Could 750 WSB go to FM

[taylorengineer]

I'm surprised by these numbers!(I can't "do my homework" as I have no access to Arbitron) I stand corrected.
When I was a kid the radio was on every morning tuned to WSB. So the radio I "listened to" was WSB for 10 hours a week.
Was not my choice - that's what was playing. Could this have any affect on the TSL by teens?
Arbitron is not exactly know for it's flawless statitical sampling.Mark Twain once said, "there are statistics....and damned statistics." Do you have faith in their sampling and the methodology employed?
Is there research indicating alternative media ownership by teens?

Where are those numbers from?

The only numbers that track radio with a high sample and give you stats and margin of error tables - Arbitron.

Well.....actually.....Neil is right on the money concerning kids and radio.
Your 12-17 numbers are car listening mostly - kids are listening to whatever mom is listening to on the way to school or the grocery store. So yes, most kids listen to "some" radio every day. I think if you look at TSL you will find they are "car trip" periods - not the hours of TSL when I was young.

Imagine that - there are PS3, XBOX, internet, iPods and cellphones. I bet most kids don't spend as much time doing chores around home or studying as they did when you were young either! Too bad your study habits did not continue into the real world.

63.2% of Atlanta teens listen to Radio at home for an average of 10.5 hours a week.
21.7% of Atlanta teens listen to Radio away from home while working for an average of 17.5 hours a week.
10.5% of Atlanta teens listen to Radio away from home (excluding car listening and at work listening - think friends house or school) for an average of 4.25 Hours a week.

And, just for reference, Atlanta teens also listened to radio in cars for an Average of 8.75 hours a week - but as can be seen that is less than what they listened to radio while at home and half of what they listened to while working.


Only a fool would think that most every teens (or even a majority) have access to a portable iPod/MP3 player.

I'll bet my last dime 90% of this listening occurs with adults.

Stay away from the casinos with your money as you make horrible bets.

 

[taylorengineer]

Here's something I found from IPSOS, a global marketing research company:

"Recent TEMPO research also revealed some interesting demographic and diagnostic trends surrounding the use of Portable MP3 Players:

Younger Americans are driving recent growth, with over half of teens now owning a Portable MP3 Player (54%), and one third of 18-34 year olds (30%). Older Americans are less likely to own these devices overall, but still represent a sizable and consistent presence in the market (13% of 35 – 54 year olds report owning a Portable MP3 Player).
Males continue to lead females in Portable MP3 Player ownership, with nearly one quarter (24%) of U.S. males aged 12 and older owning a device, compared to 16% of females.
Nearly half of music downloaders own a portable MP3 player (48%), and these owners use their devices an average of 12 hours per week. Younger downloaders use their MP3 Players more often (average of over 16 hours per week among teens), but have less digital content stored on their devices. Overall, there is an average of 700 songs or files stored on a U.S. music downloader’s MP3 player.
Existing CD collections continue to be the primary source of MP3 Player content among music downloaders. Nearly half (44%) of the content stored on MP3 players is ripped from the owner’s personal CD collection, and another 6% is ripped from others’ CD collections. Fee-based downloads (25%) and files obtained from file sharing services (19%) are also common sources of content."

Quote from this link:
http://www.ipsosinsight.com/pressrelease.aspx?id=3124


In my little suburban microcosm, kids are not listening to the radio. Not my kids....or their friends. My friends kids aren't listening either. Just an empirical observation....no numerics to back it up. I wonder why the numbers from Arbitron are so out of phase with what I see?
Do your numbers prove teen listening is initiated by the teen? Is it possible this is adult initiated listening with captive teen participation? What empirical evidence do you see(you obviously work in radio)that a MAJORITY of teens are still influenced by radio?
Radio, in it's brief histroy, has been tremendously influential on our society. I believe, however, that there is a paradigm shift occurring - radio's influence is beginning to wane. The internet, I believe, is on the cusp of becoming the dominate cultural influence in American society. And the way music product demand is created and product delivered is changing also....I believe the internet will be the demand creator and delivery method for all media in 20 years. Agree or disagree?

 

[taylorengineer]

BTW....are you Randy Kabrich? ClearChannel programming consultant?

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

I am going to go stand in the same corner of this debate where taylorengineer stands.

My children have long since left the nest. My grandchildren live distant from me so I don't get to observe them all that much.

