Radio's limited future with Gen Xer's and Y'ers

[MikefromDelaware]

We had drifted into this topic on the other thread, and thought maybe I ought to start a new topic as this isn't related to the old topic of NJ101.5 In the previous thread Fred had said below in green

>>School closings:
- Websites including schools, school districts, radio stations and TV stations. Some schools have been setting up automatic email or RSS alerts for closings and other urgent communications. Text and voice messages to cell phones are also being introduced.
- Automated phone. KYW and others have a special phone number. Call an 800 number. Punch in the school code. A computer voice gives you the information. Delaware is included in KYW's closing lists.
- Morning TV shows using a crawl at the bottom of the screen. DVR users can set up their units to record a morning show and then they can fast forward through the show to get their school information quickly. Or they can watch the regular morning and get the school info. Unlike radio, TV morning shows do not have to break format to do school closings. And TV morning shows have replaced radio as the main source of news and other information first thing in the morning - especially among younger audiences.>>

Fred, you make me feel old and out of touch. I knew of the school info scrolling past on the TV, but didn't realize they included Delaware schools ( I've only ever watched a TV morning show if I was home, not getting ready to go to work and didn't watch closely what schools were included in the scrolling messages). You must have to wait a long time for them to get through all the Philly/Suburbs/Jersey listings before they get to the Delaware listings. The thing with TV, as always is the case, you have to watch it which requires far more of your attention than radio as you can listen while doing something else, but apparently the younger parents today would take the time to watch TV in the morning. If I had to choose between trying to watch TV while trying to get little kids ready for school or having the radio playing so I could hear while getting the kids ready, I'd pick the radio. Oh what a difference a generation makes.

I could definitely see how the websites and automated phones and KYW's 800 phone could be very useful tools that could easily replace radio for that information as in a few minutes you could log onto the website and assuming it wasn't overloaded with all the parents trying to log on, you should be able to get that info possibly quicker than waiting for the radio station to announce the list. I noticed during our few "ice/snow" storms this past winter both WDEL and WILM did not lead off their newscasts with the school closings as in years past. They inserted them in the newscast "forcing" you to stay tuned to hear your school. I don't remember if either WDEL or WILM referred listeners to check out their respective websites for that info, but that would make sense for them to do that. However with both those stations not making the school/daycare closings the priority as they were in years past might suggest a "sea change in approach" where maybe they don't see that as such an important feature or realize that the majority of their listeners don't have school aged kids and don't really care about what school or day care is closed, but provide the service, because that's what a news type station used to do.

Thanks for the view of how the Gen X'ers and Gen Y'ers think and what techology they are using that we didn't have. You're right, radio as we know it is in big trouble if the families don't depend on radio for even that bit of information, they'd never develop the listening habit as our generations did.

I tuned in for about a 1/2 hour to the "Lionel Show" on WILM Saturday afternoon. He mentioned what you said the other day about how the radio industry is in big trouble, because the Gen X'ers/Y'ers don't listen to radio, AM at all and fewer and fewer on FM. The five minutes he talked about it was interesting. The other 15-20 minutes of that half hour segment wasn't as good and I finally tuned out. The only reason I put up with him for a full half hour is I wanted to get his name and he never said it until he started the second half hour ( I missed the first few minutes of the segment right after the news).

I also noticed that Kim Kommado wasn't on WILM at noon as she used to be. They had been airing her from 11am-1pm, but there was some talker blathering on. I didn't stay tuned in for more than a couple of minutes as I was scanning the dial at that point and wasn't interested in what he was saying. Maybe WILM's computer messed up and brought up the wrong program. Of course with no one in the Clear Channel building other than the WRDX on air person (or do they computerized that too on the weekends) there wasn't anyone there to notice the error. Sometimes only the human can do the job in the best manner. I know that's such a 20th century attitude, but I think it's still correct today.

