Adding onto this topic from a discussion I had with some Gen-Z ladies just yesterday and the topic of radio came up. Granted anecdotal and a small sample, but some interesting points came out of the discussion.
Of course, we talked about how many hours a week they thought they listened to traditional radio, AM or FM. They all said without hesitation, that they don't, and would never listen to AM. Their reasons while surprising, were not really when you think about it.
One woman said; "that's where old grandpa's go for their political talk and news." "We don't like that kind of talk on the radio". (the other three nodding in agreement). "The on-air people are intolerant, old and cranky too." "Younger adults don't think that's entertaining or interesting." "There's already plenty of that *hit on social media." "The last thing I want to do is be stuck in traffic hearing hate speech on the radio." I then mentioned that some AM stations were being given FM frequencies to carry their programming on FM too. One of the women said; "That's too bad because if I started running into hate-talk stations while looking for music, I'd just switch to Spotify full-time and not bother with radio at all." "After all, there's probably only one or two stations most of us listen to, and if they get harder to find because of political mean-talk, younger people are going to avoid radio altogether."
Overall, I thought their impressions of AM were interesting, but was taken aback that they felt if AM programming encroached on FM, they would abandon radio altogether. Ladies and gentlemen of traditional radio; there is your future audience ready to go somewhere else if you continue moving AM to the FM band.
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