Survival Info - for your audience (and for you!)

Mike McVay is currently working on an update to his 2004 "Reinventing Radio" presentation and he shared his first draft with A&O clients this week. Here's a key point from it:

The list of threats, to terrestrial radio, is long. There are the obvious threats like satellite, the iPod, WiFi, Internet radio providers like Yahoo, video games, cell phones, PDA’s and more. One competitor that has been overlooked of late, or taken for granted, is Television. Yes. Television. It’s true. Radio and TV both use pre-World War II technology, and yet we both compete. Television is our most immediate threat. We have research and rating proof that clearly shows that Television is taking away our morning cume. They’re robbing us, and it’s happening while we’re looking to the skies for that meteor.

Radio’s most listened to hours used to be 7:00am, 8:00am, 6:00am, 4:00pm and then 12:00pm weekdays. That’s changed. Check your own station’s ratings. The MLT hours for many radio stations are now 4:00pm, 5:00pm, 12:00pm; and then either 7:00am or 8:00am. Morning television is robbing us.

The Today Show, Good Morning America, Fox, CNN and local TV shows are competing with music radio, and winning. Think about it. Matt & Katie are a “morning team.” Then you add in Al Roker and Ann Currie, and you have an ensemble morning show.

Several of the stations we consult also have relationships with television stations. In talking to these people, and friends of mine who anchor news at local Cleveland television stations, and they have confirmed that their TV stations have made a conscious effort to present a show that you can listen to while you get ready for the day.

The temperature and time are continuously visible on the screen. They have fabulous guests. Superstar celebrities. And they’re designed for local news and weather inserts. Listeners have TV access in their bedroom/dressing area and in the kitchen.

We’re relegated to the bathroom and the car. Some new model homes even have a flat screen TV in the bathroom. We could soon be an “Auto Only” medium for morning drive. WTVJ/Miami isn’t waiting. They, and other channel 6 stations, are heard on 87.7FM; and WTVJ sells Dunkin’ Donuts a sponsorship of this coincidence, as they invite you to “take NBC 6 with you in the car today.”

Really sharp music radio programmers understand the need to embrace elements from Talk Radio. Certainly Talk Radio will change and fragment further during this period of radio renaissance. I’ve begun crafting morning shows so that the elements of News/Talk are applied.

Listen to your own market’s best News/Talk station. Notice the forward momentum, cross-promotion, vertical recycling and the way they make sure that you’re never more than ten-minutes away from survival information.

Mike can be reached at 440-892-1910 or at his company's website: http://www.mcvaymedia.com/