Traditional Radio Relevancy in 2024 & 2025

Traditional Radio Relevancy in 2024 & 2025

by | Dec 30, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

It’s the week between Christmas and New Year and for this weeks update, I found an article that caught my attention back in July. You can read it here.
In the meantime, I’m just going to share a couple of thoughts from that story and what really matters as we move to a new year.

Between ad-supported Spotify or ad-supported Pandora and AM/FM radio, what do most people only listen to? New data courtesy of Edison Research’s “Share of Ear” quarterly study, examined by Pierre Bouvard, Chief Insights Officer of the Cumulus Media/Westwood One Audio Active Group, shares that it is broadcast radio that is the definitive answer to that question.

There are tons of research being done on an ongoing basis that show the power of traditional radio and this is one of them.

With 4,000 Americans surveyed by Edison Research, ad-supported audio was put under the magnifying glass. And, six key findings from the Q1 2024 “Share of Ear” study caught Bouvard’s eye:

 

  • In a typical day, ad-supported digital audio reaches a third of America; AM/FM radio reaches two-thirds of America; Combined, digital audio and AM/FM radio reach 75% of the U.S. daily

Those numbers are referring to daily listening habits which is different from the way Nielsen Research measures listenership for radio stations. Nielsen gives us the number of weekly listeners which has consistently been over 90% of adults.

Items two and three:

  • Between ad-supported Spotify and AM/FM radio, most people only listen to AM/FM radio

  • Between ad-supported Pandora and AM/FM radio, most people only listen to AM/FM radio

Often times, we make the assumption that our own habits and preferences are a reflection of everyone else. So when someone discovers a streaming music platform like Spotify or Pandora and that replaces radio as their music source, they sometimes jump to the conclusion that everyone is abandoning traditional media.  But when you add up the numbers, it’s not really true.   The company I work for, Federated Media operates 5 different stations, and three of 5 are music stations, the other two I work with are talk radio.  The 3 music stations have an impressive number of listeners, many times larger than the local listeners to Pandora and Spotify combined.

Number 4 on his list:

  • The U.S. ad-supported audio clock: Podcasts and AM/FM radio represent nearly 90% of tuning minutes

I would like to see the data behind that statement, but it’s not surprising.  Podcasts have been surging in listenership in the past several years.

Number 5:

  • With a towering in-car share of 86%, AM/FM radio is the primary way to reach consumers on the path to purchase; The proportion of AM/FM radio in-car listening has surged, returning to pre-pandemic norms.

I just turned 65 this month.  I bought my first car when I was 16 and the car was my mobile music machine. Before we had the ability to consume media on demand, we would listen to radio in our cars during what’s called traditional drivetime in the morning and afternoon.  That was radio primetime.  TV primetime was in the evening.   I’ve got some data I’ll share next year about local listening habits but for now, let’s keep going.

The 6th Key Finding:

  • Among registered voters across the political spectrum, AM/FM radio is the dominant ad-supported audio platform.

This article was published before our most recent national election.  Donald Trump won and I can see how the power of talk radio beat the power of Political TV.  Conservative media includes most of the News Talk Broadcast radio stations along with the Fox News TV Network.  Liberal media sources don’t include radio for the most part unless you want to classify public radio as liberal.  Even if you were to do that, the total radio listenership of political talk across the country is heavily conservative.   A few decades ago there was an attempt to create a left-leaning talk radio network but it fell apart because it didn’t have the on-going financial support.  I can’t give all the credit to radio because the viewership of MSNBC and CNN combined are dwarfed by the Fox News TV network, so a combination of conservative talk radio and TV overwhelming beat the liberal progressive media in this years election.

Listenership and viewership are important however what really matters for the businesses I work with are the results we create from the advertising campaigns we run on the radio and our social media channels.

My station, WOWO turns 100 in 2025.  Sister music stations, WMEE, K105 and 98.9 the Bear each have been on the air successfully for decades. I define success as successfully connecting listeners to advertisers and being profitable for all.  More on that in the year to come.

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.

