[BC] The future of broadcasting...

[Rich Wood]

------ At 03:41 PM 9/2/2006, Mark Humphrey wrote: -------

>http://wargod.arbitron.com/scripts/ndb/ndbradio2.asp
>
>Note that overall weekly TSL has dropped by 2:15 since fall 1998.
>
>You can also observe format trends by clicking the link in the upper
>left corner.  I'm still amazed that it took less than 25 years for
>Easy Listening to drop from FM's top format to under 0.1 % share of
>12+ listeners.

This is a Henny Penny thing if I ever saw one. A loss of 2:15 in TSL 
isn't surprising, at all. With all the fragmentation in that time 
(Internet, iPod, etc) and the astonishing increase in loudness wars 
(listener fatigue) I would have predicted a much greater loss. We're 
simply sharing a finite number of hours with more stuff.

25 years for a radio format is an incredible run. Remember Disco? 
Remember, also, that the audience didn't disappear, stations dropped 
the format for something easier to sell. Many stations modified the 
format so it no longer resembled Easy Listening, trying to lower the 
demos. The supply of material vanished to the point where we had to 
record our own. Look at Easy Listening stations. Many ran the format 
for decades. XTRA and WJIB are good examples. Take the number of 
years they were Easy Listening. Take the same number of years since 
they dropped it and notice that their formats have changed multiple 
times. It seems the salvation formats didn't work very well. XTRA 
didn't drop the format because of bad numbers. My last book there was 
a 4.7. As did most Easy stations, they thought another format would 
be easier to sell.

Talk is approaching the Easy Listening record. One day it'll take a 
back seat to some other format.

I don't find any of the statistics to be unusual. Radio changes. It 
always has. I think much of our negative approach to terrestrial 
radio comes from the huge job losses consolidation brought with it. A 
recent thread dealt with radio not being fun, anymore. It used to be 
showbiz. Now it's just another Wall Street investment. When that 
happens, creativity suffers. I think it's a domino effect. Record 
companies have fallen back to creating badly recorded crud. That 
leaves contemporary formats with crud to play.

Crud+clutter+monster processing causes less listening, especially 
when you add all the other things people can do with their time and 
TSL is going to drop. I would bet that TSL would go up by an hour or 
so if we cleaned up the processing and got rid of much of the 
clutter. We have useless sweepers and an increase in the number of 
non-music elements in the hour.

Over the years there have been studies on length of spots. At one 
time the suggestion was seriously made that 15 second spots were as 
effective as 60s. In terms of perceived clutter, those same studies 
showed length didn't matter. A break with 6 30s was perceived as 
being as long as one with 6 60s. A highly placed executive recently 
claimed otherwise to support his company's attempt to clean things 
up. It was self-serving, I believe, and runs counter to a long 
accepted belief based on research.

Rich

Rich Wood
Rich Wood Multimedia
Phone: 413-454-3258