Radio Still Rules

Radio Still Rules

by | Jun 9, 2025 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

At the end of March, my radio station, WOWO officially turned 100 years old.

As the year progresses, we are doing a variety of events both on the radio and in-person to mark a century of service.

WOWO is not the same station it was in 1925.  Back then very few people had access to a radio to listen to WOWO, but within a few years this new technology grew as AM radio’s became the norm for household news and entertainment.  Instead of just print delivery of news and information with newspapers and magazines, people could actually listen to audio for the first time in this manner and it was free, once you bought the radio.

Growing up in Fort Wayne, my dad worked for a couple of electronics firms. Magnavox was the first one that brought our family here and later my dad retired from General Electric. Turning on the radio was as routine as turning on the shower every morning to start the day.

There was once a concern that when television started in the 1950’s that it would kill radio listenership, but instead radio stations adapted.  While many of the old radio shows moved to TV, radio enjoyed a revival with recorded music and live personalities.  WOWO was one of those stations that I listened to as a kid to find out if we had school delays due to winter weather.  I also listened to AM radio stations in Cincinnati to hear the play-by play of the Reds baseball and from Boston to hear the Celtics basketball teams.  Back at WOWO, we were the home of Komet Hockey for over 70 years.

But enough history, we still have people wondering about radio listenership today in 2025.

Streaming services for music, podcasts for news and information, does anyone listen to radio anymore?

Yes they do.

Recently research company and long time rating company Nielsen shared a fresh report:

…shows that within the ad-supported audio universe for adults 18+ in the U.S., consumers spent 66% of their daily listening time with radio, vs. 19% for podcasts, 12% for streaming audio services, and 3% for satellite radio, based on Edison Research’s “Share of Ear.”

That’s huge.  2/3 of ad supported listening is still traditional radio, like 100 year old WOWO.

WOWO began broadcasting on what is known as the AM band, for most of those years 1190 AM and still does.  However WOWO also added additional ways to listen to our live programming including FM at 92.3 FM, 107.5 FM and 97.3 HD2 FM.  The last report I saw from Jacobs Media a couple of years ago showed that 30% of WOWO listeners are listening via a streaming device.  That includes Alexa, Google, an app, or our website.

These technology upgrades have helped WOWO and other stations retain and grow.

WOWO’s news talk format is targeted to reach grown-ups.  Adults 35 and older which according to the same report:

The report, which includes data from Nielsen and Edison, shows adults 35+ spending 73% of listening time with radio

Want to invite our listeners to become your customers?  Contact me.

 

A Fresh Introduction to ScLoHo

A Fresh Introduction to ScLoHo

by | May 26, 2025 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Really? The Personal ScLoHo, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

Here we are, smack dab in the middle of Summer 2025 and I’ve been meeting new people and reconnecting with older friends and a common question is, “What do you do?”

The short answer is, “I help businesses and organizations connect with potential customers and clients.”

And that begs for more detail, so today, I’ll dig in and reintroduce myself.

I’m from the 1900’s.

That’s become a fun way of saying I’m older than 26.

I started working in media as a teenage radio disc jockey at 16 and worked in and on the radio for the next 10 years.

At age 26, I moved my family to Detroit and started working in the advertising side of media.  Specifically to write and create radio advertising campaigns for businesses and organizations on radio station WMUZ-FM.  During the nearly 8 years we were there, I also returned to the air, either as a fill-in or as the morning show host; and I had my first venture in sales.

When we returned to Indiana, I also returned to on-air doing either afternoons or mornings full-time at a Fort Wayne radio station for about a year and then left the business for a few years and worked “real jobs.”  I drive a fork lift, ran a tool crib, set up a barcode system for a manufacturing facility, and ran a thermoformer as some of the jobs I took. I also did some part-time on-air work and was paid a few times for commercial voice work when I returned to Fort Wayne.

2003 was when I returned full time to the world of media and marketing.  By this time, on the personal side, I had 3 kids and two step-kids and was a couple years into my second marriage that is still going strong.  By the way, my wife and I are good friends with my previous wife and husband, but that’s another story.

In 2003 I had been in Fort Wayne again for a few years and joined a group of radio stations as a member of their 12 person sales team.  Over the next 8 years, the stations went through ownership changes, I did some management work at the stations and eventually got bored and left.  From 2011 to 2013, I took 3 different positions, each lasting 10 months before I decided that it wasn’t what I wanted to do.  I did website development sales, radio ad sales for another group of stations and then managed the social media for several brands of a multi-million dollar ecommerce company.

