Thursday, March 07, 2013

Yet Another New "Job Description"

Here's the next "Enlarged" Title after GM and Program Director.

Let's face it, the folks formerly called "listeners" (if they ever actually were really listening as intently as our talent felt they had been) clearly don't have the time or interest to pay attention to anything that doesn't immediately concern them right now.
DMR/Interactive COO Andrew CurranBack when AM radio played the hits or more recently when Howard Stern ruled morning drive, the term "listener" adequately described our audience.  In today's digital and mobile environment, we have an opportunity to think about our audience in a new way. They are no longer just listening to the radio. They are commenting on it, promoting it, creating it, sharing it, evaluating it, and talking about it. 

He just got the ball rolling yesterday by setting up a new LinkedIn group "Audience Evolution," (click to join it) facilitating a conversation that will help strengthen the relationship radio has with our audience and our advertisers.

One of the first posts to the group came from Arbitron Director of Programming Servicess Jon Miller:  "We should take a cue from other industries and start thinking of our target audience as consumers, not just listeners."

Others: 

Thom RogersBusy and doing at least one other thing.
Jim RobertsRadio should take a tip from the software industry where consumers are called “users.”
Add your voice to this conversation so your "listener" doesn't become "apathetic, uninterested bystander."

1 comment:

RJ Curtis said...

During Edison Media Research's CRS Study presentation last week, Larry Rosin and co-presenter Lori Hamilton urged radio to think of listeners as friends, saying: "If you thought of your relationship to your listeners as a friendship instead of a consumer relationship – how would you act differently? Because that is the situation here – these people are not your customers – they are your friends."