The Talk Radio Advantage

The Talk Radio Advantage

by | Sep 9, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

Are you annoyed by ads?

Most of us are, and that creates an interesting conundrum for businesses that need to invite potential customers to spend money with them via advertising.

In the early 1980’s when I was a top 40 rock and roll radio disc jockey on WMEE, I remember when we introduced “20 minute commercial free music sweeps” and even though I was all about the music and not really caring about advertising, this bothered me.

This was the beginning of conditioning our audience to perceive advertising as bad, as undesirable, as something to avoid.

Radio stations that played music would stop the music up to 4 times, maybe 6 times an hour to play a couple of commercials.  These commercial free music sweeps were to prevent listeners from changing stations when the ads played because the ads played less often.  The problem was that many stations still played the same number of commercials per hour but now instead of two in a row, they would play 4, 5 or 6 commercials back to back.  I recall about 15 years ago when a local music station promised to only stop the music once an hour.  I listened and counted 18 ads playing back to back to back for over 10 minutes.  Yes, they played 45 minutes of music back to back but all of those ads back to back created so much listener annoyance that people either switched stations when the ads came on, or they mentally tuned out.

Television suffered the same fate as ads became an irritant and people spent money on ad-skipping devices such as VCRs so we could record a show and play it back later and fast-forward past the ads.

What’s that have to do with Talk Radio?

Last month I was meeting with a new advertising partner and she was telling me why she believes Talk Radio is the best play for her ads.

To paraphrase what she told me, her perception is that when people are listening to Talk Radio, they are wanting to hear what is being talked about and they are more engaged than music radio.  When a commercial break comes on as she is listening to music radio, she’s no longer invested in that station because they are not playing music and whatever song they play after the ads, she may or may not like.  However when listening to Talk Radio, the conversation that she’s listening to will likely continue after the ads and she continues to be invested in that conversation.

There’s also the less annoying factor of ads on Talk Radio.

The theory is that I’m already listening to someone talk so when the talking on the commercial starts, I’m already accustom to talking on the radio.

I’ve got fresh radio rating data that I’ll share in a few weeks that show me the listening habits of listeners of all the 20+ local radio stations here in Fort Wayne, Indiana. This data doesn’t tell us the why behind the ratings, but combined with my personal antidotal research over the years and some other studies, we can understand the Talk Radio advantage for advertising.

By the way, I can help your business reach Talk Radio listeners now on three radio stations…

News Talk WOWO continues to be my primary station, and I also have Sports Talk radio, 1380 The Fan that is filled with live play by play and commentary for sports enthusiasts. There is also one more radio station that has a 4 hour talk show every morning, 98.9 The Bear, home of Jason Lee and Kluck in the morning until 10am.  The other 20 hours a day The Bear is a rock music station, but those morning drive hours are an excellent spot for your business to connect with Talk Radio listeners.

More in the future…

 

 

No Quick Fix

No Quick Fix

by | Apr 8, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Really? The Personal ScLoHo, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

One of the concerns that I sometimes hear when talking to a business owner about investing in an advertising campaign is how long it will take to get results.

Or a variation is the opposite…

Can we handle all the business we get if we start advertising with your radio station?

My friends, there is usually no quick fix.

Advertising is usually not like a faucet that you turn on and customers come rushing out to buy what you have right away.

It takes time.

How much time?

Depends on how many ads you place and how often they air and a few other important factors.

However to the untrained, it might seem like things are closer than they really are.

Last month my wife and I took a trip to Washington DC to see the Cherry Blossoms and sightsee and along with a memorable trip, I’ve also got material for a few blogposts and podcast episodes.

The first day of our arrival, after checking in to our hotel and enjoying dinner at a local Irish pub, we decided to walk over to the Capitol Building which I knew was about 3 or 4 blocks away.  We could see it from the Irish pub.

Then we glanced over towards the Washington Monument and decided to hike thru the National Mall to the Monument where there were more Cherry Trees and it was my intention to continue to the Jefferson Memorial.

