Latest Nielsen #'s show radio's diminishing relevance

[TC Talks]

Don't let Mark Elliott see this, he is convinced that listenership grows every year.

[48125er]

WKLQ is doing well, I Imagine clownsqaure and cumulus never thought a niche alt station would beat their bread and butter at Shot fm and mix 95.7

Nowadays I only listen to them, 106.5 Jack FM, or 100.5 the river in my car, or siriusxm or spotify, only stations that play a good variety nowadays in this market, basically every other station here bores me to tears, if you look at 100.5's playlist, they sound more like a variety hits station rather than a soft ac, ive been hearing songs on there that arent soft rock esque that i havent heard a station play in years.

[whitebalance]

Thanks to corporate owners.

[ChrisWL1980]

I've noticed 100.5 goes all '80s on weekends lately but with an AC lean as opposed to the typical '80s playlist. They don't promote it as such so you'd only notice from listening for a time or looking at their online playlist. It appears to be the case with all of Townsquare's Soft ACs that run their corporate playlist, including 96.1 in Buffalo. Some of the songs - "Living Inside Myself," "Orinoco Flow" for two examples - remind me of the original MOR/borderline adult standards River of circa 1998-99.

[ftballfan]

Non-subscribers (Michigan Radio, WGVU, Blue Lake, Smile FM, etc.) or out of core market stations (Muskegons, WHTC, WGHN, the Van, Jack FM, etc.) probably add another 10 or so percentage points

[Art Van Damme]

Does anyone know what the “persons using radio” number is?

I guess nowadays that would be persons that would agree to carrying around a ppm monitor. If that is even used anymore…

[Barry Sanders]

PPM has never been used in Grand Rapids, likely never will be.

[Better Call Saul]

I have been wondering for some time now, how long radio stations can hold on. Other than maybe catching a football game on local station last fall, I am honestly not sure the last time I actually listened to a broadcast radio station. Sirius/XM lets me listen to what I want with a much better signal and none of the commercials. Its amazing to me that local stations are even able to stay afloat

[since16]

I have been wondering for some time now, how long radio stations can hold on. Other than maybe catching a football game on local station last fall, I am honestly not sure the last time I actually listened to a broadcast radio station. Sirius/XM lets me listen to what I want with a much better signal and none of the commercials. Its amazing to me that local stations are even able to stay afloat

Well, as a radio operator and owner, would like to set the record straight, at least from when it comes to our station:
* Revenue is through the roof.
* Advertisers are contacting us, especially recruitment (why, because they are finding social media is not working as it used to)
* Radio still has 158 million listeners vs. 34 million on satellite (satellite is declining peaking at nearly 35 million subscribers in 2019)
* Car dealers will tell you that the "free" satellite radio does not get renewed as much as you would think.
* Radio is the ONLY medium that can say that you can deliver to all of these at the same time: via website, through smart devices, over the air and can deliver content through all the social media channels as well. (83 million smart devices owned in the U.S. currently that can deliver those stations).
* Approximately 90% of our advertisers at our station are annual advertisers and renew because they can actually say they get results (local advertisers cannot advertise on Satellite radio and not sure if you have tried to advertise on social media today vs 2 or 3 years ago? And, no, I am not anti-social media (we actually utilize ad campaigns for the station). But, by far our organic campaigns can dwarf ad spend. Other businesses are seeing this as well, that is why the phone is ringing because they can allocated budget dollars into other mediums like radio.
* Just hired 3 people this past week because radio is busy and we are putting on another station because if done the right away it can be very successful.

That is what is happening and I talked with a sales rep in another market recently and he was running crazy because it's that busy. I think radio will do well for a while.

[whitebalance]

Thanks to corporations turning out crap product.

[48125er]

I wonder what percentage is spotify and streaming

[Ben Zonia]

Here's a stunner: Magic 104.9 by a nose hair outperformed WLAV in 12+ share!

Maybe it's time for Townsquare to put it on a centrally located Class A 80-90 Drop In. Some say (A member of the Bell family told me on the phone that is why they didn't apply for the 80-90 allotments in GR, many years ago) it would be difficult to sell the format in Grand Rapids though, to make it worthwhile to substitute for lower rated but higher billing formats.

WLAV-outdated FCC rules (current Section 73.213) and the resulting spotty measured DA pattern are taking their toll. They should have nailed that old TL site down years ago.