You Go First

Sean Ross (Why The Audience Now Wants Shorter Breaks) initiated not just a great conversation last week but the savvy and experienced folks adding comments since that time simply can't be ignored!

However, I'm not yet convinced.

Back when John Hayes ran Corus and Canada was just starting with PPM, with the help of the brilliant Bob Michaels (I STILL miss him so much - a smart researcher and a wonderful communicator!), all Corus stations were mandated to do six two minute breaks and promote that they go back to the music faster than anyone else.

Finally, after more than a year of disappointing ratings all of the Corus music stations went to two six minute breaks per hour and the ratings improved almost immediately across the board.

In Canada, BBM doesn't use "five minutes equals a quarter hour" as Nielsen Audio does, so it's absolutely a "most minutes" wins game and all of the Canadian country stations we work with are doing exceedingly well right now sticking with the "hour glass" or "bow tie" approach, so I'm welcoming anyone else who wants to take the Edison Researcher's advice and "go first."

My sense is that this is a case of perception vs actual habits.

TV commercials are all run at the same times so that viewers then are forced to choose their favorite shows based on the content not the commercial load and I believe that the same is true with radio when the measurement is PPM.

The major consolidated US group owners have shown me by their actions in PPM that it's possible for one station to play at least one minute more commercial time than a direct competitor and still win by carefully placing their clusters to maximize the time measured by the PPM, which like your cell phone "knows what time it is," so a few seconds can be the same as a minute depending where a tune-in or tune-out happens.  Thanks to Nielsen Audio's editing rules, that minute in the right place can be credited as a full quarter hour (or also cost you one if it's improperly placed).

Perception still drives expectations, which does make listeners go to one station "first" over another, but when at that station "time matters" much more than perceptions, I maintain.  Great content drives usage in the moment much more than the image that if I am patient I'll hear more of what I want in the long term.

Each "stop" causes a huge loss in the "switcher" audience and the more times per hour that happens the stronger that image of "it's worth waiting for something terrific" must be, my current experience still indicates.

How about you?  Ready to go first?

Country Shares Half As Many Of Its Listeners With YouTube As CHR, Urban and Rock Do

“While radio has spent much of the last year focusing on Pandora and Sirius XM, YouTube remains a major destination for many formats’ P1 listeners,” says EdisonResearch VP of music and programming Sean Ross. “In fact, nearly as many Top 40 P1s use YouTube for music in a week as the 60% that use Pandora in a given month.”

In other findings, Top 40, Urban, and Rock radio P1s are the most likely to listen to any online radio, as well as the most likely to be aware of and use Pandora. Country is last among major music formats in both measurements.

Over a third of Americans age 12-and-up used YouTube to watch music videos or listen to music in the last week. For listeners to most current-based formats, those numbers are significantly higher. 57% of Top 40 P1s have used YouTube for music in the last week, followed by 53% of Urban P1s and 48% of Rock P1s.

That is one major finding of the just-released “Infinite Dial 2014: Radio Format P1s” study, which breaks out Edison Research’s influential “The Infinite Dial” survey results by P1 listeners to ten major format groups. Country was the next major music format for YouTube usage at 27%, followed by Classic Rock/Classic Hits (24%) and AC (19%).

 The “Infinite Dial 2014: Radio Format P1s” report also contains useful format-by-format breakouts on numerous topics, including social networking, device usage, new platforms such as iTunes Radio, in-car audio consumption, satellite radio, and stopset length.

Released in early March, and sponsored by Triton Digital, “The Infinite Dial” surveyed more than 2,000 respondents aged 12 and older. Now in its twenty-second edition, “The Infinite Dial” has become digital audio’s annual report card. “The Infinite Dial” can be found at www.EdisonResearch.com.

Admit It. They Are Right

When the most dissatisfied core country radio listeners complain that we seem to play the same songs over and over, they are not wrong.

The conventional wisdom says "if they're not complaining about repetition, you're not playing the hits often enough."  

It's time to question that and look at what's been happening.

Risks of Increased Song Repetition at Country Radio are Real

For the past several years, the Albright & O’Malley & Brenner annual Roadmap reports have identified that song repetition is country radio's heavy users No. 1 “dissatisfaction” issue. In fact, in CMA Insiders panel tests and Edison Research CRS studies also replicate results that seem to show that playing songs too often consistently far outpaces other concerns such as “too many commercials” or “irrelevant or too much DJ talk” for country radio heavy users.