I do participate in an Internet discussion group which is made up primarily of radio station engineers and technicians. Some are crusty old veterans; some are young whipper-snappers. They tend to be a pretty plain spoken bunch, who are just a bit beyond the starry-eyed stage.

I don't care what Arbitron or any other survey company says. These guys report that their own children for the most part do not listen to the radio, cannot tell you the difference between an FM only radio and an AM-FM radio, and if you told them to go tune in WSB AM or whatever equivalent there is in their location, their own kids could not do it.

Let that soak in a minute. The children who will have their college expenses paid by dad's job in the radio business tend to not know how to tune in a radio station.

Oh, those grandchildren of mine who came and visit now and then. They know what grandpa did for a number of years. I have never had one of them come and sit down and say "Grandpaw, tell me what radio used to be like. Tell me why they do thus-and-so on my favorite radio station. Tell me what you think of radio today. Tell me why you don't go back and do radio today."

I can tell you that when Mam-maw has dinner ready I have to go around the house jerking ear-buds of the i-pods out of their ears and speaking loud enough to be heard over the video games to announce that "It's time to eat." And when they climb into the van to go home, every one of them has their own personal music machine in had..... and it ain't no radio.

[and this dumb grandfather really does want to get back in the business. : ]

 

[Marv-L.A.]

Since the overwhelming majority of top 40, CHR/Rhythmic & Urban stations everywhere fanatically and obssessively target listeners under 25 years of age, teens do listen to the radio, iPODs and MP3s notwithstanding.

Adults are not going to listen to any station which plays its 'powers' 100140 times per week.

WIBC's 25-54 billings have skyrocketed since they moved to the FM side.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Adults are not going to listen to any station which plays its 'powers' 100140 times per week.

I am one of the 'great unwashed masses'. Explain 'powers 100140 times' for me please.

 

[davideduardo]

Since the overwhelming majority of top 40, CHR/Rhythmic & Urban stations everywhere fanatically and obssessively target listeners under 25 years of age, teens do listen to the radio, iPODs and MP3s notwithstanding.

Actually, CHRs and Urbans target 18-34 primary and 35-44 secondary. CHR's generally are about 60% female in compostion.

Adults are not going to listen to any station which plays its 'powers' 100140 times per week.

When asked, something like 90% of adults between 25 and 44 will say that they want to hear their favorite songs every hour.

WIBC's 25-54 billings have skyrocketed since they moved to the FM side.

I'm sure you mean 25-54 ratings. It's a little too soon to see how much they increase in billings, as most transactional buys look at several book averages.

 

[Marv-L.A.]

Since the overwhelming majority of top 40, CHR/Rhythmic & Urban stations everywhere fanatically and obssessively target listeners under 25 years of age, teens do listen to the radio, iPODs and MP3s notwithstanding.

Adults are not going to listen to any station which plays its 'powers' 100-140 times per week.

WIBC's 25-54 billings have skyrocketed since they moved to the FM side.

 

[JR1967]

Since the overwhelming majority of top 40, CHR/Rhythmic & Urban stations everywhere fanatically and obssessively target listeners under 25 years of age, teens do listen to the radio, iPODs and MP3s notwithstanding.

Adults are not going to listen to any station which plays its 'powers' 100140 times per week.

WIBC's 25-54 billings have skyrocketed since they moved to the FM side.

It was definitely a smart move on WIBC's part to move to an FM dial off 1070, since the 1070
dial, especially at night after sunset becomes one crowded mess of AM signals.

 

[trig]

If you own a business trying to reach 25 year olds or younger and decide to advertise on a station programmed like 750, then you have no business being in business.

Besides that, these businesses are all locked in an annual cumulus streaming contracts, spending their entire annual budget and hoping to save their business, so they have no need for 'FM' radio anymore anyways.

I am sure people at Cox know better, than thinking that changing to 'FM' rather than the content itself, is really going to be a viable way to improve something that isn't even close to being broken.

Maybe if we change it from calling it 'radio' to 'i-radio' they will buy more radios to increase it to 97%.... lol

 

[trusty]

AFAICR, when the local broadcast of the Dallas Cowboys' games moved from AM to FM (circa 1989?), the announcers were talking how more clearly the game could be heard. On the next play, the QB got sacked, and someone near the booth yelled the "F" word.

After a few seconds of silence, one announcer said, "I guess you really CAN tell we're on FM now."