Reckoning: How To Make Listeners Change the Radio Station

My skills may not reflect it, but we're (cuz I'm taking y'all with me) approaching the 30th anniversary of my first on-air shift. Back then I was fresh out of high school, working afternoons on a classic country radio station; spinning the CDs and records (yes: first-run records) of Hank, Willie, Waylon, Johnny, Patsy, Dolly, and the like. Commercials and liners were played off of things called "carts" (which look like 8-track tapes). Radio production still utilized reel-to-reel machines for sound effects (the classic "tape echo"). Good times.

Radio's obviously changed...a LOT. It's my career of choice - and it sure beats every other career I've tried, and I've tried a LOT - but I'm not ignorant to the bad things that have plagued the industry. A recent survey of radio listeners basically confirmed it.

Radio - The Bad

The biggest culprit in making listeners change the channel? Shockingly, it's not a radio host having a...suggestive...on-air handle; it's the music.

Specifically:

• 47% will change stations if the music is "bad"
• 43% will change stations if songs are played too repetitively
• 37% will change stations if a song that's "burned out" gets played
• 33% will change stations if all of the songs sound the same
• 23% will change stations if new, unknown songs are played

Well that covers quite a swath of radio formats, doesn't it? Top 40 has to contend with listeners not welcoming a new artist; yet, the playlist gets repetitive and boring if the same artists & songs are the only ones getting airplay. This applies to New Country and Active Rock stations, too.

Classic Country and *cough* Classic Rock stations have to deal with song burnout. I once overhead a classic rock radio boss brag about how they can play "Sweet Emotion" multiple times every day and people will still listen. And yet, both formats remain extremely popular to this day.

I'll posit that since it's easier to play whichever song we want, whenever we want (i.e. Spotify, Pandora, etc.), we'll show less tolerance for a radio station's playlist today than back in the day of records and 8-tracks.

So the DJs - or Jocks - are in the clear, right? NOPE:

• 43% will change the channel if jocks are talking about uninteresting things (I feel attacked)
• 43% will change the channel if jocks are being insulting or hurtful
• 35% will change the channel if jokes aren't funny (again, I feel attacked)

The old cliché is that there are too many commercials. Only about a third - 35% - change the channel during commercials. So bad music and bad jocks are bigger culprits.

It should also go without saying: those commercials keep us on the air.

Radio - The Good

Howls that radio is dying have been declared and repeated for decades; yet, radio remains popular: over 80% of Americans aged 12 years and older listen to terrestrial radio every week. Know why?

Local.

Local radio remains big, especially in small towns.

That radio station in the barn has been there for decades and still broadcasts the local high school sports games and community announcements.

When there's bad weather that knocks out electricity and cell phone towers, the radio station (on a generator) can still give you pertinent information if you have a battery-powered radio.

The FM receiver chips in cell phones are finally getting activated, so you can listen to local radio on your smart phone (which uses your headphones as an antenna) without the internet.

Sure, the radio industry has issues. Radio soldiers on, warts and all. At least these warts might send you on the trip of a lifetime.

H/T: Inside Radio / Pew Research Center / NAB Pilot