A clear majority has shared this view every year over the last decade, with the proportion of thousands of Country listeners surveyed holding this opinion ranging between 54-62%. The January 2014 client exclusive report shows 58.8% cite song repetition as the top negative impression they have of Country radio.

Despite A&O&B’s clarion call to Country programmers to pull back on playing current singles too often and national research documenting decreases in time spent listening to radio (including Country radio), stations seem to be content to maintain business as usual. Perhaps PDs dismiss the risks, regarding such complaints as shop-worn issues that have always persisted in the minds of listeners and which run contrary to studies that indicate listeners want to hear the hits as much as possible.

How real is this consumer perception? The Stone Door Media Lab offered to examine the issue of repetition at Country radio, comparing spins at different chart milestones from August 2006 and January 2014. The Stone Door study’s results show that Country stations are playing currents far more than ever.

The spin frequency for charting Country singles is rising. Here’s proof:


And, it takes more spins than ever to achieve a No. 1, too – up 24% since mid-2006. The average number of weekly spins for No. 1 singles:
 

2013-2014                  48.32

2012-2013                  48.20

2011-2012                  45.37

2010-2011                  43.38

2009-2010                  42.13

2008-2009                  40.70

2007-2008                  38.87

2006-2007                  38.95

Even though A&O&B’s 2014 Roadmap report shows that nearly 72% of Country listeners are still “very satisfied” with their Country stations, these consumers are demonstrating a steadily growing appetite for alternative music discovery and entertainment options. Nearly a quarter (24.9%) cite a “pure play” online choice as a destination “where they go” when they leave their favorite Country station, instead of another Country station. That’s up from 20.4% in 2013.

As the saying goes, perception is reality. But in this case, reality supports perception.

Bottom line: Country radio needs to seriously consider this No. 1 negative. 

Tomorrow:  why is this happening?  Will cutting back on big current hit spins hurt PPM station ratings?

Now, The Bad News

At a CRS 2014 session Nielsen Audio revealed national country format trend data showing weekly cume among teens rose 8% and was up an impressive 15% among 18-24s helping country’s audience share grow 17% among teens (12-17 year-olds) and 16% with young adults (18-24), allowing the format to leapfrog past CHR in persons 18-24 and move from third to second among teens in diary markets.  At the same time, country’s share of 25-34 year-olds slipped 9% (still holding onto #1 in that demo).

The cume increases came largely as a result of new listenership, driven by population shifts.

We're fortunate that happened.  Here's why, thanks to another CRS prersentation, from Stone Door Media Lab's Jeff Green:

Larry Rosin, Roy H. Williams and Fred Jacobs have all fretted about a potential cause of this trend in recent blog posts and I can't disagree with any of their concerns:  the increasing de-localization of radio and extreme commercial loads.

This is important because normally it's far less expensive to improve time spent listening than it is to grow cume.

Country's core audience complains twice as much about music repetition as their reason for being dissatisfied/listening less than they do about "too many commercials," so country programmers have it in their power to turn our negative TSL trend around at almost no financial cost if we take listeners at their word and don't continue to virtually ignore their complaint.

To do so will mean letting go of some old habits and traditional wisdoms.

All next week, I'll offer my reasoning and proposed strategies. 

Watch this space.

What's In It For You?

When it comes to excuses on "why I don't need to do that," I've heard them all.

1.  "I don't need to do remotes or other personal appearances.  It kills the theater of the mind I create.  I'd prefer to use the magic of radio and have them picture me the way they want to.  If they meet me face to face, that's gone."

Nice try.  My theory on this one is that this person is naturally shy and insecure.  Maybe they got into radio so they could be outgoing and be themself without ever having to face rejection.

As their manager/coach, assure them that everyone is insecure and shy and those of us in the entertainment business can't be as successful as our potential if we don't face and overcome that demon.

Sometimes you simply have to force them out of that comfort zone, placing a set number of remote broadcasts and public appearances in their employment agreement so they have no choice but to do them if they want the job.

Make them get out in front of the broadcast desk close to people, looking each listener they meet directly in the eye and repeat the listener's name as least three times as they interact with them. 

Often, this alone fixes the problem as they begin to realize that people who come wanting to meet them enjoy their personality and they have nothing to fear.

2.  "I don't do social media.  My entire show is social."

