Lessons Of AM Radio

[Carmine5]

Lessons Of AM Radio is the title of an article by Mickey Lonchar. It's not a nostalgia piece but correlates strategies AM stations used in olden days to gain and retain audience with the new media of today.

"In short, AM radio survived by asking the question "How can we be of use to our audience?" That basic question is the basic driver today in developing a social media strategy."

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=121519

It's very good, useful reading.

c5

 

[TVradioguru]

To me his comparisons between social media and AM radio is weak at best. AM started losing relevance back in the late 70's when FM stations became the stations associated with music, therefore music listeners flocked to FM. No matter what AM would have tried, listeners went to the FM stations with superior audio quality, lower noise and the most music. Of course now with the even larger list of choices in media, AM falls farther and farther into the back of the pack. Now in the 21st century; AM has become a dumping ground for 'blue hair' right wing talk and paid block and religious programming. Not that there's anything wrong with senior citizens, but just as the listeners, we are witnessing the final days of AM radio.

Social media has gained popularity because of user-contributed content being- you guessed it, user to user. Broadcasting is broad-casting one way to a (hopefully) large audience within the targeted market that the station serves.

 

[Carmine5]

I think you're missing the point. It isn't a case of winning listeners back to AM or to radio per se but rather the techniques the author learned to engage the listener.

The points he mentions: engaging content, re-engaging the listener so that they return, developing a community or tribe, giving listeners a voice, are the same techniques we've been hearing from Mark Ramsey, Jerry Del Colliano and others who are evangelizers for social media.

It just so happened that he learned these things during his hard scrabble days at an AM station and is now applying them in new media.

c5

 

[davideduardo]

The points he mentions: engaging content, re-engaging the listener so that they return, developing a community or tribe, giving listeners a voice, are the same techniques we've been hearing from Mark Ramsey, Jerry Del Colliano and others who are evangelizers for social media.

Yet Ramsey wrote today: "In Praise of "Average" Being "average" doesn't mean being mediocre. It means being like most people and liking what most people like. And wrapped up in that is one of Radio's key advantages. So embrace it."

Radio is not "social media" because it is not two-way. It is more like a movie or an album... if you do a good job, many people use it even though the content is not tailored for each individual. New media can be part of an effort to reach people that includes radio and other "old media" but radio can not become something it is not. Yet, as Ramsey observes, its stregth comes from being universal, not individually targeted.

But AM will even fail at that, because it is old "old media" and has no appeal for most people under 50 or so. It does not matter what is put on AM because the image is either ruined due to "AM quality" (meaning static, noise, ratty coverage, etc) or simply because younger people have no habit of using AM and believe is as relevant to them as an Oldsmobile, a DeSoto or a Plymouth.

 

[firepoint525]

AM radio, even in its heyday, tried to be all things to all people.  On the AM station in the town in which I grew up, I could hear all of the following (dayparted, of course):

top 40 music (primarily)
country music (very early mornings)
gospel music (an inspirational "song of the day")
high school football and basketball
college football and basketball
major league baseball
Babe Ruth baseball
church services
American Top 40
charity fund-raising at Christmas time

and it goes on...

 

[Carmine5]

The points he mentions: engaging content, re-engaging the listener so that they return, developing a community or tribe, giving listeners a voice, are the same techniques we've been hearing from Mark Ramsey, Jerry Del Colliano and others who are evangelizers for social media.

Yet Ramsey wrote today: "In Praise of "Average" Being "average" doesn't mean being mediocre. It means being like most people and liking what most people like. And wrapped up in that is one of Radio's key advantages. So embrace it."

Radio is not "social media" because it is not two-way. It is more like a movie or an album... if you do a good job, many people use it even though the content is not tailored for each individual. New media can be part of an effort to reach people that includes radio and other "old media" but radio can not become something it is not. Yet, as Ramsey observes, its stregth comes from being universal, not individually targeted.

But AM will even fail at that, because it is old "old media" and has no appeal for most people under 50 or so. It does not matter what is put on AM because the image is either ruined due to "AM quality" (meaning static, noise, ratty coverage, etc) or simply because younger people have no habit of using AM and believe is as relevant to them as an Oldsmobile, a DeSoto or a Plymouth.

Again, the key point of the article is that the core principles for achieving audience engagement and brand loyalty haven't changed whether it's old media, new media, social media, in between media, AM, FM, SW, web radio or shouting on the street corner.

Some of the methodology will change based on the media used but not the core principles.

c5

 

[radioray]

I agree with carmine5

No disrespect intended but re-read the linked article.

It is not an article about how AM can stage a "come back". It is about how AM radio served as, to some extent, the role of social media back in the 70s.

The phone calls to the jock, the contests, the t-shirts (great point in the article about how if you saw someone else with "your" stations shirt you might go up to him or her and chat because you immediately knew this person was from your "clan") all sereved as a social interactivity of the day before all the stuff we have now.

 

[davideduardo]

It is not an article about how AM can stage a "come back". It is about how AM radio served as, to some extent, the role of social media back in the 70s.

That's grasping at straws to make a point.

The phone calls to the jock, the contests, the t-shirts (great point in the article about how if you saw someone else with "your" stations shirt you might go up to him or her and chat because you immediately knew this person was from your "clan") all sereved as a social interactivity of the day before all the stuff we have now.

Using the same logic, we could say that a gasoline company's tenna-toppers were social media and not a contest, or that Publisher's Clearing House was engaged in social media instead of just plain ole' direct mail.

When we look at WABC, which at one point cumed around 4 million just in New York's metro, we can calculate how many phone calls the jock took per shift... or how many t-shirts they gave out a year... and realize that they did not "reach out and touch" that many people, and the reaching was one direction communication. The whole concept of social media is bidirectional communication as the base, not an extension, of the system. Social media is individually tailored, selected or consumed... unlike radio, which does none of these things.

 

[TVradioguru]

Agreed. AM radio was successful because it was the original media which carried over the years as the only portable way to consume media, even to the point when TV was introduced. AM didn't succeed in the day because of clever marketing nor audience interaction over the phone or T-shirts. One AM station would win over another through marketing and programming, but that's about it.

To compare AM radio with social networking sites is like comparing a Ford Model T with my BMW M5. Both are cars, both have wheels, but the relevance of a Model T is pretty much on par with AM radio when comparing with Internet-based media today. Like AM radio, the Model T was the only car available to the average consumer, thus it was popular. Today, there are dozens of models just as there are forms of media.

 

[JustPastBuffalo]

Radio is not "social media" because it is not two-way. It is more like a movie or an album... if you do a good job, many people use it even though the content is not tailored for each individual. New media can be part of an effort to reach people that includes radio and other "old media" but radio can not become something it is not... ...younger people have no habit of using AM and believe is as relevant to them as an Oldsmobile, a DeSoto or a Plymouth.

Two very good picture painting analogies.