In this week’s Programming To Win column, Robbie Bridges takes some time to break down the different generations currently listening to radio and the vast changes in the media landscape has seen. Bridges brings everything to the present with the Generation Y, born between ’83-’90, who are currently coming in to their own as a dominant generation.
Robby Bridges
By Robby Bridges
I’ll admit something to you: I’m absolutely addicted to Wikipedia. Yes, I know, some of their articles can be questionable when it comes to citing materials used and such but when you are looking for general information on very random (and by random I mean only Jeopardy contestants would be interested) factoids, it’s incredible. While many spend their evenings on Facebook and Twitter, admittedly I spend my fair share of time there too, whenever I am on the couch unwinding with the TV on, invariably I see something/someone and I have to look up more information on it. If you’ve ever used Wikipedia, the global online encyclopedia, then you’re aware that it is truly impossible NOT to start with one search and then segue to another. Quite brilliantly by design, other related topics are coded such that as you read one search return, links are available to a whole host of others. Interested in the population demographics of Utica, NY? Click, and then try not to resist the urge not to click the link to Utica Observer Dispatch to see their circulation these days or the sub categories on notable people also from Oneida County…gee I wonder what their population and median income is? Infinitely interesting! I bring all this up because as a programmer, I like using heritage to a station’s advantage when it has it. The original positioning statement of my home station, WEBE, was “Hits of a Whole Generation” when we signed on nearly 30 years ago; this referred to our playlist spanning the 60s through the hits of the day, early 1980s. The “generation” we were referring to, of course, is the massive and lucrative baby boomer. It occurred to me that the bull’s-eye 25-54 demographic is only partly made up of boomers these days, while the younger end is made of up of Generation X and Y. Millennials, the generation following Y, they are anywhere from Kindergarten to late teens, not all that far out of the 25-34 cell. Then it occurred to me what an entirely different life/media usage experience each of these generations had and is having as they grew up and age. So off I went to Wikipedia for a little research which led me on a fascinating path to understanding the generations.
The baby boomers. Post World War II, the soldiers who came home and those who had put life on hold during the War effort began having kids and as the American economy boomed, so did the population. Between 1946 (year babies conceived in ’45 post Allied victory began being born) and roughly the end of 1963 (JFK’s death marks a major turning of the page in American culture) 77.3 million babies were born. The oldest came of age at the end of the 50’s and early 60s, the youngest in mid 1970s. Cultural values a mix of Ozzie and Harriet and The Smothers Brothers depending on age; generally, this was a well educated and socially aware generation. Most importantly pertaining to media, they LOVED music and they used radio and exhibited loyalty and passion for it. As time has shown, baby boomer culture is still predominant in culture from which songs are used in commercials to which formats stay on the air. I even recall a blog stating Jay Leno’s triumphant over Conan O’Brien in the “Tonight” chair was an example of the strangle hold of baby boomer influence on media.
Generation X. Averaging definitions, they were born between 1964 and 1982 (in case you’re wondering I just make the cut). This generation grew up feeling as though they’d just missed the party the baby boomers had and took to rebelling and rejecting just about every convention of society: media, politics, social norms. This was a generation cynical of everything and splintered in passion for media consumption as cable television appeared, pop music genres subdivided by the start of the 1990s and computers landed on every desk. However, Ad Age ran this op-ed in 1993: “That cynical, purple-haired blob watching TV, otherwise known as Generation X, has been giving marketers fits for a long time. He doesn’t respond to advertising, isn’t brand-loyal and probably doesn’t have much discretionary income, i.e. a job. But help is on the way. Following this angry young adult generation is a group of teens-agers who are leaving Generation X at the gate. There are 27 million of these 13-to-19-year-olds spending $ 95 billion a year, and both numbers will rise in the next 10 years. As our headline last week pointed out, this group is interested in real life, real solutions.”
Generation Y. Born 1983 through the 90s…hungry for media options, hungry to take their place in the world, far more conventional and even traditional then the previous generations before them and far more narcissistic. Often dubbed “the ME generation” or Echo Boomers (a nod the fact they mirror baby boomers in the impact they are only starting to make on culture whereas Generation Xers seem to be suffering a middle child syndrome). Reality shows, social networks, on demand…this generation wants everything and they want it now. They have one special quality that Millennials, born around Y2K thru the present do not and that they share with Xers and baby boomers before them…they remember a time when there was no internet or cell phones…or at least before they reached critical mass. The oldest of this generation born between 1982 and 1986 are in the bull’s-eye 25-54 demo now and stand to impact what programming radio offers in a way that the Xers did not really (other than perhaps the splintering of pop/rock/R+B formats) but the boomers did. This generation, particularly the oldest cell already over 25, grew up with 4 TV channels, cassette tapes…and radio. This group got drivers licenses, graduated high school and perhaps first jobs and even families before the majority of the owned a cell phone and before Mark Zuckerburg launched Facebook. While like the Xers and certainly the digital babies born since Y2k, generation Y is plugged into new social media, most only have a cell phone line and spend more time online than anywhere else, radio is an instilled habit. Yes, they have iTunes; they have Sirius XM; Music Choice; Pandora; Spotify; YouTube…BUT, they grew up with music radio on FM and its still where they spend most of their time listening to music and more importantly perhaps discovering new music. This generation is going to be a majorly saleable demo and apparently the most culturally powerful demo for the next 25 to 30 years. And they grew up with radio. Further, research shows they are already nostalgic for the simpler society of the pre-all digital age (perhaps this is why 50% of them still live with mom and dad too). Last, unlike Xers, they have shared cultural identifiers: pop music became more mass appeal, there are films/TV programs they all grew up, each were touched by 9-11 and the OJ trial…this is akin to the baby boomers. As baby boomer culture has and continues to dominate culture today, the echo boomers or Yers are beginning to take over and radio needs to be there along with them as it has for their parents.
As radio as an industry continues to evolve to maintain that passion supplementing over the air product with web/social media presence in reaching this young end of the bull’s-eye demo, while working to grow usage among today’s 12-17 year olds, perhaps we can take a page quite literally from Wikipedia’s model…get the consumer to the radio station and keep them hooked to stay longer than they intended to, further, this experience will ensure a given radio station is top of mind so they return.
Robby Bridges is host of the Ride Home Show on WEBE-FM Bridgeport, CT. He is also President of BBOR Productions, developing and marketing syndication, music and production pieces nationally. Previously Bridges has worked in various capacities at WCTK/Providence, Z100/New York, Q102/Philadelphia, WODS and Mix 98.5/Boston and elsewhere in New England. Robby can be reached at 203-333-9108 or bridges@bborproductions.com