No, it's not.  It's a broadcast.  If you get too personal on AM/FM radio by playing every request people ask for, using every phone call you get on air without editing them, your ratings are going to go down because your show will be loved by the folks who call, but boring to the mass audience.

If being on the radio for you is just to have people call you and tell you how wonderful you are because you do your show just for them, you're never going to be as successful if you talk to everyone, but do it with a "one to one" vocabulary.

Your task when the microphone is open is to curate everything that is going on right now.  Choose only the best material and maximum value to the listener who chooses to sample you.

Keep them listening longer by being as entertaining and engaging as possible.

Use all of your social tools to build those personal relationships one person at a time.

Tailor which social platforms you use to the tastes of each individual listener.  Use them all, but don't broadcast one post to all of them.  Consider what makes a user of each platform choose that one and make sure they know you understand what makes them unique and special, not just a number in your database.

Need a good example of how this is done?  I have one word for you:  Ellen.

If her great example along with those intellectual/logical explanations don't work, I go for the jugular and tell the personality that failing to use every medium at their disposal in exactly the way its users expect will cost them competitively in the ratings.

To #1:  if you don't get out into the community and also use social and expect the audience to grow every day, you better be the most consistently entertaining personality available to your target in every minute of every day so that they never get tempted to try anything else.  Cume is always going down unless you work hard to keep it growing.

To #2:  If you knew exactly who had ratings diaries or was carrying a Personal People Meter right now, wouldn't you want to take extra care to find out what they are doing, what they like and dislike?

Try this experiment:

Go to the mall and randomly ask people if they have ever participated in the radio ratings.  If you ask 100 people, you'll be lucky to find five who say yes.

At your next public appearance or remote broadcast, ask the very same question (do NOT do it on social platforms or you'll probably get delisted!) and you'll find that as many as one in ten (or even more) answer in the affirmative.

The point is not to do stealth marketing, but to prove to your recalcitrant talent:

The people who reach out to you socially and come out to say hello to you are more than twice as likely as the average person to participate in the radio ratings when they receive that call.

Don't you want as real and close a relationship with them as you can possibly have?

Impersonally Personal

Creating universally relatable emotional experiences driven by personal stories:  that's what the best of AM/FM audio media does to engage more than 90% of the population every day of the week

You can only do that by talking to as large a cume audience as possible - one person at a time - when the microphone is open.  That's called intimacy, and it's our greatest strength.

Each listener feels that you are talking only to her personally, even if he is riding in a van pool with six others.  At some level, they know they are an "audience," but due to theater of the mind it feels like you're talking only to each individual.

When the mic is off, all other hours of the day, live appearances and social media require a completely different approach.

Change gears.  Genuinely talk to each person.  Listen to his story, being as personal in response as possible.  Make each individual who "likes" and "follows" you feel as if you want to get to know him by name, face to face.  This is what makes being an AM/FM personality so important.  As a bonus:  it feels good to do.

There is no other medium that can equal the real, enduring relationships built on mutual trust that doing it consistently well creates.

It's Not Personal

There's a battle of the vehicle and mobile brewing.


No wonder.  Edison Research president Larry Rosin in New York at IAB Digital Audio Agency Day last week:  “We don’t see a lot of evidence of people listening to less AM-FM radio.  It’s that they’re listening to more internet radio.”  He says the research continues to show more ways to listen to audio is driving up total consumption.  

Inside Radio created the chart from Rosin's presentation.

Adding even more credibility, as Pollack Media's Pat Welch blogged, that the 89-90% number comes pretty close to Nielsen's (92%) estimate also just released.

The percentage jumping off the pages is 18-34's use of "personalized radio" and "on-demand music" twice as much. 

“The main advantage of AM-FM remains very much in the car.” Rosin points out that 81% of 18-34s listen to AM-FM while in cars and trucks, compared with just 30% who listen to web radio in that listening location.  In other locations, Millennials report listening to web radio while at home than those who turn on AM-FM (63% vs. 48%).  At work, 41% told Edison they listened to web radio in the past week compared to 31% who said broadcast radio.  “It all breaks down on the nature of the work.  If people are facing a computer screen all day, they’re very likely to be listening to internet radio.”  Digital listening also scored higher among young adults in locations like at the gym, walking around or on public transport. 

