Radio's Resurgence

    • 993 posts
    December 5, 2013 3:08 PM PST

    Thom Callahan of the Southern California Broadcasters Association recently delivered a powerful presentation on the state of Radio today as he sees it, and it's a piece you'll want to add to your pro-radio portfolio.

    He begins:

    I’ve been reading about the “death” of radio for far too long, and would find it all most amusing if it were not so misguided and plain wrong. Each commentary is as dire as the next. Each story is the same and all you have to do is change the decade and the latest “threat” to radio and it all goes something like this:

    1. TV is killing radio. “It won’t be long now until radio is gone” (Billboard Magazine, 1960).
    2. Cassettes and 8 track tapes in the car will “kill radio, why would you listen anymore?” (A music expert, 1970).
    3. The Sony Walkman will “rapidly eclipse radio” (a major advertiser, 1984).
    4. Betamax and VHS will “erode radio listening substantially” (local TV station, 1985).
    5. The Internet will “destroy over-the-air radio listening” (various sources, 1990).
    6. Consolidation will “turn off listeners in droves” (various, 2000).
    7. Sirius Satellite “will soon replace traditional radio within five years” (various bloggers, 2007).
    8. The iPod “will bring radio down … once and for all” (various bloggers, 2008).
    9. Pandora and “pure plays will cripple radio forever” (various, 2010).
    10. In dashboard, “Internet radio” in cars “signals the death of traditional radio” (various critics, 2011–2013).

    Whereupon, Mr. Callahan begins an extensive and well-documented refutation of the last four points, highlights of which include:

              - Radio's audience has increased 9% in the last decade

              - Listening to Radio via mobile/tablet devices has grown 82% vs. a 19% increase in growth for music services such as Pandora (whose active sessions and TSL have both declined in the first 8 months of 2013). Whereas, in the past year alone Radio's online listening growth percentage has doubled.  As he puts it, "Online listening does not erode radio's audience, it enhances it."

    Read the full article from Radio World's November 20, 2013 issue HERE.