By the end of 2013, I had returned to radio, specifically Federated Media and their news-talk station WOWO.  I was the 5th person on a 5 person advertising sales team.  That last seat on a team often is a revolving door, but not for me.  By 2019, I was leading our sales team and in 2020 won the Sales Person of the year award for the entire company.

2020 also saw me change from selling to leading our sales team as the WOWO General Sales Manager.  By 2022, my management duties grew to include additional stations, Big 92.3, 1380 The Fan, 98.9 The Bear and WOWO.

Finally at the end of 2023, I hired myself back to sales and they brought in someone else to take over most of the management duties I had been doing for nearly 4 years.

I know I haven’t mentioned the origin of ScLoHo yet, but I will in a moment.

The past couple of decades, I’ve been able to help business owners with the advertising and marketing of their businesses.  Sometimes this includes an advertising schedule and campaign on the radio stations I work with, however, I’ve been able to help many more that never spent any money with me because of what else I’ve given them.

It started when I was 26 and began working with local business owners in Detroit.  I got to know some of the ins and outs; challenges and successes; and learned so much from those people.  Working for WMUZ and Crawford Broadcasting was my continuing education as I helped create ad campaigns for auto body shops, mortgage companies, doctors, transmission repair companies, retail stores and so many others.  I read some excellent books by Harvey McKay, Trout & Ries and a few others that helped spark the creativity and common-sense approach to what I know call Human Relationship Marketing Principles which I apply to the work I do now.

It’s not that I’m some great guru, it’s just that I’ve had these opportunities to not just listen to others, but to apply what I’ve learned and repurpose these concepts.  No matter what the medium, there are timeless principles that should be applied to your business’s marketing.  Many times, I look for ways they can make adjustments that cost them little or no money.  Sometimes it’s obvious to me but not to them because they are in the thick of it all and need an outsiders viewpoint and experience.

That’s the kind of stuff that lead to the creation of ScLoHo.

Initially ScLoHo was just an email address that I created.  While not as common as Smith or Jones, my name, Scott Howard is not uncommon.  I know personally another Scott Howard here in Fort Wayne and no, we’re not related. ScLoHo is a mash-up of the first two letters of my first name, middle name and last name.  If you pronounce it with just two syllables you say, :Sclow-Hoe.

Around 2004, I started a couple of blogs.  The first was a personal blog to capture random thought and ideas, the other was a place to save and share media and marketing ideas.  I got permission from a couple of online publishers to include their articles as long as I credited them and linked back to their website.  By 2008, I was writing and publishing over 25 articles a week to my blog websites under the ScLoHo name.

In 2011, I left the radio stations I’d been working for and joined a website development company and one of my friends and co-workers challenged me to combine the online ScLoHo with the in-person Scott Howard and marry the two with a fresh website.  The dot com domain for Scott Howard was taken by another Scott Howard as were a couple other domains so I settled for ScottHoward.me and launched in October of 2011.

I was able to take many of the previously published articles from my ScLoHo blogs and move them to the new website.  ScLoHo is still my nickname, and my ScLoHo email address is both a personal email and for anything not related to my work at WOWO and Federated Media.

When I started blogging a couple decades ago, there were a few other local people that were also blogging.  A blog was the written equivalent of having your own podcast these days. Many of those early bloggers stopped.  Either they lost interest, or thought that a blog was a way to fame and fortune online, I wasn’t looking for either.  I was just looking for away to save in the cloud some of the stories and articles and ideas from others and myself for future reference.

Speaking of podcasts, in 2016 Federated Media wanted to launch a marketing podcast and I was asked to consider creating one since they were aware of my blog and that I might have some experience behind a microphone.  March of 2017 was when I launched the Genuine ScLoHo Media and Marketing podcast and except for about a year when I was in management, I’ve been updating both this site and the podcast every week.  When I was in management, I decided to update monthly in order to keep up with my other duties.

This year we will surpass 1700 articles and 400 podcast episodes, all free as a resource to anyone interested.  My website does not accept paid ads and any ads you hear listening to the podcast are placed by the hosting company, not me.

As we look forward to the rest of 2025 and the years ahead, feel free to reach out to me personally about nearly anything.  Email is probably best. Scott@ScLoHo.net

Can You Pass the ScLoHo Sniff Test?

Can You Pass the ScLoHo Sniff Test?

by | Apr 21, 2025 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

41 is the current number.  What does that mean?

41 is the current number of WOWO advertisers that I have spent money with in the dozen years I have been at WOWO radio or before at other stations I’ve worked at in Fort Wayne the past 23 years.

Close to 30 of those 41 businesses I work with personally.

I titled this article, Can You Pass The ScLoHo Sniff Test? because of a couple of things.

First off, like my radio station listeners, I’m an adult consumer who has needs and buys stuff to take care of those needs.

