
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