Radio people are cut from a different cloth.  True, they perform many of the same functions as other media professionals, like creating and marketing content, building audiences, and engendering engagement.

But they’re not like everybody else.

Case in point: In our polarized world where people can barely agree on anything, there’s one circumstance that annoys virtually every human being above the age of five:

Traffic jams

---

Get More Digital Revenue!

Jacobs DR can help boost your digital sales.

---

But not radio people.

We’re the only folks I know who get excited at the sight of orange barrels, lane closures, jack-knifed semis, lame drivers, unsalted winter roads, and fender benders.  The bigger the city and the lousier the urban planning, the greater chance there are chronic traffic problems.  And that is almost always a wonderful circumstance for local radio stations.

That’s because lousy traffic has always translated directly to increased quarter-hour listening.  The longer people are stuck on highways, freeways, thoroughfares, turnpikes, and two-lane roads, the greater the likelihood they’ll turn on their car radios – for traffic information, entertainment, and escape – not necessarily in that order.

And of course the two most reliable times when traffic is likely to snarl, crawl, or completely gridlock is in the drives – morning and afternoon drive.

Historically, the biggest personalities and the best shows air in “the drives.”  It’s no accident that public radio’s “tentpole shows” – Morning Edition and All Things Considered have aired in morning and afternoons respectively for decades, always racking up the best ratings book after book, year after year.

Radio companies have made untold billions of dollars directly and indirectly from horrendous traffic conditions.  Aside from increased listening and long durations, radio traffic reports have traditionally been a massive cash cow for thousands of radio stations over the decades.

In recent years, we’ve learned how radio now shares in-car listening with other platforms.  Satellite radio, in particular, has made inroads.  So, has podcasting.

And then there are the traffic apps, such as Google Maps and Waze – both of which provide more focused traffic info because the driver can choose her route, rather than waiting for a radio station to (hopefully) get around to covering the relevant roads and conditions.

Still, broadcast radio is the main beneficiary of lousy traffic conditions, and it’s been this way for decades.  And for the radio stations who stake out ownership of the “traffic hill,” investment in people, equipment, copters, and vehicles or services that provide this information have been an integral part of drive time radio for more than half a century.

We love those folks with hour-long commutes – each way – who are sentenced to sitting in their cars and trucks, killing time, and listening to the radio.

But then came 2020 and the COVID lockdowns.  Companies shut down, people huddled indoors, white collar workers logged onto Zoom, and the world learned how to conduct business at home, wearing their pajama bottoms and slippers.  Two years later, omicron is receding, but we are still working in mostly the same ways.

According to a story in the Wall Street Journal this week, people may be increasingly comfortable doing all sorts of pre-COVID activities.  But going back to their companies’ physical workspace is not one of them.

In “People Are Going Out Again, but Not to the Office,” Peter Grant explains that many businesses are on the comeback trail.  He notes the movie theater industry is about 58% of what it used to be pre-pandemic.  Restaurants are almost three-quarters as full as they were in 2019, while the airlines are about roughly 80% back.  And cheers to the NBA – their crowds are 93% of what they were in February of 2020.

But a survey by Kastle Systems reports that on average, only one-third of workers have returned to the office during the first week of February.  Despite the fast-dropping rates of COVID infections and hospitalizations, many people are still not back to their workspaces, opting instead to work from home.

The good news is that in-office attendance is up – sharply – from the first week of January when omicron was raging.  Back then, the level was only 23%.  Still, workers appear more eager to get back to their other activities rather than returning to the office.

It gets worse.  According to Grant, many employers are hesitant to push their workers to get back to working at their company environs.  Given the labor shortage and the reality that WFH has actually gone pretty well, most companies are not forcing the issue.

The story quotes Brian Kropp, chief of human resource researcher for Gartner:

“There’s not a real urgency to change it.”

Axios reporter Erica Pandey says that despite conducting lots of research and consulting with workplace experts about this dilemma, many companies remain clueless about the future of work when COVID subsides.  They just don’t know when – and if – their idea of at-work normalcy will even exist again.

Part of their confusion is due to the onset of variants over the past two years.  COVID’s twists and turns have caused many companies to push back their return-to-the-office dates – including Ford, Lyft, DocuSign, and so many others.

Gartner’s Kropp says that working through hybrid work patterns is proving to spark fewer tech problems, while becoming more of a behavioral issue:

“It’s a consistency and evenness-of-experience question.”

Even the experts agree it may be another year – or two – before companies and their employees are back in some sort of a predictable rhythm.

So, what does this have to do with radio?  Everything.  That’s because less regular commuting patterns means that even as more workers return to their offices, the regularity of their back-and-forth travel patterns have changed.  Techsurvey tells us that for about half of core radio listeners, most or all of their broadcast radio usage takes place while they’re in their vehicles.  When that gets disrupted, everything’s in the air – especially traffic levels.

Who would know better than TomTom, the mapmaking GPS company that has been tracking traffic patterns for years?  Their TomTom Traffic Index uses data to calculate commute times in more than 400 cities across 58 countries.

It’s a bit wonky, but it’s a great read.  The index can be broken down by continent.  It not only provides a world ranking for congestion levels in specific markets – it calculates how last year’s data compares to 2020 and what we consider “normal” driving activity from back in 2019.

Axios analyzed the newly released TomTom Traffic Index.  Their conclusion?

