People with CarPlay are mostly just listening to AM/FM radio

[Kelly A]

Same here when I'm not listening to podcasts from my phone!

Probably because Motorola flip phones don't allow for it.

 

[JackindaBox]

I believe that it is cause they are so old that they don’t have Spotify or the internet.

 

[wadio]

There have been ads since the 20's when radio began, just like there have been listeners complaining about all the ads.

Wow, you must be older than I thought. 😉

 

[Weiserguy]

Somebody has to pay so that you can listen to free radio. That's the bottom line. We sell them the time because that's the only revenue source we have.

Aren't you the person who mentioned yesterday that KEXP can make real money from the music clips they post on YouTube? And wasn't there this theory about non-traditional revenue (NTR) being the savior of radio, a big driver of ancillary revenue? (Though I can't recall seeing anybody writing about that for awhile, so maybe that savior turned out to be a false profit.)

But I get your point, of course radio is an advertising delivery medium, and except for the non-comms, that's where the revenue to run the station has to largely come from.

The advertisers produce the ads. But its their time. They paid for it. If listeners paid for radio, it would reflect their tastes and their interests. The ads you hear are based on the audience the station attracts. If you listened to a different format, the ads would be very different. By describing the ads you hear, you're telling me which stations you listen to. When you listen to old airchecks, they're probably for a different format, aiming at a younger audience. If you listen to a station aiming at that same younger audience, you'll hear less obnoxious ads.

But here's the real deal. You guys in Programming jump through hoops to attract listeners, to tweak your cume, to maximize your TSL, to get just the right mix of music or talk to attract just the right demographics so your ratings will get you on buys. Then you let those advertisers (or their agencies or time buyers) call the tune and destroy much of what you've worked so hard to achieve. That happens with each 10-in-a-row of spots in a cluster. It happens every time you air "1-877-Kars-4-Kids, donate your car today", or so many other tune-outs that would get your top talent fired if s/he did anything analogous to chase away those listeners in the natural course of their programs. But because you need the money, you've eliminated any standards for advertiser content that used to be routine in the days of Rick Sklar or Bill Drake.

Also, here is a newsflash: listen to airchecks of WABC, or WMCA, or Z-100, or WOR-FM/WXLO, or WCBS-FM, or even WNEW (or their equivalents from other markets). Especially WNEW (AM), which nobody could ever accuse of chasing after teens or young adults. All of them had well-crafted, well-recorded ads done by talented talent, or produced in-house by their own people. They didn't chase away their listeners, even if the occasional spot left something to be desired. They paced the spots within their overall program, they blended higher- and lesser-quality spots within breaks in such a way that listeners didn't head for the exit en masse what the mediocre ones aired, because they knew something better was only a minute away. And those stations rejected the occasional ad that would defeat their otherwise hard work of attracting and keeping their listeners.

This has been a race to the bottom. You lower your standards, more listeners jump ship on you, so fewer of the quality advertisers want to keep buying your time, so you sell to whoever's willing to buy, regardless of what that does to your demos, which causes even more listeners to head for the hills. Rinse and repeat until you've destroyed the golden goose. And instead of doing a post-mortem on why so much has gone wrong, you keep trying to sell the party line of why it's never your fault.

Oh, and since you seem to think that younger-targeted formats had less objectionable ads, I suggest listening to a representative selection of Crazy Eddie (not Stolz) spots from back in the day. Which BTW, you never heard on WABC, because they refused to air them, because they concluded they'd chase away their audience.

 

[TheBigA]

Aren't you the person who mentioned yesterday that KEXP can make real money from the music clips they post on YouTube?

Absolutely. What does that have to do with the on-air signal?

Then you let those advertisers (or their agencies or time buyers) call the tune and destroy much of what you've worked so hard to achieve. That happens with each 10-in-a-row of spots in a cluster.

You're assuming that everyone reacts to commercials the way you do. Advertisers see the research. It's up to them to keep the audience they want to reach with advertising. You're right. Our job ends once the break begins. That's their time.

Also, here is a newsflash: listen to airchecks of WABC, or WMCA, or Z-100, or WOR-FM/WXLO, or WCBS-FM, or even WNEW (or their equivalents from other markets).

You're talking about 50 years ago, back when towns had lots of local retail stores, and radio had no competition from anyone. That's not the case now.

This has been a race to the bottom. You lower your standards, more listeners jump ship on you, so fewer of the quality advertisers want to keep buying your time, so you sell to whoever's willing to buy,

Oh well. You're going to miss us when we're gone. Once again, if you have another way for us to pay for your free radio, let us know. In the meantime, we'll keep selling our stations to EMF and VCY because their audience is willing to pay for radio. Ours just complains all the time.

 

[JackindaBox]

Their audience pays to EMF for both Air 1 and K-LOVE. The only ones that probably don’t pay for Air 1 are those that want it to go back to Christian CHR.

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

Aren't you the person who mentioned yesterday that KEXP can make real money from the music clips they post on YouTube? And wasn't there this theory about non-traditional revenue (NTR) being the savior of radio, a big driver of ancillary revenue? (Though I can't recall seeing anybody writing about that for awhile, so maybe that savior turned out to be a false profit.)

But I get your point, of course radio is an advertising delivery medium, and except for the non-comms, that's where the revenue to run the station has to largely come from.

