Danger Zone
Robby Bridges
By Robby Bridges
If you’ve seen the latest Top Gun film, you know it opens just like its 1986 predecessor with the Kenny Loggins classic that wails “highway to the Danger Zone!” That’s exactly where the radio industry is in this moment as well, speeding down the highway passing the “danger zone” and about to crash straight into the deep abyss of the ocean. The signs are all clear and have been for some time, perfectly illuminated yet again in new polling done by CBS News, with YouGov this month asking a sample of Americans “How Do You Usually Listen to Music?” A resounding 43% said on “streaming” and if you filter out adults aged 60 and over, the number increases with only 24% of adults 60 and under saying they usually listen to music on terrestrial radio. I’ll spare you what the percentage is if the demographic is broken down to those under 35, but spoiler: it’s pretty damn close to ZERO. To be clear, the wording of this poll is curious as “usually” is not the same as asking “do you only” which indicates yes the cume is still there to be captured but the occasions and time spent listening are dwindling by the day and already at rock bottom among the younger demos. The sampling is there at radio, the stats look a lot healthier as the demo increases but the ears in an average quarter-hour in markets across the country 55+ and 65+ even are down versus five years ago. The plethora of listening options for music and audio entertainment from streaming to SiriusXM to podcasts and beyond, and the ease of use on the connected dash and on smart speakers, are chipping away. The disruption of society by COVID has too. As terrestrial radio faces its greatest point of competition and change maybe ever, it could be like Top Gun: Maverick, a contemporary hit anchored in a glorious past…instead it seems headed right into the “Danger Zone”
Issue One: Music radio is nothing more than a branding point now: a point of entry, a motif to build on. A radio station that is only “more music, less talk” (or no talk), “12 in a row,” “the most music,” and “new music first” is living a folly and on borrowed time. It’s over. It’s been over. As with most of radio’s potentially fatal and still bleeding wounds, this has been self-inflicted, as radio companies big and small decided to focus on music branding and minimized the importance of personalities both on the air and in the way they were compensated, treated and retained. iHeart displayed its priorities yet again in the past week with its most recent mass layoff of air talent in the past five years and programming personnel in local markets, while spending millions paying its top corporate executives and subsidizing music festivals. Radio’s past, present and future are personalities. Not music. Every radio station that plays music should focus on having major personalities in every daypart, including overnights and weekends. They should encourage creativity and fairly treat and compensate these personalities to both build ratings and to build the bench. Personalities are the key to brand loyalty, not sweepers. Lastly? Live and local personalities are the only way forward. For the most part, syndication is not going to cut it. Generic content and more music or just being a radio jukebox = game over.
Issue Two: Companies that are trying to get thru the quarter and slash whatever they can, adding units to stopsets, firing talent, consolidating job responsibilities, ignoring marketing and so on. Their primary focus is on digital assets. Digital sales should sell their O+O radio stations and get out so as not to milk the revenue left from local markets, driving down rate and quality in their wake for everyone. Want to be a company with websites populated by blogs? Want to be a company that is primarily the proprietor of an app that streams music channels and podcasts? Great for you and good luck, now get out of terrestrial radio and sell to local operators who want to build brands in local markets. You know who you are
Issue Three: National contesting, text to win, enter to win on the app. Stop it. Just stop it. It’s white noise and it’s devaluing ALL contesting and leading to research from NuVoodoo and other firms indicating a majority of radio’s remaining P1s are skeptical if on-air contesting is even for real. Stop it, collectively
Issue Four: Spotloads. 8-10 minute stopsets, with multiple 15-second sponsor bumpers, 10-second tags leading to 18-20 units total are insanity. They’re unlistenable to the audience and worthless to advertisers. Radio needs to cut its spotloads, raise its rates and drive them by valuing the powerful influencers otherwise known as on-air personalities both on-air and on station web assets to clients. Period
Issue Five: The listening experience. Spotloads aside, there is a lot of clutter, a lot of sloppy and many technical glitches when a terrestrial radio station is streamed online, on an app and thru a smart speaker. This has got to be curated and improved. The look and performance of local market radio apps to hear a radio brand has got to be right on the connected dash already in and those coming soon to cars, not less than to compete. Period.
Issue Six: Marketing. Once we do the above as an industry, we must market ourselves again to reach those listening and those not more often. We must believe in our brands for the public and for clients to believe in us. Further, with legislation snaking its way thru Congress right now powered by lobbying firms of digital media companies looking to further handicap radio with performance fees, we must remind artists of the tremendous value that free, over-the-air local radio has in sharing music. While personalities are the key, they can still, if we look back to our roots, be taste makers in breaking all genres of new music–it needs to happen at the local level by a Program Director and talent and not at the corporate level by executives. Lastly, we need better sample sizes and measuring by Nielsen of our audience levels (and PPM to improve to earn universal local market MRC accreditation) and we need more companies providing this service to better demonstrate radio’s true reach and value to advertisers.
Radio faces tremendous challenges but also huge opportunities at this moment as we cruise thru the “danger zone”—right now, most of the moves being made by the big influential players who pillar the industry are short term, short-sighted and potentially holding the industry back from taking flight into a new era of exciting entertainment and content creation. Radio’s rank and file have GOT to rise up and as Maverick says in Top Gun simply take action “act, don’t think”….right now.
Robby Bridges has been a programmer and air talent for nearly 30 years in New York, Detroit, the network level and elsewhere. Currently he is PD and morning co-host at Press Communications Classic Rock WWZY/WBHX (107.1 The Boss)/Monmouth-Ocean, NJ. He also serves as guest host for Scott Shannon on the True Oldies Channel. He most recently worked for M.G. Broadcasting in Northern Michigan.