Like many of our listeners, I decided to check out the local businesses I heard on WOWO radio when I was looking to spend money.

Current products or services that we spend money on that are connected this way include my dentist, HVAC system, car purchase and repairs, carpet cleaning, nutritional products, bedding, bathroom remodeling, financial planning, funeral stuff, food, gas stations, and charity giving to name a few of the 40 plus.

Because of the way I go about the process of helping businesses become advertisers, I get to know what makes them tick and I gain insight into the behind the scenes stuff of their business.  I want to know their “Why” they do what they do, not just because I want them to spend money with me.

Actually that brings me to the second part.

Not all business people I meet pass my sniff test.  Every once in awhile I find businesses that are not as honest and ethical as I think they should be.  As a result, I don’t put them on the radio.

I only want to work with businesses that I feel good about doing business with and/or referring to family and friends. That’s the ScLoHo Sniff Test.

I’m planning on an ongoing, long term business relationship with the business people I work with and I want them to have similar values that I have, to be honest and trustworthy.

There have been a couple of times that I “fired” a client.  One was a mortgage company that I discovered was taking advantage of the no-doc rules that led to the 2008 banking crisis.  I overheard a conversation of one of his agents gathering information over the phone to process a loan and the agent said out loud, regarding the persons income, “we’re going to bump that up so you can qualify for a bigger loan.”  Red Flag.

I asked the owner of the mortgage company about what I heard and he said, “yes, that’s what everyone does.”.  His contract with my radio station was up at the end of the month and I did not renew him.

What about you and your business?  Do you think you can pass my test?  Let’s connect and find out.

 

The 2025 Fort Wayne Radio Rating Update

The 2025 Fort Wayne Radio Rating Update

by | Mar 3, 2025 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Media, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

As a follow up on last weeks article and podcast episode, Today I’m going to share information regarding the last ratings data we have for the Fort Wayne, Indiana market pertaining to radio station listenership. This data was collected last Fall and is the most recent information we have until an update is released later this year.  Radio stations and ad agencies pay Nielsen for the data and I’m limited in what I can share publicly but my goal is to give you some insight that will either confirm your perceptions or blow them out of the water.

I have to bounce around a couple different survey data sets but all of this is specifically about radio listenership in Fort Wayne.

Using the Total Survey Area which includes 19 counties in Northeast Indiana and Northwest Ohio, I see there are a little over 900,000 people ages 12 and older living here. Over a third of them live in Allen County which includes Fort Wayne.  When I eliminate the 12 to 17 year olds, we have almost 570,000 adults in our area.

70% listen to a local radio station every week.

Less than 20% listen to satellite radio like Cirrus XM.

Only 61% are watching one of the traditional broadcast TV channels of ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox networks.

Less than 20% are subscribing to our local daily newspaper.

This tells us that local radio stations still have the largest overall audience of readers, viewers and listeners compared to other local media options.

Also the perception that everyone listens to satellite radio is far from true.

Which Fort Wayne radio stations have the most listeners?

In the last rating period , just one WMEE had over 100,000 weekly listeners age 12 and older.

WMEE is owned by Federated Media, where I work.  Other Federated Media stations were in the top ten in this classification include News Talk WOWO, Country Station K105, Rock Station 989 The Bear.  The other 6 stations with the most weekly listeners age 12 and older include WBCL, WAJI, WJFX, WLDE, WXKE and WBTU.

29 stations made the entire survey.

From a business perspective, using the broad age range of 12 years old and older doesn’t make sense because teenagers are not spending much money compared to adults.

And to really take an honest look at who spends money, we should also leave out the young adults in their 20’s maybe up to age 35 or 40.  It’s not that those age demographics don’t have money, but most of it is already spoken for with college debts, rent, car payments and credit card debt eating up most of those paychecks.

Realistically, it’s when we are in our 30’s that our families are growing both in number and expenses.  However by the time adults reach around 40 they begin to have some breathing room or at least figured out how to deal with their finances on a more grown-up level.

That’s why when I talk to business owners I use the term “grown-ups” as their customers.  These are people age 35 and older.  Sometimes business owners are targeting grown-ups age 45 and older because that’s who will spend money more freely instead of the younger folks.

I give you all of that just to set you up for what I’ve been doing for years when it comes to rating data for the purposes of advertising and that is to look at the age demographics of each radio station that matches who will buy what a business is selling.

That starts with age 35+.  My station, WOWO has the most weekly listeners in that age group.

Another important number that I look at from the ratings is how much time do listeners spend listening to their favorite stations?  It’s called Time Spent Listening, or TSL and again WOWO dominates over all the other local radio stations.

