RBR+TVBR OBSERVATION
Here is a column inspired 100% by a Tweet made by Fred Jacobs, the owner of Jacobs Media and Detroit-based Classic Rock pioneer.
In a blog post made early Tuesday (8/20), he writes, “Yes, it sneaked up on me, too.”
According to the statisticians at National Day Calendar, August 20 is, in fact, National Radio Day.
The fact that it took a Tweet from Fred for us to know this is yet another pathetic F on the Radio Industry Report Card.
Before we go any further, however, this is not a column that outright trashes the radio industry for failing to connect with audiences more than ever.
After all, to quote the gold standard of audience measurement, Nielsen Audio, “Each week, more Americans tune to AM/FM radio than any other platform.”
And what about that comparative metrics report that shows 93% of U.S. adults 18 and older listen to radio every week—more than those watching television or using a smartphone, TV connected device, tablet or PC.
David Field, the guy running that company that engineered a tax-free merger with CBS Radio, has said this a few times on some quarterly earnings calls.
Yet … why is all the buzz about audio and podcasting, the “Netflix of audio,” and the resurrection of audio dramas akin to 1930s and 1940s fare such as The Shadow or The Lone Ranger?
The biggest excitement in months to involve anything audio was last week’s Podcast Movement conference in Orlando, where some 3,000 attendees — including many familiar radio industry figures — learned just how invaluable radio really is, if it understood its present and its future.
After all, if not for radio would podcasting even exist? If not for radio, would Sirius XM Satellite Radio, Pandora or Spotify even exist?
Of course not.
That’s because radio, while successfully attracting more people each day than any other medium, also loses more consumers each day than any other medium because of the very reason why it inspired some tech-savvy people to create Sirius, XM, Pandora and Spotify in the first place.
Back to Jacobs’ column. He notes that he’s not recognized National Radio Day for several years now, but because he’s a radio fan (and ran out of topics for today’s post), “it just made sense to shine the light on our favorite medium, one that is approaching its 100th birthday.”
So, what is National Radio Day anyway?
It is the invention of one Marlo Anderson, “The Guru of Geek.”
Who’s that? He’s a former radio host who … wait for it … hosts a podcast.
As a former soda jerk who worked at a Brigham’s retail ice cream parlor 30 years ago, our editor-in-chief would like to declare September 10 “National Lime Rickey Day.”
Brigham’s no longer has retail locations and, while delicious, who drinks a lime rickey?
Anderson is no longer on the radio and, while appealing, who listens to the radio?
Well, a lot of people do. Just ask Brad Kelly, Nielsen Audio’s Managing Director. Writing in the June 2019 Audio Today report, Kelly sums up just where radio’s role is as “audio” has become the hottest consumer media trend of the decade’s end.
“AUDIO-based content is hip and decidedly in fashion,” he says. “You’d have to be a hermit not to know that audio, in all its various forms, is increasingly winning the attention of American consumers. Podcasting, streaming and smart speakers are all shining new light on what’s being called ‘the other channel into the consumer’s mind.’”
Where do FM and, for reals, AM, fit in? “AM/FM radio, the original electronic media, is the load-bearing wall in audio’s house,” Kelly writes. “Broadcast radio’s continued success and resiliency is due in large part to the enviable space it occupies in the automotive console. It’s free, ubiquitous, and at the fingertips of virtually every consumer on the road today.”
In tribute to the late Neil Rogers, “Absolutely Correct Sir!”
Who is Neil Rogers?
Sigh … That is why National Radio Day is a bit of a joke. In March 1976, Rogers joined WKAT-AM/Miami as an acerbic Talk host. By the start of 1977, he dominated his afternoon drive slot. He’d go on to WNWS-AM, and then WINZ-AM, WZTA-FM, WIOD-AM and, finally, at WQAM-AM. In Summer 2009, Rogers departed radio, a victim of the switch from diary-based ratings to a PPM-based service that all but killed “Hot Talk” across the nation’s biggest market. He died a year later.
Across the 1990s and 2000s, Rogers would have been on in middays.
What’s on the air now? Between 9:42am and 9:47am, from RBR+TVBR’s World Headquarters in Boca Raton, Fla., we heard Hubbard-owned WIRK-FM morning duo Tim and Chelsea ask listeners if they still tip even when receiving bad wait-staff service. WIRK then went into five minutes of commercials. Flipping around the dial on the desktop clock radio, we heard a promo for the just-announced Riptide Music Festival on Entercom’s WSFS-FM “104.3 The Shark.” Then, more commercials.
Over on iHeartMedia’s WOLL-FM “Kool 105.5,” a sponsored pre-recorded weather report from Sinclair-owned WPEC-12 aired, ahead of commercials. Entercom’s WMXJ-FM 102.7 “The Beach” had a Disney on Ice commercial; Hubbard’s WMBX-FM “X102.3” had a Subway ad; iHeart’s WKGR-FM 98.7 “Gater” had an iHeartRadio Music Festival promotion running.
Meanwhile, top-rated WRMF-FM 97.9’s Kevin, Virginia and Jason — The KVJ Show — were sharing their phone number as a discussion about a rumor linking Bernie Sanders as a possible cousin to actor Larry David was shared.
We stuck around and heard some great entertainment.
This flip around the radio dial was preceded by the daily 7am, “Hey Alexa! What’s in the news?” This gave us an hourly news update from NPR. When complete, we asked Alexa to open up Radio.com and put on “1010 WINS.” It’s a nearly daily routine.
Years ago there was this cornball campaign about radio … what would life be like without it?
Well, in 2019, you have video galore, and podcasts, and on-demand digital audio.
But it’s just not radio, and this is where the industry cognoscenti needs to promote its best talent, demonstrate its resiliency better, and get out there and toot its own horn.
On this National Radio Day we stop our Spotify and crank up “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees on WMXJ.
It’s a fitting song for an industry that for too long has been the media buyer’s undergarment, that thing you really need but is far from sexy or anything more than functional.
Radio is stayin’ alive, and based on the report offered today from MoffettNathanson on cord-cutting, its health is a bit better than that of television.
Can someone just say this to the wolves of Wall Street, repeatedly and with some swagger, perhaps?
Jacobs points out that August 20 is National Chocolate Pecan Pie Day.
As such, when pondered with what to do on National Radio Day, he has three sage pieces of advice:
- Hug a DJ
- Thank your lucky stars (if you work in radio)
- Have a slice of chocolate pecan pie
We have a different view:
- Remember the greats of the past, present and future
- Listen to your local radio station today, even through the commercial breaks
- Drink a Lime Rickey
WMXJ just did a dead segue from Van Halen’s “Jump” into “It Takes Two” by Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock — following “Stayin’ Alive.”
Time for us to go enjoy listening to the radio.
