Grampa, what’s a radio?

The iPod generation is on the rise and the traditional radio industry is going to suffer its effects in the years to come.

The Globe and Mail has some bad news for the radio industry on its website today, as they report the findings from a report courtesy of Statistics Canada, which used BBM radio ratings as benchmarks, has found that young people are listening to over the air radio less and less these days.

According to the Statscan report, Canadians spent less time listening to the radio last year than in previous years, tuning in for 18.6 hours during measured weeks of autumn, compared to 19.1 hours a week the year before. That has dropped almost two hours since 1999. Much of the change comes from 12- to 24-year-olds, with teenagers only deigning to bother with radio for an average of 7.6 hours a week.

But young people aren’t tuning out music, they’re just finding it from other sources, downloading it off the net or listening to internet radio stations that don’t appear in BBM measurements from their local towns.

It’s been a trend that has been building for the last few years, with radio becoming the staple of senior Canadians; women in particular are the most faithful of listeners logging in some 22 hours a week, while men dropped slightly to 19 hours a week in the survey.

The folks in the upper age brackets tend to enjoy the national broadcaster more than other age brackets, frequently listing it as one of their favourite on air destinations. But for the younger generations the CBC doesn’t resonate at all, coming in at dead last for their options for entertainment.

If the young do listen to radio, its most likely to a local college station, which are a thriving niche in the world of radio, but not recognized due to the cost of participation in the ratings structure. College campus stations provide not only an on air presence but frequently an on line presence as well, combining music and information that is relevant to that demographic. That could explain the widespread disappearance of the young from the radio ratings, they may still be there, but they’re just not being counted properly.

But even if they do listen in to the local college outlet, young people spend far more time with their iPods, finding their music from a variety of sources, many of which may not have even existed five years ago.

One such destination however may soon be no more, Internet based radio stations; a still developing industry have run into a copyright roadblock in the USA that threatens to shut down the business completely. As a shift occurred for many radio listeners many turned off the transistor radios and simply surfed the net for a wide variety of sounds that weren’t available in their local communities. The entire industry is a threat due to legislation in the US and the fight has just begun to try and turn things around before its too late for many of the still developing stations.

Regardless of how that fight turns out, it’s a given that the youth of today will find their music somewhere, somehow. But if you’re a local radio executive you had best expect them not to be coming back to the safe and frequently stale offerings of the small town station.

They’ve found their niche elsewhere, it’s doubtful that they’ll be satisfied with what is being offered up today by mainstream radio, they very well may be the lost numbers of today and even more disturbing for a radio executive, they could be a generation gone for tomorrow.