Radio on the same decline as newspapers
Keith Murray, Faculty Columnist
Issue date: 11/20/09 Section: Business
An "inside business" issue these days-and especially inside the world of marketing communication--has to be the future of terrestrial radio; this pertains to what most lay people would refer to as traditional radio, such as AM and FM broadcasting listened to, historically, in cars, tabletop sets, alarm clocks, and desk sets at work.
Yesterday the Wall Street Journal ran a story that reports that Clear Channel, via its parent, CC Media, reported its third quarter in a row of advertising losses in the range of about 20% each. [Hell, that's about 60% in aggregate in my book!] Clear Channel is the largest owner and operator of AM, FM and short-wave radio stations in the U.S.
Clearly, it is too early to say exactly what the trajectory of terrestrial radio will be like; after all, we're in the middle of a prolonged economic recession-and the decline in media advertising is affecting all media, not just radio. Nonetheless, one has to take seriously all the talk that the decline of radio has begun and might well follow newsprint into-maybe into a new reality and economic business model, if not decline and oblivion. Several independent indicators seem to support such apprehensions, including the surpassing of ad dollars directed to on-line information sources--and at an increasing rate at that! Since the "science" of tracking radio listenership-and I use the word "science" in this context very loosely-has never been seen as particularly trustworthy, one can look to other signs along the way that support the ascendancy of other media and the demise of traditional radio. Let's enumerate some of the more obvious ones.
First, much of radio listening has occurred in automobiles-hence the marketing use of the term, "drive time." Less and less listening to radio is happening in autos today; instead people are talking on mobile phones or electing to listen to personal audio devices such as MP3 players of one sort or another. Why would a person want to take the chance of maybe hearing their favorite song on the radio, when they could otherwise listen to a playlist of their own making in which all of the songs are their favorites?
Yesterday the Wall Street Journal ran a story that reports that Clear Channel, via its parent, CC Media, reported its third quarter in a row of advertising losses in the range of about 20% each. [Hell, that's about 60% in aggregate in my book!] Clear Channel is the largest owner and operator of AM, FM and short-wave radio stations in the U.S.
Clearly, it is too early to say exactly what the trajectory of terrestrial radio will be like; after all, we're in the middle of a prolonged economic recession-and the decline in media advertising is affecting all media, not just radio. Nonetheless, one has to take seriously all the talk that the decline of radio has begun and might well follow newsprint into-maybe into a new reality and economic business model, if not decline and oblivion. Several independent indicators seem to support such apprehensions, including the surpassing of ad dollars directed to on-line information sources--and at an increasing rate at that! Since the "science" of tracking radio listenership-and I use the word "science" in this context very loosely-has never been seen as particularly trustworthy, one can look to other signs along the way that support the ascendancy of other media and the demise of traditional radio. Let's enumerate some of the more obvious ones.
First, much of radio listening has occurred in automobiles-hence the marketing use of the term, "drive time." Less and less listening to radio is happening in autos today; instead people are talking on mobile phones or electing to listen to personal audio devices such as MP3 players of one sort or another. Why would a person want to take the chance of maybe hearing their favorite song on the radio, when they could otherwise listen to a playlist of their own making in which all of the songs are their favorites?
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