But here's the real deal. You guys in Programming jump through hoops to attract listeners, to tweak your cume, to maximize your TSL, to get just the right mix of music or talk to attract just the right demographics so your ratings will get you on buys. Then you let those advertisers (or their agencies or time buyers) call the tune and destroy much of what you've worked so hard to achieve. That happens with each 10-in-a-row of spots in a cluster. It happens every time you air "1-877-Kars-4-Kids, donate your car today", or so many other tune-outs that would get your top talent fired if s/he did anything analogous to chase away those listeners in the natural course of their programs. But because you need the money, you've eliminated any standards for advertiser content that used to be routine in the days of Rick Sklar or Bill Drake.

Also, here is a newsflash: listen to airchecks of WABC, or WMCA, or Z-100, or WOR-FM/WXLO, or WCBS-FM, or even WNEW (or their equivalents from other markets). Especially WNEW (AM), which nobody could ever accuse of chasing after teens or young adults. All of them had well-crafted, well-recorded ads done by talented talent, or produced in-house by their own people. They didn't chase away their listeners, even if the occasional spot left something to be desired. They paced the spots within their overall program, they blended higher- and lesser-quality spots within breaks in such a way that listeners didn't head for the exit en masse what the mediocre ones aired, because they knew something better was only a minute away. And those stations rejected the occasional ad that would defeat their otherwise hard work of attracting and keeping their listeners.

This has been a race to the bottom. You lower your standards, more listeners jump ship on you, so fewer of the quality advertisers want to keep buying your time, so you sell to whoever's willing to buy, regardless of what that does to your demos, which causes even more listeners to head for the hills. Rinse and repeat until you've destroyed the golden goose. And instead of doing a post-mortem on why so much has gone wrong, you keep trying to sell the party line of why it's never your fault.

Oh, and since you seem to think that younger-targeted formats had less objectionable ads, I suggest listening to a representative selection of Crazy Eddie (not Stolz) spots from back in the day. Which BTW, you never heard on WABC, because they refused to air them, because they concluded they'd chase away their audience.

That’s a cool fairy tale I could read to the grandkids someday.

 

[Weiserguy]

That’s a cool fairy tale I could read to the grandkids someday.

Only if you really don't like your grandkids.

 

[Don CT]

Somebody has to pay so that you can listen to free radio. That's the bottom line. We sell them the time because that's the only revenue source we have. The advertisers produce the ads. But its their time. They paid for it. If listeners paid for radio, it would reflect their tastes and their interests. The ads you hear are based on the audience the station attracts. If you listened to a different format, the ads would be very different. By describing the ads you hear, you're telling me which stations you listen to. When you listen to old airchecks, they're probably for a different format, aiming at a younger audience. If you listen to a station aiming at that same younger audience, you'll hear less obnoxious ads.

Do people tolerate ads if the DJ is doing the read themselves verses pre-produced spots. Seems like live reads would go over better.

 

[TheBigA]

Do people tolerate ads if the DJ is doing the read themselves verses pre-produced spots. Seems like live reads would go over better.

Some advertisers think that, so they request the DJ or host read the spot. In some cases they have to pay a talent fee. Then there's the question of if it's an endorsement or just a host read. Typically a station will mix it up so the break has variety.

 

[AMRadioGuy]

22-year-old here. I sometimes drive family cars with Apple CarPlay. If there's something worth listening to on the radio, I'll tune in there. Thing is, I like discovering music. So unless a station is playing some things that I haven't heard before, I'm probably just going to stream something.

If there's an interesting personality to keep me company while on the road, I'll probably listen, even if the music isn't my cup of tea. If, however, it's some nationally syndicated windbag with the same talking points and boring callers... yup, I'm streaming through CarPlay.

I absolutely love radio. But... at the end of the day, delivery medium is secondary to good content. If there's no good content on the radio, I'm outta there to the world of the internet. Really sucks to have to pull over to put something else on the phone, though, instead of just flipping the dial.

Oh, and when I'm in a car without CarPlay? If I know I'm driving somewhere without decent radio, I'll bring along a few extra CDs so I have something entertaining to listen to.

Thing is in all of this, radio is so low effort. Just tune in the station and listen. I find myself doing that less and less - not because of the medium but rather because it's just not interesting/entertaining/a companion. I want to just tune in and drive. But without worthy content... not gonna happen.

 

[AMRadioGuy]

Do people tolerate ads if the DJ is doing the read themselves verses pre-produced spots. Seems like live reads would go over better.

It depends, for me at least. What really drives me bananas is when the ads don't fit the flow (usually the syndicated city stations). There are quite a few stores that I will not shop at because of how annoying their commercials are. Creative, fun commercials are memorable and enjoyable to hear (so long as they don't get aired past their welcome).

I don't mind ads at all so long as they don't disrupt the flow of what's going on (and don't sound like they were recorded over a webcam, which continues to become more and more prominent).

I seem to recall CKLW running duplicates of their ads on two separate cart machines so that if one had a problem, they could effortlessly (and seamlessly) crossfade over to the other. Now? Oh yeah, an ad recorded over a webcam compressed to death is perfectly acceptable material. If you would've had cash in hand to purchase a spot at CKLW in 1968 that you recorded on a portable cassette machine? They probably would've laughed.

It's really sad that we live in an era when radio should sound better than ever - and then STLs are using low bitrates with digital compression, stations are still trying to win the loudness war (unless they're doing oldies and then that's a fitting sound lol) and the source material is often lousy sounding files with commercial spots that are even worse.