 

[Keith Thompson]

Here's perspective from someone now out of the radio game. While I was still in radio, it is not something that I believed at the time, but my time away has changed my outlook. I'm currently doing some temp work off and on and my temp work has had me working with lots of younger people, and I've noticed that they don't listen to the radio. One of the jobs I've worked allows people to listen to music on headphones and EVERYONE is either listening to i-pods or portable CD players, nobody listens to the radio. Another place played music over a P.A. system, but they were playing XM instead of broadcast. Being out of radio has certainly been an eye-opening experience and is making me feel better about making a career-change at this time. I don't think that radio will disappear (because it certainly didn't disappear when television came on the scene), but radio is going to have to radically change how it is programmmed and marketed if it is to survive much like it did when it had to compete with television.

 

[OldNumber7]

As an almost 47 year old, I remember when radio was cool because it was an escape. It was the place you went when your parents were watching Gunsmoke on the only TV in the house. The music was rebellion, and the idea that your station told you the next day that school was closed only enhanced the image of radio as something that was anti-establishment and unconventional. Now, it is radio that is conventional and alternative media that is rebellious. My teenage daughter never listens to regular radio; she discovers new music by communicating with her friends through myspace and she might occasionally listen to the edgier stations on my Sirius radio. Regular radio has no place in her life and probably never will. With the exception of one excellent local talk show in the major market where I now live, regular radio has no place in my life either.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

>>One of the jobs I've worked allows people to listen to music on headphones and EVERYONE is either listening to i-pods or portable CD players, nobody listens to the radio. Another place played music over a P.A. system, but they were playing XM instead of broadcast. >>

At my place of employment, listening to anything with headphones is considered a safety issue and forbidden, so everyone here listens to radio, CD's, or Cassettes, as we also aren't allowed to online radio (they've blocked it out with filters and firewalls) The nice thing though is each office and lab can listen to what they want rather than having the boss select something and pipe it in.

However, it does seem that radio is for the most part a non-item in the world of the Gen X'ers and Y'ers. As Keith said, Radio will have to re-invent itself again, like it did when TV took over as the preferred way to hear a drama.

When you really think about it, Radio is in real trouble as the young ignore it and the older Boomers and Greatest Generation are now being ignored by Radio and more and more of us listen less often as there isn't much on we want to hear so we Boomers and G. Gen'ers buy the music we want on CD's and tune out radio too. The only time I listen to radio is in the mornings for traffic and weather, for Glenn Beck, and some of Rush. I'll sometimes catch Allan Loudell's mid day newscast. I'll check out NPR, if of interest I'll tune in, other than that I listen to music from my vast Cassette and CD collection that ranges from Bach to Basie to Brooklyn Bridge to Paul Overstreet. The only music station I'll tune in to at work is WXCY for some country. I also listen to audio books. So Keith, I believe you may have made a good career move by finding another line of work as your primary form of work.

An interesting comment made on an episode of "Star Trek the Next Generation" People who had been frozen back at the end of the 20th century were brought back to life in the show, like 370 years later, they asked the captain where they could listen to the radio or watch some TV and Data the android had to explain to Jean Luc Pecard that those things were forms of entertainment back in the 20 th century. Ah, time marches on. Some day radio will go the way of the Victrola.

 

[Keith Thompson]

The only time I listen to radio is in the mornings for traffic and weather, for Glenn Beck, and some of Rush. I'll sometimes catch Allan Loudell's mid day newscast. I'll check out NPR, if of interest I'll tune in, other than that I listen to music from my vast Cassette and CD collection that ranges from Bach to Basie to Brooklyn Bridge to Paul Overstreet. The only music station I'll tune in to at work is WXCY for some country. I also listen to audio books.

I still do listen to radio, and my listening habits aren't that different from what they were since I was at WXCY (with the exception that I haven't listened to WXCY or any other country station for that matter since my departure). I mostly listen to WIP, and not because I'm a big Philly sports fan, but because I find their hosts very entertaining. I find WIP's programming unique and compelling and I'm a huge fan of what they do. If I'm listening to music, it's usually WMGK or WOGL since I'm a fan of classic rock and oldies, but most of my music listening these days is spent trying to learn songs we keep adding to the Jack The Penguin set list...so I'm constantly burning CDs to sing along to in my car so I can learn the words or practice harmonies to.