“In all of these other (non-car) locations internet radio is being used more,”  according to Rosen.  Edison’s research found reasons include more choice, clearer signal, song ID, more convenient, stations outside their local area, and live event listening.  At the same time, 40% of those same folks told Edison that they’re actually listening to more AM-FM than a year earlier and another 40% said that they're listening about the same amount of time.  Just 20% of 18-34s claimed to be listening to AM-FM less at the same time 70% of them are using more web radio too.  “Audio is a booming category right now and young people are spending more time with more audio options than they have ever before.”

The findings are based on a 2013 online survey of 3,016 people age 12 funded by TuneIn, Spotify and Pandora.  A video of the entire day is posted on Kurt Hanson's RAIN website.

Jukeboxes are not new.  Top 40 radio was famously created when a smart programmer back in the 50's noticed that the majority of people were putting coins in the machine to hear the same songs over and over.

People have been willing to spend money to hear their favorite tune immediately for as long as live performers have been willing to play requests.

AM/FM radio has never been about personalization.  It was smart of the researchers to create new categories of "radio" for this study.  Our success - the "need" we can still fill better than anyone else - is building community with information, universals, relatables and entertainment value.  I don't see anything in this new info on uses of emerging technology to change that.

It would be a mistake for today's AM-FM radio to try to be something new technologies can do better, just as it has been to cut the resources that create the things nothing else can do as well.

The quality of the service - what our talent talk about and music we select - provides to them has more to do with how much time listeners give us than competing technologies.

Those are the best weapons to take to this inpending on-the-road battle.

We all had better take that very personally.

We Are SO Smart

I went with that headline instead of just stealing the one atop the Country Radio Seminar's latest press release:  "Young Country Fans Use an Average of Five Different Social Media Sites" because "we are so smart" is what Mike O'Malley, Becky Brenner and I said to ourselves after seeing this yesterday:

Where should Country radio engage with its new generation of listeners? Everywhere and at once.  A new study on Country listening and media usage among 12-to-34-year-olds shows that the average number of different social media sites used by that demographic is an impressive 4.4. But 12-to-34-year-olds who listen frequently to Country music are even more prone to be using multiple social media sites simultaneously, an average of 5.0.

Edison Research’s “Understanding Country Radio’s Next Generation of Listeners” is the newest research on the music and media habits of 12-to-34-year olds. The full survey will be unveiled February 19th at the Country Radio Seminar in Nashville by Edison’s Larry Rosin and Megan Lazovick, along with Jayne Charneski, an expert on “Millennials.” A follow-up session will be held February 20th.

Edison surveyed 1,550 12-34-year-olds, including nearly 900 respondents under age 25.   In addition, Edison conducted face-to-face interviews with Millennials about their attitudes towards Country music, Country radio, and music listening and media habits in general. Those interviews will be unveiled for the first time at the Country Radio Seminar presentation. 

The average number of social networks used is the number that respondents said that they used “actively or occasionally.”

“Broadcasters are at widely varying places in their social media efforts, and acknowledging the need to engage with listeners and potential listeners does not always translate to having a strategy,” says Edison Research president Larry Rosin. “Knowing that young Country fans are on even more networks than their already savvy peers means that Country needs a wide-ranging social media strategy that goes beyond ‘like us on Facebook.’ We look forward to helping guide broadcasters craft that strategy at CRS.”

That process already started long ago at A&O&B. 

That's why we hired Jacobs Media's Lori Lewis to help our clients navigate the future.  It begins publicly at A&O&B's Pre-CRS Seminar February 18 in Nashville, where you will want to hear Lori's presentation, part of our best client seminar EVER.

RSVP for 2014's 2/18 client seminar now (click)!

Has Country Radio Reached The Christmas Music Tipping Point?

"One last listen to the 2013 Holidays" (report) serves up one final piece of Christmas pie and makes it clearer why upper-demo targeted radio stations post such astronomical shares each December.

Overall terrestrial radio listening appears to be going down in PPM measurement during the same period, so it seems that getting a bigger slice of a smaller pie is at least part of what's happening.

I have used these charts before and I apologize for trotting it out again, but it's a good time to ponder how country radio users felt about the tactic seven years ago.

Back in 2005 and 2006, Edison Research did a massive national online database study for Country Radio Seminar and asked country listeners about it.

Kansas City in 2013 was a case study of what we may see more and more of in 2014.  The older-targeted country station was up after jingling musical bells, while the other two - targeting under 45 - were also both up and ranked in the market's top five, by carefully not doing the same thing.

