The Aging of Radio

Radio as a commercial medium has been around for 105 years, starting with KDKA-AM in Pittsburgh, although the title of this article isn’t about radio being a Centenarian. It’s about the fact that, for decades, radio has done little to attract those under 35.

The biggest ten-year cells for many stations are older than the traditional thinking of the format.

While it’s tough to ignore the competition, set aside the actual content that’s being presented, or the downgrading of the listening environment, and think about what would cause even Top 40 formatted stations to overshoot the perceived sweet spot.

Anecdotally, I point to the years spent focused on targeting 25-54 year-olds, be it Adults, Female or Male. This eschews the one-time goal of winning 18-34 and 18-49 because advertisers knew that branding a product to a younger listener has an opportunity to create a lifelong customer.

An opinion that I’ve heard spoken of among researchers is that such a wide demo is a family reunion. That hasn’t dissuaded advertising agencies from desiring 25-54 year olds. In turn, that forces radio stations to target that 3-decade-wide demo. Unless, of course, they’re among the stations that are driven to attract local advertising business versus national advertisers.

The stations that refuse to play the 25-54 game appear to be more committed to selling their local advertisers’ products, services, and ware, than they are conforming to a national ad buy RFP. The numbers the locally focused stations care about the most are the revenue they generate for their advertisers.

I find that the locally focused stations are often the ones that ignore rating norms and sell to an audience that fits in the natural order of things. Meaning targeting News/Talk stations to an advertiser who can benefit from exposure to a 45+ audience. Same for Oldies/Classic Hits stations. Focusing a Top 40 station on advertisers who want 12-34 year olds as well as young women 20-45. Sometimes Nielsen’s ten-year demos do not align with listeners who are engaged with a station. Thus, the ability to create custom demos.

The aging of radio is clearly evident in looking at the biggest ten-year spread by format based on stations in the biggest market.

The younger side of the audience isn’t there. Their contribution to overall ratings is limited. Take Top 40 as an example. Looking at 8 of the biggest markets in the USA, the youngest audience among all of those stations has 32-41 for their biggest ten-year cell. One has the upper half of the 30s spilling into the early 40s. Four have their biggest ten-year cell full in the 40s. One of the biggest in all of America shows up with 51-60, and another spans the ages of 53-62 as their biggest ten-year demo.

To be fair, these eight stations all have large audiences. What should be of concern is that their biggest cell in many cases spills outside of 25-54. None of them showed an audience of significance that’s growing into 25-54. A couple showed up as being even older than the leading Adult Contemporary station in their market. My attention to Top 40 is because it is the most obvious format that has an audience whose core is counterintuitive to the reality being seen.

The bottom line is that radios lost the feeder audience that keeps the medium growing. I’m not saying, “it’s over.” I don’t believe it is, but I am pointing to the need to look at both sides of 25-54. The younger side (and below) to grow an audience that will use radio even if only occasionally. The older side … and above … because they’re ignored, are the most monied of listeners, and have an affinity for the medium.

The other part of the equation in regard to radio’s evolution and regrowth is one I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. If we want to compete with the DSPs, we have to be where they are, which is online, on the App, and on demand as podcasts. We need to strive to capture the digital listening we garner and get credit for it. We need to rely on the advantage that having stellar personalities brings to radio by creating daily listening. It’s what Apple Radio figured out. It’s what SiriusXM has done for decades.

The challenge for the radio industry today is that there are too few operators focused on growth and development. The majority are operating as they always have, except with fewer resources and greater competition.