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David Rogerson, Associate Consulant, McVay Media
David Rogerson has been involved in nearly every facet of the radio and media industry from on air personality to Group Program Director to National Marketing Manager and senior consultant. David’s background covers over 25 years in Media and Communications. He holds an Honours Diploma in Advertising through the University of Technology, Sydney and is a graduate of Radio Executive Management from the Notre Dame University, USA.
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It’s amazing what you can learn from radio listeners about radio. Even more so, what they would want radio programmers to know if these same listeners only had the chance to tell programmers how to better communicate and interact with them. This past month I’ve been going through some of the many research projects that my company Strategic Media Solutions has been involved with over the past year or so to try and get a handle on any particular trends that are emerging in the way listeners are using radio and how their media usage habits are changing. One stark thing that keeps coming through time and time again is the media multi tasking that‘s taking place. By multi tasking I mean the number of other media based activities a listener actually undertakes while listening to the radio. Where once young adult listeners talked about how often they listened to a particular breakfast show each week, or how often they met with friends after work, in the past year more and more focus has been on how technology is impacting on their individual lives and integrating with their day-to-day routine.
It’s happening at two levels, firstly on a personal note with the ability to be entertained by taking control of their own entertainment requirements via portable music devises such as MP3’s and music downloading via the computer. Then at a second social level by staying in touch with family and friends via portable devises such as mobile phones, Blackberry’s and so on. There’s no need to plan ahead now for when and where they are going to socialise. A quick text message around friends during the afternoon sets the meeting place for that evening’s social activity.
And it’s not just in the Australian work place in which the use of computers and new portable devises are making the multi media tasking possible. Australians are also using computers while at home to undertake a vast array of multi media tasks. Putting an exact number on the work to home usage is not possible through the data we’ve been working with here in Australia. However, in a study among 13,000 computer users aged 14 yrs and over, USA based Burst media found four out of five (86%) respondents said their daily routine would be disrupted if their home computer were taken away and not available for one week. Interestingly, 42.1% said their daily routine would be disrupted "significantly."
Time cramming work and social life into what seems like a 26 hour day now sees many radio listeners also time cramming their entertainment needs into viewing while they listen, or listening while they read. Many listeners still talk about the portability factor that radio has which until recently provided it one of the key points of difference over other media when it comes to delivering instant information. Mobile phones, text messaging, the Internet, e-mail, instant messaging and using search engines are just a few of the many media that listeners now use increasingly in their day to day multi tasking activities.
Often, they are doing both at the same time, maybe multi tasking or undertaking their multi media activities with friends or in some cases with members of the family. However, many Generation Y’s now point out that interactivity via their mobile phone, being able to multi task while listening to the radio, playing an mp3 version of their favourite song, texting friends and creating their own personalised version of how they want to be entertained is a fact of life that their parents often find difficult to comprehend. The old “generation gap” is still alive and well and just as relevant today as it has been since coined in the late 60’s.
It’s easy to see how some marketing and production elements we use on radio just wash over media multi taskers as each day they work on cramming as much activity they can into their available time. They mentally tune in and out of the messages that confront them some of which have no relevance or need for engagement in their lives. It’s not so much that they don’t want to take them on board; it’s just that the manner in which the message is delivered has little or no relevance to the way in which many young adult radio listeners prefer to have messages communicated to them in 2006.
This article originally appeared in “The Music Network” Magazine – Australia (April 2006)
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