What Are Radio Listeners Loyal To?
Written Jan. 21, 2008 by Larry Rosin in Content + Marketing with 1 Comment
I was listening to Public Radio the other day and there was an interview with one of the many engineers in this country who is trying to build a car that doesn't run on gasoline.
The questioner said: "Do you think Americans are ready to give up their gasoline-run cars?" His answer: "I've never heard anyone say that they are loyal to gasoline. People love their cars, and they love the freedom and mobility and experience they provide. No one loves gasoline." He said the last word with something of a snort.
And while I suppose people at Exxon or Shell might disagree, of course he is right.
Which made me consider: "Are people loyal to radio?" Well, not really. I would guess that very, very few people are loyal to the actual piece of hardware in their dashboard or on their nightstand. Similarly, no one is loyal to the frequencies. You won't hear anyone say: "No matter where I am and no matter what I do, I'm a 102.7FM guy through and through."
In many cases, radio is simply a channel through which a different loyalty is expressed...we certainly know the intense loyalty that many people feel towards individual musical artists. There's a reason we so often put the artists on the billboards or in the television commercials -- THEY are the true source of the loyalty.
Of course many people are loyal to specific morning shows, talk hosts, or myriad other elements of radio programming. But of course that is the point. It is the content, the programming that is the car. How you consume that programming, the device, the frequency -- they are simply gasoline.
Reader Comments
Your 2¢, in chronological order — add your comment below.
People used to be loyal to radio stations, when the stations had personality, and a sense of community. Just ask someone who listened to WBCN, WNEW or KMET in the 70s and 80s......or KROQ in the 80s and early 90s.....or KHJ or WCBS-FM. It wasn't just the music, it was HOW the music was presented, and the care and craft that went into it.
That is completely missing now, due to endlessly researched and "tested" music. All the life has been sucked out of it, and the people still working in radio are either talentless drones, or frustrated and stifled broadcasting enthusiasts who aren't allowed to do anything that hasn't been tried before. Think Shotgun Tom Kelly, a K-Earth jock who clearly idolizes Wolfman Jack, yet is forced to play the same burned out 300 songs over and over, and even read from cue cards!
Thankfully, people find other ways to be creative and inventive - hence podcasts, file sharing, blogs, myspace, etc. That is where the action is. Radio, for the most part, has become largely irrelevant.