As that 2005-2006 study showed, the decision for country programmers on whether to cavort with elves and Santa's helpers or not has always been a difficult one, but it's going to be even tougher - and important to know who else is going to do it - in the coming year.

MLK Day Must Have Been A Slow News Day For Radio's Trades

• Radio Ink's top story:  musicFIRST Slams NAB, Radio on Playlist Repetition
• Radio World: MusicFirst: Radio Song Repetition 'Shocking'
• RAIN:  Bill O’Reilly recommends Pandora
• Legendary programmer Bill Hennes wants us to factor in music sales data:  Programmers Take The Easy Way Out

NAB's Dennis Wharton, fortunately, was quick to add some facts to the fury:  “If the charge is that local radio plays popular music that listeners enjoy, we plead guilty."

In about three weeks each and every A&O&B client will know precisely how many of their listeners use Pandora and all other media choices at their fingertips and how satisfied their average listener is with their favorite radio station, thanks to Roadmap 2014.  If you're an A&O&B client, don't miss this free opportunity to get facts and stats to guide you in the coming year!

Weekly callout, online testing, other innovative music tests and mScore tracking are among the many tools that take the guesswork out of programming decision-making you should be using if you have concerns about your potential audience's music preferences.

You can literally ask a large number of your listeners whether they are tired of hearing a song on the radio, whether they'd like to hear it more, less or about the same.   Track this over many weeks, follow their guidance and watch repetition complaints go down and time spent with your radio station increase.

This isn't a new idea.  Radio has proven its effectiveness for more than 30 years.

Music sales numbers mean a lot to you if you're an artist, a publisher or a record company, but I hope my radio competition uses them determine their music rotations.  I'll test them with my target audience and beat them every time!
  
Finally, the only reason I'd be concerned about what Bill O'Reilly makes use of to get his music when he wants it would be if you know that he had previously cumed your radio station.

Young Country Fans Are More Likely To Consume Broadcast Radio

At a time when broadcast radio is increasingly challenged for younger listeners, there's good news for radio from younger Country fans.

12-to-24-year-olds who say they listen frequently to Country music are significantly more likely to have listened to FM radio in the last week than the 12-to-24 demo overall. But 12-to-24-year-old Country fans are also more likely to use other types of audio as well.

Hopefully, you saw that headline which received a lot of coverage in all the trade media.  Megan Lazovick's Edison Research press release on the newest research on the music and media habits of 12-to-34-year olds contained a few other juicy info-tidbits as well, some of which didn't get the coverage the headline received:

• 12-to-24-year-old Country fans listened to “traditional FM radio” more than the demo overall, but their other audio usage was also disproportionately higher as well, including listening to personalized online radio such as Pandora.
• While the amount of listening to FM is higher than the amount of personalized online radio listening, 12-to-24 Country fans were more likely to have listened to personalized online radio in the previous week than all 12-to-24s.

Edison surveyed 1,550 12-34-year-olds, including nearly 900 respondents under age 25. In addition, they conducted face-to-face interviews with Millennials about their attitudes towards Country music, Country radio, and music listening and media habits in general. Those interviews will be unveiled for the first time at the Country Radio Seminar presentation.

“Even as their choices expand, Country listeners of all ages have often been among the most loyal to broadcast radio, and 12-to-24-year-olds are no exception,” says Edison Research president Larry Rosin. “This study shows, however, that with the strength of today’s Country music, Millennial listeners are eager to consume it on many platforms.  We hope our CRS presentation will give programmers the tools they need to maintain their advantage with younger listeners.”

The full survey will be unveiled February 19th in Nashville by Edison's Larry Rosin and Megan Lazovick, along with Jayne Charneski, an expert on "Millennials." A follow-up session will be held February 20th.

A 2014 Wish That Even 12-24 Listeners Don't Seem To Want Radio To Grant

Country Aircheck Weekly features some fun and serious wishes from members of our community.

It's worth a read, but I have bad news for Curb Dir./National Promotion Mike Rogers who speaks for many in the music marketing community:  "My wish for radio is that the door will open for more opportunity for female artists. You can see it start turning that way now, we just need that door to open a little wider."

Note that even 12-24 country fans' list of top four favorite artists, as I posted yesterday, contains only one female and four guys.

All of the 12 to 24 year olds' ranker of the favorite four was just the opposite:  three females and one male.