“The pandemic didn’t kill rush hour, but instead has spread traffic throughout the day.”

Their story suggests this finding could become a permanent legacy of COVID.  In studying the city-by-city data, Axios has discovered a “late morning peak” around 11 a.m., while in other metros, afternoon drive now starts as early as 3 p.m.

What does this look like in the U.S. and the UK?

The three-year breakdown in both countries is revealing because they track similarly.  In  the U.S., morning and afternoon drive congestion levels have thankfully grown from their 2020 record lows.  But neither is close to where they were back in 2019.  On the other hand, midday and night numbers have nearly returned to their pre-pandemic levels.

For markets and stations that have relied on consistently bad traffic day in, week in, and year out, they may be in for a surprise when they consult TomTom’s specific market level numbers.  For this post, I’ve pulled off the top 5 markets, based on congestion level and time lost per year because of drivers crawling along in heavy traffic:

It’s not surprising to see New York, L.A., and Miami clock in 1-2-3 in congestion and time lost.  These are the markets where “radio listening opportunity” – RLO (yes, I made that up) is highest.  These commuters are most likely to be stuck in traffic.

But look at Baton Rouge.  I have no idea what’s happening on the roads in Louisiana’s state capitol but it must be a mess.

You can see how congestion is trending from both 2019 and 2020 in the far right columns.  A red box means traffic congestion has gotten worse.  Look at the far right column that compares last year to 2020.  All five markets are experiencing more traffic than in the first COVID year when so many were at home.  New York City is showing the biggest percentage pickup in traffic volume.

But when we compare 2021 traffic to when we were in the “normal” year 0f 2019, radio managers, programmers, and sellers can see whether their markets are “off” from pre-COVID levels.  That’s especially the case in L.A. and San Francisco where both markets are quite a bit less congested than they were 24 months ago.  That circumstance may be good for commuters, but it is ultimately bad for radio.

For morning drive shows in markets like this where traffic congestion levels are considerably lower than in 2019, it puts pressure on shows and stations to perform the way they used to.  And given less consistent working patterns, achieving listening regularity – listeners tuning into a show 4-5 days a week – become more challenging.

The entire study is available here, so you can look up your market to see precisely what you’re up against.

For many radio broadcasters here in the States and around the world, these data have implications on programming, sales, program scheduling, and of course, the placement (and perhaps even the necessity) of traffic reports.

And what does this data mean to broadcast radio’s daypart strategies?  Of course, morning and afternoon drive still matter even in this diminished state.  As noted, achieving habitual listening has become more difficult.  Stations and shows might want to focus more on how listeners can “catch up” with a show on-demand.

Remember that in PPM, content repurposed in podcast form needs to be encoded and consumed within 24 hours of its original broadcast.  Promoting this on-demand programming for laptops, mobile devices, and smart speakers has become even more important to capturing every quarter-hour possible, while keeping fans engaged with their favorite hosts.

But changing traffic patterns have wider implications on the broadcast day.  The TomTom data suggest that middays – once known as the “housewife daypart,” and later, the “at-work daypart”– is becoming a time of day that has grown in impact and importance over these past two COVID years.

For some time now, music stations have gravitated to a voicetracking solution during the middle of the day.  The theory was that if people are in their offices, warehouses, or work sites, immersed in their jobs, stations want to create an unobtrusive background environment so workers will play radio stations while they work.  In other words, more music/less talk.  But with late mornings and early afternoons changing in traffic volume, does a more forefront, lean-in midday personality (or show) make more sense for some stations?  Can and should the midday daypart be more forefront and interactive?

In public radio, the middays have been the traditional laggard.  Do changing traffic patterns suggest a different strategy in the way public radio approaches these hours?

We know that COVID has changed our lives in both obvious and subtle ways.  It has disrupted lifestyles and long-standing habits and rituals, many of which impact when and where consumers listen to radio – or do something else.

Conducting research among a station’s current listener base might be a start.  Learning where they are, what they’re doing, and the gadgets in hand provide data that can be translated into programming and marketing strategies.

To return to some semblance of “normal,” radio stations have to hope more consumers will “get their motor running (and) head out to the highway” at some point in 2022.

Until then, may the best data and the best strategy win.

• Author
• Recent Posts

Fred Jacobs

President & Founder at Jacobs Media

Fred Jacobs founded Jacobs Media in 1983, and quickly became known for the creation of the Classic Rock radio format.

Jacobs Media has consistently walked the walk in the digital space, providing insights and guidance through its well-read national Techsurveys.

In 2008, jacapps was launched - a mobile apps company that has designed and built more than 1,300 apps for both the Apple and Android platforms. In 2013, the DASH Conference was created - a mashup of radio and automotive, designed to foster better understanding of the "connected car" and its impact.

Along with providing the creative and intellectual direction for the company, Fred consults many of Jacobs Media's commercial and public radio clients, in addition to media brands looking to thrive in the rapidly changing tech environment.

Fred was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.

Latest posts by Fred Jacobs (see all)

• Radio Listeners Don’t Get Tired Of Music, Only PDs And Music Directors Do - December 26, 2024
• It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year - December 25, 2024
• Is Public Radio A Victim Of Its Own Org Chart – Part 2 - December 24, 2024

Subscribe to JacoBlog

Fred Jacobs captures the pulse of the industry. Get his blog in your inbox