Is Radio Truly Being Properly Presented?

[TheBigA]

Or, as Big A suggests, perhaps a lack of curiosity by the audience--consumer laziness. Maybe a bit of all of that...

The interesting part about it, from what I've seen, is the "laziness" mainly applies to radio. Part of this is that other devices and software, like Pandora, assist them in finding things they like. The radio doesn't do that. We see fewer people using the "scan" button on car radios, fewer people sampling stations outside of their favorites, because the device itself doesn't actually assist them the way a search engine does. So that leads to an assumption that choices don't exist, when in fact they do.

 

[amfmxm]

Big A, I agree 100 percent. I think that TV--with the (soon to disappear) TV Guide Channel... the cable/satellite program guides... even good old fashioned newspaper TV listings... have given media users (what we call listeners) the expectation that we should lead them to choices rather than have them search for them. And, like it or not, they're probably right. I think you've uncovered a serious issue for the radio industry.

FWIW, a year or so ago I was interviewed by a local newspaper reporter (who happens to be a personal friend) whose angle was that there was no variety in local radio. So I asked her how many stations were available to the listeners out here in Rural America where we live, and she answered "Oh, I don't know. A dozen?" She was shocked when I told her that the answer was around 30 stations. And she was even more shocked when I told her where to tune for jazz... folk... bluegrass... hip-hop... "world" music. She's a very bright, well-educated woman. She just didn't know... and assumed that the common complaint she had heard so often was true, when actually it was not true.

She needed a guide. And, without casting any aspersions at the folks who make up our radio audiences, maybe they all do.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

I think that TV--with the (soon to disappear) TV Guide Channel... the cable/satellite program guides... even good old fashioned newspaper TV listings... have given media users (what we call listeners) the expectation that we should lead them to choices rather than have them search for them. And, like it or not, they're probably right. I think you've uncovered a serious issue for the radio industry.

// snip //

She needed a guide. And, without casting any aspersions at the folks who make up our radio audiences, maybe they all do.

I think you are onto something BIG here. Keep rolling this concept around in your head and let's see if this little diamond has some additional facets that help us understand it.

This is the kind of "thinking process" that guy from Moberly, MO you and I have discussed used in building his empire.

Radio has always been such a simple little concept for the listener to deal with. It used to not require "spoon feeding".

Some of the industry's efforts to "modernize" may be counter-productive. I have this new car... I traded up 10 years.... that has gadgets and widgets and thingy-dingys out the wazoo. I don't have to go looking for them: they whine, they blink, they beep.. they all yell "FIX ME!". Radio maybe is a little bit like my almost 15 year old truck with standard transmission. But that isn't quite accurate. Maybe radio used to be like my simple little truck.

When I turn on my radio, I find that it wants me to go to this website, it wants me to text and answer to this, It doesn't want me to ask who sang the song I've never heard before, it wants me to look it up on their "now playing" feature of their website. Radio trying to adopt everything new IS NOT offering me choices..... it's like my new car: It's in my face whining, blinking, beeping, yelling at me "Do it MY WAY, you Bozo!"

O.K. I overstated that. But I like your concept. What is the funnel-system that radio needs in order to guide productive listeners into spending more time with their radio?