Podcastrated: Why Radio is History

The New York Times is apparently getting hip to the peccadilloes of the Bubble Generation.  In a sure sign they may be reading Tombomb.com, yesterday the Times broke the news that "youngsters aren't listening to the radio as much."  That is, of course, a vast understatement of a huge problem as I have written here before.  The truth is, radio as a medium, is in a coma and barely clinging to life.  For the BubbleGen consumer, commercial radio is just Shuffle mode on somebody else's Playlist. With annoying interruptions to boot. It's boring and it's irritating.  If the whole experience doesn't change, radio will be an anachronism in less than a decade.

According to the Times, citing a report from Edison Media Research, translating an Arbitron study, radio listenership among the 17- to 24-year old demographic has declined 22 percent since 1993.  And the trend line is even uglier.

Commercial radio is just Shuffle mode on somebody else's Playlist. With annoying interruptions to boot.  It's boring and it's irritating.  If the whole experience doesn't change, radio will be an anachronism in less than ten years.

The Times sees two reasons for the drop off in radio popularity:

The first is the intense competition for media audience time that has developed in the last dozen years. In addition to Web surfing, cellphones, video games, movies, television and the chime of instant messages, portable music players and downloadable songs are vying for teenage ears.

But, it would be a serious mistake to assume that the audience is simply distracted.  It is more than that.  Way more.  There is a sweeping cultural change underway.  Technology has changed behavior, changed expectations, and there is no going back. 

Today's connected consumers prefer to make their own musical choices, do not need intermediaries to tell them who's hot, and don't want to be bothered by imposing commercials.

And what are the consequences?  Our young consumers are being weaned off of radio.  The only contact the new connected consumer has with commercial radio is at Grandpa's house. By the time they become the driving force of the economy, radio will be irrelevant to them.   

Can anything be done to save radio?

I like Tom Webster's take on it:

My dream radio for the terrestrial radio industry would let me have access to streams from Pandora or Live365, and also go out and get podcasts I am interested in. But it would only let me listen to those things--not interact with them. Instead, the really cool "tell-a-friend" and "post to my blog" and "thumbs up/thumbs down" buttons would only work with HD broadcasts--allowing instant feedback to the station and instant sharing. That would be addictive. That would be cool. That would be the future radio worth buying.

When commercial radio becomes humbled, when it transforms itself into a two-way experience, driven by the consumers, easy to share with others, and committed to listening more than pontificating, it has a chance to awake from its vegetative state and earn a new lease on life.   

Comments

[sheila]

Our family just completed an Arbitron survey last week which, no big surprise, reflected your thoughts as well as those in the NYTimes story. My 17, almost 18 year old, son doesn't listen to radio at all.

I do think radio is in serious trouble and if marketers want to find answers, they are going to have to pay me more than a couple of dollars to help them in the future.