Bad news for Mike, I fear.  Programmers certainly want to access that cume of all younger listeners, but more important to us is to keep the country core among them happy by playing their favorites.

Good news for us:  12-24 tastes among country music radio fans look quite similar in this regard to 25-49.

She's "Carrie-ing" Our Younger Demos

NBC must have done a bit of research of their own before they gave Carrie Underwood some "Dough Re Me" last year.

An early look at just-fielded research conducted by Edison Research for next month’s Country Radio Seminar indicates that Carrie is the most popular artist with young both people in the 12-24 demo who like country music and is also the most popular country artist among all 12-24s.

“Understanding country radio’s next generation of listeners” finds favorable 12-24 ratings for these artists among the young folks who said they like country music:

1. Carrie Underwood:  82%
2. Tim McGraw:  80%
3. Blake Shelton:  78%
4. Luke Bryan:  75%

Among all 12-24's:

1. Carrie Underwood:  48%
2. Kelly Clarkson:  44%
3. Taylor Swift:  43%
4. Tim McGraw:  40%

Edison leaked some advance data to Tom Taylor, noting the study “comes at a time when country radio has received unprecedented listening from younger audiences, with higher-than-ever 18-34 listening and surprising strength among 12-to-17 year olds.  The youngest fans show surprisingly mainstream and diverse tastes.”

Edison’s Larry Rosin and Megan Lazovick, along with Millennials expert Jayne Charneski, will present at CRS in Nashville on February 19. Interested in attending? The $499 “regular rate” ends next Monday, January 13. (click to register)

Recency and Satisfaction

Edison Research's Tom Webster:

Among Country format P1s who shopped in the previous 24 hours, 61 percent reported listening to AM/FM radio just prior to arriving at the store; this is higher than average compared to 49 percent of Americans age 12+. 

Here's the chart from his presentation that turned my frown upside down, though:

To learn more, Arbitron clients can download the full Country format P1s presentation free of charge from Arbitron at my.arbitron.com.

Previous studies, including the full Infinite Dial 2013 study, may be downloaded free of charge from Edison Research here and also via the Arbitron website at www.arbitron.com.

Country's Gen X (Conversation)

My Country's Gen X Problem post initiated a Facebook dialog:

Bob McNeill:  Of course country has a 35-44 problem. The average age of a country listener has been right in the middle of that demo for decades and now, with the influx of pop, they're disenfranchised. We never learn.  Country has always been the only adult format that's sustained by current music. Balance is always the issue. And with that, the development of core artists that aren't disposable as they are in pop formats. Disposable songs and artists are a danger to the country format. I fear we're allowing the music business to drive the direction of the format which is problematic since radio and records do have divergent goals at some point.

Ralph Cipolla:  Classic Rock PDs (and Sales folk) have been lamenting the inevitable march of time... now, they face what traditional Oldies stations did 15 years ago. The cell they owned - 35-44 - is now a secondary demo, as the format is firmly rooted 45-54. And each year, it gets one year older. The "newest" legitimately fitting songs in the format are now 25 years old, Led Zeppelin I is 44 years old and was the music of those who are now 60+ years old. Throwing in a category of polarizing Grunge & Metallica songs works for some stations with Rock roots and little competition, particularly in The South, but can be a disaster for others. I've always been interested in the Country airplay vintage v. audience age connection that appears to defy the typical music vintage to listener age if/then equation.  Is this a potential opportunity? A difficult-to-reach young cell appears to be coming along and could be welcomed into the fold, while a traditional core demo sees the ever-growing distraction of Sports/Talk & Talk & time-shifting tech that Arb can't yet measure - but they remain in attendance and need to be the object of a re-doubled engagement effort - assuming its not just a music issue (is it ever?)

Drew Edmundson:  I've always been more of a variety guy (mixing the classics in with the new) in pretty much any format. People 35-44 like new songs (I'm 44 and love Lady A, Zach BB, Aldean, etc). I think there needs to be a healthy dose of older songs so as to not alienate that demo.  I do nights on a country station as well as afternoons on an AC station and I see many crossovers. Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Tim McGraw, Jason Aldean, Kelly Clarkson, Lady A, Kenny Chesney, Faith Hill, etc.  I look at this as a good thing for the country format.