However as we started the first part of our journey it was getting dusk and our perception of distance and the time it would take was off.  We did make it to the Washington Monument, but there was no way we were going to continue that night all the way to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial on foot on Friday night.

A couple days later, with some pre-planning, I made arrangements for us to get a tour of the major sites of Washington DC that included transportation and from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in the daylight that Sunday, we could see much more clearly the big picture of how far we were from the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building.

The lessons we learned about quick fixes:

  1. Plan ahead
  2. Understand the journey
  3. Know when to regroup and find a different method
  4. Dress appropriate for the journey

Those same lessons apply to marketing your business, even the last one about dressing appropriately.

Want help? Contact me.

Your Customers ALWAYS Have A Choice

Your Customers ALWAYS Have A Choice

by | Feb 5, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Sound ADvice, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

Only fools believe their business has no competition.

There are multiple ways to think about who your competition is, however, I’m going to define it in the simplest terms for businesses and that is customer money.

If I have a need and you could supply that need for a price, but I choose to satisfy that need by spending my money with someone else, that someone else is your competition.

This weeks Sound ADvice newsletter talks about competition and  I’ll share that with you in a second but first I want to broaden your idea of competition.

Today, I ate breakfast.

I had the choice of eating something I already spent money on and was in my kitchen…

Or I could leave my house and spend money somewhere else.

Often, business owners only look at their direct competition.  Today I spent a couple of bucks for a breakfast burrito and a diet Mt. Dew. Yesterday I spent 6 times that for a breakfast sandwich and white mocha from my favorite coffee shop. Tomorrow, I’ll have a bowl of cereal.

See, sometimes the competition isn’t direct, but an alternative, however they all are ways that involve my money and my desire for breakfast.

Now let’s look at the SoundADvice I’m sending out in my weekly newsletter this week. (and if you want a free copy emailed to you every week, just let me know).

Have you ever heard someone say, “We don’t worry about our competitors, we just focus on what we do”?

Sure you have! It sounds nice, but the truth is that most successful business owners have a very keen eye on their competitors and know as much about them as possible. If not, there is no way to know which cards you can or should play or when to play them.

More than likely you know “who” your competitors are, but “how much” do you know about them? It’s not so much about knowing them so you can be like them, but, the more you know them, the more you can make sure you differentiate your business from theirs.

Motivational and self-help speaker Jim Rohn was known for his witty one-liners. One of his best was directed at people and businesses and it encouraged them to be different.

“Walk away from the 97%. Don’t talk like they talk,
don’t act like they act,
don’t go where they go, don’t do what they do,
don’t specialize in what they specialize in”.

In other words, Jim is saying, be yourself, make your own mark. Make sure you and your business are clearly different than your competitors.

Why is it so important to know your competitors?

In any given market, large, medium, or small, there is only so much business. Capturing your fair share and growing your share is the path to success. Only when you know what their strengths and weaknesses are can we know how you can best position your business to compete with them and grow your share of the market.

When we are armed with this knowledge, we can communicate our true value to consumers, adapt our brand and communications strategy accordingly, and win market share.

“If you know thy enemy and know thyself,
you need not fear the result of a thousand battles”.
– Sun Tzu

Identifying what differentiates your brand, product, or service from other players in the industry is only one of the benefits of analyzing your competitors. It’s crucial to increasing sales with your current customers, building customer loyalty, and attracting new customers. It will also help you identify the following:

  • Understanding industry standards so that you can meet and exceed them.
  • Discovering untapped niche markets.
  • Fulfilling customers’ desires and solving their problems better than competitors.
  • Distinguishing your brand.
  • Standing out in your marketing.

In today’s multifaceted world, competitions come in many forms. Direct competitors are easy to identify. Indirect competitors are sometimes harder to uncover and can come from anywhere. Grocery stores had no idea they would be competing against Amazon. Tire stores and hearing centers didn’t imagine they would be competing with Costco and Sam’s.

While the process of evaluating and knowing your competition can be taxing, the benefits of knowing can open an array of opportunities for your business.

If you would like to see nine ways to help you understand your competition, click here.