Ipodding killed the radio star!

Never mind the video revolution, the personal music player revolution is making quick work of the local radio station.

In a Globe and Mail story from today, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters suggested that the upcoming generation of music listeners wouldn't know where to find their local radio station if you gave them a portable radio and instructions on how to push the buttons.

“It is generally agreed that teens have abandoned conventional radio in favour of other audio platforms including peer-to-peer file sharing, music downloading and iPods,” says the CAB, which represents Canada's radio companies.
“The key question this raises is whether today's teens can ever be repatriated to conventional radio.”

Consider the youngsters as generation lost, with complete control over their own personal playlists and a myriad of options for finding new music, (none of which involve sitting through twelve to fourteen minutes of commercials per hour), the idea of today’s teens living the life of their parents with an AM or even an FM radio close by seems like something from American Graffiti.

While the CAB tries to find the magic formula for the fountain of youth listening, they probably should turn their attention to a wider worry, what they may do with the erosion of the core listeners now those in the key 25-44 demographic who are also discovering the iPod and it’s many diversions, not to mention the new technology of satellite radio, which narrow casts to specific interests. All of which will chew away at the local radio markets audience numbers and thus at its potential revenue streams.

In fact, the numbers put forward by the CAB’s research paints a grim picture for the radio industry in the near future, a drop off of listenership by 16% within ten years and revenue reductions of 14% won’t do much for the mood of your local Station manager these days. Even the most optimistic figures don’t do much for the bottom line of radio, even a drop of only 9% in audience would translate into a hit of over 188 million dollars in lost revenue. You can hear those bean counters preparing the layoff slips as we write this!

The key for local markets will always be news programming, the one thing that every small, medium and large market craves and rarely is provided with in any intelligent and comprehensive format. Far too often, the idea of news coverage by media outlets has been done in the cheapest possible way, rip and read wire stories, a hesitation to investigate controversial local issues for fear of legal concerns and a general lack of leadership from management and a laziness in the gathering of local news and information.

Interestingly enough, it now may be the local news angle that is the only hope for many local stations, which not too long ago considered news and community programming as just the filler between the songs on the radio. (Choosing the music is another story for another day, as far too many radio stations played the safest, blandest brand of pablum at risk of offending someone, the result of which has been taken care of by the Ipod generation). As it turns out, the music on the radio just can’t compete with the ever expanding changing formats for the consumer at home.

Putting resources into local news gathering was never really a great concern for the bean counters of small town radio, now it may be the only thing left for it. Keeping an audience level intact with the only weapon they have left, the day to day happenings in the market they serve.

The death of radio has been reported on in the past and somehow the industry managed to re-invent itself and survive until a new threat came up to take it on. One wonders if most of the stations around today are up to the challenges ahead!