From a business perspective this means  there is an increased likelihood that a WOWO listener will hear your ad compared to listeners of any other radio station.

Nielsen has a cool tool in their dashboard where I can plug in a sample schedule on WOWO of let’s say 15 ads per week and it will tell me that on other stations I need  at least 30 ads up to 45 ads to reach the same number of people, the same number of times.

Talk to me about this specifically for your business and I can run reports for you too.

While all this is good news for the people I talk with about inviting WOWO listeners to become your customers, it’s just reassurance data.

Coming up in a couple of weeks, I’ll share my simple  formula on how to buy advertising that doesn’t involve ratings or anything other than common sense and show you how you can use it to be smarter than most advertising sales people.

 

 

The State of WOWO Radio Fall 2024 Edition

The State of WOWO Radio Fall 2024 Edition

by | Sep 16, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Media, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

About once a year I share some insider information about the state of radio, specifically WOWO radio, the primary radio station I’ve represented since 2013.

Today’s the day for an update.

A lot has happened the past 11 years I’ve been here. WOWO  had their 90th birthday in 2015 and we turn 100 next year.  Most of those 100 years WOWO has been on 1190am and occasionally also on FM.  92.3 was the FM home for WOWO when I started and then we brought music back to 92.3 for a few years. Big 92.3 was a classic hits music station for a few years until May 2023 when WOWO returned to 92.3FM.

For close to 3 decades, WOWO has been a News/Talk radio station and when we put music on 92.3 a few years ago, we added two more ways to listen to WOWO on FM that are still available.  Some of you can pick up WOWO at 107.5FM, that’s a low power FM signal with limited range in the Fort Wayne Indiana area and as vehicles started adding HD radio, we also included WOWO programming on 97.3 HD2.

So ever since May 2023, we’ve got multiple ways for listeners to listen to the News/Talk programming on WOWO including:

1190am

92.3 FM

107.5 FM

97.3 HD2 FM

and the streaming platforms including the WOWO app, Alexa, Google Home, your laptop, and others like iHeart, Spotify, and TuneIn.

Let’s take a look at what’s going on now and I’ll start with some public information from Nielsen, the ratings company that measures all kinds of data including radio listenership.

In Fort Wayne, we have two annual rating periods, Spring and Fall and then it takes a few weeks to get the results.

The public data is picked up by various news sources and I saw this graphic from Radio Online dot com.

WOWO is listed as the number one radio station this year with a 9.5 share.  This means that of the 20+ radio stations listed nearly 1 out of ten people listen to WOWO.

Considering there are over 20, but I’m just going to count the top 20 stations, if listenership to each station was equal, each station would have a 5 share because when you do the math, 100 divided by 20 = 5.

According to this WOWO has nearly double the number of listeners, and when we step back to the Spring 2023 numbers, it’s an 86% improvement.

However, here’s what’s really important and while I can’t publish the numbers publically, I can share privately the exact data.

WOWO has 4 daytime shows we call primetime because the primetime for radio listening is during the day.

Fort Wayne’s Morning News with host Kayla Blakeslee continues to grow.  It was 6 years ago that Kayla took over after the unexpected passing of our legendary beloved morning host Charly Butcher in 2018.  Kayla has increased total number of listeners and they are tuned in longer compared to a year ago.

Next we have national syndicated hosts Glenn Beck and Dan Bongino in the middle of the day and they continue to win.  Glenn’s listeners from 9am to noon are growing and the same can be said for Dan’s show from noon to 3pm.

What’s new is WOWO’s long time afternoon host moved to a Saturday only show and around the 1st of February this year, Casey Hendrickson took over the 3pm to 6pm slot.  Casey is from our sister station in South Bend and currently does most of his shows from their studio but is increasing his time in Fort Wayne and using the WOWO studio to do his show that airs on both our stations.

Originally there was some loyal listener push back.  Pat has been doing afternoons on WOWO for over a two decades and Casey also has been with Federated Media, our parent company for 13 years.  When one of them would take vacation days, we would broadcast the other persons show for the last 10 years, so our WOWO listeners had a little bit of familiarity of Casey.

During the last couple of years of Pat’s afternoon show, there was some declines but he had a very loyal fanbase.  When we got the rating information for Casey in the afternoon on WOWO this summer, it conformed that this was the right move to make.  Listenership is up and like the rest of WOWO, loyalty measured by the amount of Time Spent Listening is also up.

WOWO continues to be a dominate radio station for listenership and also for advertising.  The advertising is what pays everyone to keep doing their jobs and in turn the advertising has to produce a Return On Investment for the businesses that invite WOWO listeners to become their customers.