Leslie Humble As a DJ/Programmer of Country Music dating back even before my days at WSM and The Grand Ole Opry, I see several factors at play. A large section of the age group 50 - 65 hate the Pop country with the semi Country vocal over Rock/Pop instrumentation. The aforementioned 35-44 Cell is on the edge of being torn by the extreme fragmentation that is today's micro cell centric choices. Even 35-44 should be more incrementally targeted.  Two things: Going back to Jaye's original thought on capturing the 35-44 demo. Isn't it the same as it's always been? Lifestyle. Target your promotions, on air comments, remotes, to a 40 year old woman for that demo. Lifestyle. As far as the music....I must slightly disagree that Garth or 90's are as far as you can go. Even if it's testing that way. I do national voice over work mostly now and my shows are live ones. I see 20 year olds jumping up for Hank Jr., John Anderson, Mel McDaniel, Charlie Daniels and on and on. It reminds me of the story of how top 40 was discovered by Todd Storz by watching the same song played over and over on a jukebox. The music that demo and others will accept is also a self perpetuating thing. How many of us feel like we helped "break" or Make a hit record by playing it? Musically WE tell them what is a hit or good in many cases. The only distinction, to me, is that the PRODUCTION VALUES, must be of the level we expect today. 

Jaye Albright: Thanks, to all of you.  Personally, I don't think that it gets solved by playing 90's or earlier for a mainstream or a "new country" station, since the majority of 35-44 available to country radio today were not listening to country music when they were teens.  It's about balance, as more than one of you have noted. The great majority of today's A artists, almost all of which have emerged in the last five years aren't crossover acts.  Right now, country has 18 touring acts able to fill arenas, which is an unprecedented development in the history of the format.  We do have a handful of them you'd call "crossover" acts, but still the vast majority get played only on country radio.

PS:  If this piqued your interest and you want some specific advice on what to do next, click on the CRS 2013 session "Younger Country: Is 18-34 the New 25-54? and listen to very savvy panelists John Dimick/Lincoln Financial, Chris Huff/KSCS and Sean Ross/Edison Research share their perspectives on coalitions vs conflicts between tastes of the wide country  demographic targets.  It's an hour well spent, if you missed that session at CRS.

Thank You Notes

.. to Florida Georgia Line, Dustin Lynch, Thompson Square and Brad Paisley, for standing up for country radio's place in their success on CBS This Morning.  You know that even more country superstars will do more of the same thing on the ACM Awards and we are endlessly in their debt for taking time to do it!

... to Arbitron and Edison Research for working together for the 21st time on their "Infinite Dial" studies, which not only give us a great help in future planning but also provides broadcast radio with credible, objective reinforcement in non-radio press venues of our compelling story, like this "Among Weekly Users, Online Radio Consumption Trounces Online Video."

It's nice to have friends like you and we never take your kindness and support for granted.

The New "Transistor Radio" Is Also The New "Alarm Clock"

While Arbitron and Edison Research's 21st "Infinite Dial" study proclaims that in 2013 AM/FM radio remains, for now at least, "king" in the vehicle, our early birds are migrating south.

It's imperative that your smart phone app have a "wake up to your station" stream function if you want to be in the at home early morning game

Especially if you target under 35's.

It goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway!) that your morning show needs to be as personal, fresh, fun, entertaining, interactive and as consistently-relevant as your real competition for listening time at home in the morning:  an alarm sound, email, social networks and a browser!

Triangulation

It will take many days to fully digest all of the findings released yesterday by Arbitron, Edison Research and NPD Group, but one thing is already obvious.

Thinking about many research reports one at a time won't give you the full picture of broadcast radio's place in media usage.

As yesterday's post proposed on an entirely different set of info, before you make use of any research findings you didn't pay for, it's important to understand who did pay for each study and what their motivations are.

For example, this chart from NPD's “Music Acquisition Monitor:"

As Tom Taylor notes in his report of the study: "That headline needs a bunch of qualifiers – like the age of those “younger Americans” (13 to 35) and the fact that the 23% figure relates to music listening, not total listening to radio and/or other audio sources." 

Arbitron's Bill Rose and Edison's Tom Webster were quick today with insightful recommendations in their recaps of Infinite Dial 2013, so I simply want to share the following chart from it through which I think we need to view the NPD data:

Certainly, not many people use their two ears to listen to two separate audio sources at the same time, but that's about the only form of media multitasking that isn't going on - and growing - now.

The strength of "radio" is that it's available to use while you're doing other things. 

