WOWO Radio Report Card Time: 2019

What’s the status of radio broadcasting as we prepare for a new year?

That’s a question I hear in various forms from friends, family and others who hear I work in the radio advertising business.

Last month, I spoke to a marketing class at a local university and did a Q & A about radio advertising and marketing overall, and the question came up.

I talked with a couple family members who I had not seen in months and they asked too.

The good news is, radio broadcasting is strong and healthy, profitable for both the company I work for and for the businesses that advertise with us. The unfortunate news is that the public perception doesn’t match reality. Westwood One, and Edison Research released a study this month that I want to share with you along with some inside information about the station I work for, WOWO radio and the Fort Wayne media market.

First off, advertising agencies and major advertisers overall don’t know the truth about the impact of music streaming services compared to traditional AM/FM radio broadcasting.

 A simple question was asked: “Please estimate the audience share of Pandora, Spotify, and AM/FM radio.” The perceptions? Spotify has a 23% share, Pandora has a 21% share, and AM/FM radio has a 36% share.

The truth is Pandora only has a 4% share and Spotify has 2% nationally.  Only 6% of people listening to what we call audio are using Pandora and Spotify to listen to their favorite music.

Perception among the people who should know was that these internet based music channels had nearly half the audience and listening to the radio for music was history.  Not a chance, my friend. Another wrong perception is that those Pandora and Spotify listeners must listen all day long, right? Wrong again.  Pandora get 12 minutes a day and Spotify get 10 minutes a day on average according to this study.  Meanwhile radio listeners are tuned in nearly two hours daily.  Mindblowing to those who thought that everyone is listening to music online.

But here’s the really important part for businesses that are looking for a place to advertise that will be effective and profitable.

Listening to music at home used to mean albums and CDs. Today, that has shifted to Spotify and Pandora. Now listening to music at home means audio streaming is playing softly in the other room. According to a MARU/VisionCritical study, only 54% of Pandora and Spotify listeners actually pay attention to the ads.Background music like this was never meant for advertising.

So if your business is advertising on Pandora or Spotify you are likely reaching a fraction of the people who you could reach using traditional AM/FM radio, and the odds that they are listening when your ad is one is a tiny fraction of that number, and to make it even worse, nearly half are mentally tuning out when your commercial comes on.

There are actually two versions of Pandora and Spotify.  The free version that includes ads and the paid version that is ad free.  The study shows that while the ad free version of Spotify is growing the version of these services that your business can use to advertise on, is losing audience. What about Sirrus XM Satellite radio? That audience is still tiny.  Only about 1 out of 10 people have Sirrus XM.

Traditional AM/FM Radio stations continues to reach over 70% of adults every single day and over 90% every week.

Two newer forms of audio listening are growing, podcasts and smart speakers. Fortunately WOWO Radio and the other Federated Media owned radio stations have been using podcasts as a standard part of our offerings for out audience. 

Miss an interview on WOWO’s Pat Miller program?  You can listen later by subscribing to our podcasts.  We even have podcast only programs for our radio audiences.

And the smart speaker revolution has increased our audiences because now, instead of a tabletop radio, or stereo system in your home or office, you can tell Alexa to tune into WOWO Radio and poof, it’s there.

I told you I would also share with you some inside information about WOWO and Fort Wayne Media. In August, WOWO radio’s long time morning show host, Charly Butcher passed away unexpectedly on vacation.  This was a major blow to everyone as Charly was our anchor and host of Fort Wayne’s Morning News for years and previously was on our sister station WMEE.

Management expected WOWO’s advertising revenue to decline and not make our budget in 2018. Instead of declining, the advertising sales team at WOWO had a record year.  This was only possible if the advertising campaigns we ran on WOWO produced results for the businesses that invested their ad dollars with us.   It’s not just a tip of the hat to the sales skills of my co-workers, but to the entire staff and listeners who continue to make WOWO radio an important part of their day and support the business who they hear on WOWO.

In 2019, we expect more growth at WOWO in listenership, in our relationships with our listeners, and in connecting those listeners to the businesses that they want to spend money with.  As always, I am here to help you become one of those businesses.