Simultaneous media usage is our future.  It's no longer a zero-sum game.  You need to look at as many data points as possible to get the full story.

Heck, even the word triangulation has more than one meaning.

Seconding The Emotion

Tom Taylor Now:

Larry Rosin of Edison did the presentation at the Nashville Convention Center, illustrating the fight for media time that exists between television (CMT, Great American Country, etc.), country videos on YouTube, Pandora, and mobile devices. He says Americans want the device that’s the easiest to use in a particular environment. At home, that’s TV. At work, it’s the Internet. In the car, it’s still radio. 

 Ed Ryan of RadioInk:

Megan Lazovick of Edison Research presented detailed information about the Country radio listener at CRS yesterday in an "Ethnographic Study." Lazovick went out across the country and spent days with listeners, observing how they consume music and what the country music format means to them.

Ryan caught both of them by phone yesterday and the entire interview is worth the time: 

“...radio remains most people’s primary way to interact with the country music they love..."

As usual, the number of CRS attendees in research presentation panels was disappointing considering the power of the information.  My fear is that we're all so time-challenged that Larry's key point, which comes right at the end isn't going to have the impact it deserves.

So, I cut to the chase for you:  LarryRosin-CRS2013.mp3 is just a little over a minute.

Please download it and share it with everyone who communicates with listeners at your radio station.

One year ago, Larry's CRS research stressed the importance of being local and our largest radio companies have ignored that advice.

This year, the advice isn't for owners.

It's for you.

"Y" Not?

Nashville Tennessean writer Jaquetta White picked up some seemingly-contradictory quotes as she solicited reactions to the debut of "The Bobby Bones Show" on WSIX and numerous other Clear Channel stations:

“We’re targeting the show to the 20- and 30-somethings, which hasn’t been done in the country format,” WSIX Program Director Michael Bryan said. “If you look at the artists, what we’re doing is a reflection of what’s popular. We have to do this if we’re going to raise a new generation of country listeners.”

I recommended radio programmers take a cue from census data, which indicate that today’s 16- to 33-year-olds, estimated at about 78 million people, as a group are not only larger than the generation immediately preceding them, but also larger than the leading edge of baby boomers.  “You don’t even have to target younger. It’s just that America is becoming younger because of this generational cohort.  I don’t think the average country station has to do anything to attract the younger generation. All you have to do is play the latest hits by the latest stars.”

Twenty years ago, the topic might not have generated the same level of interest, said Sean Ross, vice president of music and programming at Edison Research.  “There wasn’t any music that a self-respecting teen would have been interested in,” Ross said. “There wasn’t as much tempo. There wasn’t as much of a rock edge.  We have gone from ‘We don’t want anybody under 25 or maybe even 35. But if they come along for the ride, that’s nice,’ to ‘Hey, kids, win a contest to have Hunter Hayes visit your high school.’

• “All advertisers are trying to reach certain targets.  I have a suspicion that (country radio) may be attracting 25- to 35-year-olds now at a little bit higher rate. The question is, is that at the detriment of other groups?  I think a lot of people are looking at the ratings service as an indication of the move on the format. I don’t look at the ratings service as research,” said John Dimick, vice president of programming and operations for Lincoln Financial Media, which operates 15 radio stations in Atlanta, Denver, Miami and San Diego. “I think country’s appeal continues to be mass in nature.”
• Specifically courting a younger demographic is not necessary, said Chris Huff, program director at  KSCS-FM 96.3, Dallas, because the music has broad enough appeal to pull in all age groups.  “In country music, it’s really not as segregated musically. There are people of all ages who are fans of Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean, and you have younger listeners who are fans of the older stars,” Huff said. “Just by its nature, it’s going to attract a sizable audience.”

I think we all told her basically the same thing, even though when we spoke with Jaquetta we didn't know we were engaging in what would appear in print to be a conversation.

As long as Bobby (and the rest of us) understand and adhere to the fundamentals of the culture, lifestyle and music which unite a mass audience of all ages of country fans in many areas of the world today, we'll have a very bright future.

Millenials have already impacted our media and social relationships, no matter what age group you belong to.

I will speak more about why I feel that way at the Albright & O'Malley & Brenner client seminar in Nashville.

Then, let's spend the rest of CRS week thoroughly discussing your point of view on it too.

That's what has made our format incredibly dynamic for many generations.