If you thought this post was about Art Vuolo, apologies to the official chronicler of radio.
No, it’s about a topic that has become a mainstay in this blog – and that’s because it deserves to be.
The car is in fact radio’s best friend. Whether it is radio’s best friend forever is a bigger question.
More and more, it is the central location for listening, and it is becoming more important to the industry each week. It is also one of the least understood aspects of radio usage, which is something that needs to be remedied – and soon.
First and foremost, the lion’s share of radio listening takes place while driving. Nielsen knows this, and studies from the Infinite Dial to our Techsurveys confirm it. If you don’t believe me, offer up a quick and dirty web poll to your email database and ask your core listeners directly where they listen to your station.
And yet, it is undergoing the greatest change since Motorola installed those first car radios back in the 1930s. It’s been a peanut butter and jelly relationship ever since. We may all be very different people from diverse backgrounds. But I’m betting that when we first got behind the wheel of a car, started driver’s training, got our learner’s permit, and ultimately our license to drive, the very activity after turning the key into the ignition was to turn on the radio.
Back in 2007 when we conducted “The Bedroom Project” for Arbitron, we experienced something of a revelation. That study consisted of “home invasions” among 17-28 year-olds in Columbus, Ohio, and Los Angeles. The mission was simply to determine how they entertained and informed themselves. And the study was an eye-opener.
Our young respondents gave us a tour of their media lives, including streaming, the beginnings of social media, the early days of smartphones, and video gaming. But radio rarely came up in the conversation while we are in their dorms, apartments, and homes.
It wasn’t until we walked into their garages or out to the street that radio made its entrance. And that’s because we were sitting in their cars.
Since then, the idea of the automobile as the MVLL – “Most Valuable Listening Location” – has only intensified. As radios disappear from nightstands, kitchens, and in-home media centers, and as computers, iPods, and smartphones become the entertainment sources at work, radio’s present and future is sitting in driveways, garages, and parking decks in every market in the U.S.
Yet, few radio professionals own a “connected car,” a minority has even driven one, and yet, we go about our day-to-day business as if radio’s ubiquity in people’s lives remains unchallenged and unchanged.
I have spent a great deal of time these past few weeks with Paul Jacobs and Tim Davis, poring over the results of Techsurvey10 – more than 42,000 respondents from more than 220 stations nationwide. And I can tell you that when the results are presented, it will open the industry’s eyes.
While overall radio listening – essentially the cume – is down just a hair, we are seeing less engagement (think TSL) than ever before. Our studies have drawn criticism over the years because they are essentially comprised of core listeners who are members of station databases. So this data is even more poignant when you see slippage among this population.
Those of you who subscribe to various ratings services know that listening levels in January tended to be down in most markets. Many will blame a harsh winter – throughout most of the country – as the culprit. And it’s true that the lion’s share of our surveys were completed in perhaps the nastiest January ever.
When people spend less time in their cars, they spend less time with radio. That’s a fact. And while it might make you feel better when you look outside today and see normalizing temperatures, the fact that radio’s connection to cars is very much up for grabs at this tipping point in time should send a message to the industry that it’s time to rethink its relationship with the auto industry.
We’re talking about making connections with automakers and their Tier 1 suppliers, rebooting relationships with dealers, and rethinking how we communicate to consumers, a rising majority of whom are listening to us while on the road.
Tomorrow, we’ll talk about how the “connected car” isn’t just about pairing your phone with the “center stack” or coping with expanded entertainment options. It runs much deeper than that.
“Radio’s best friend” is changing even faster than we think.
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.
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Any radio PD/Ops Mgr, Marketing/Promo Director/Market Mgr, Group Head, President/CEO/COO, board member who hasn’t driven connected cars (note the plurals) should be fired. End of story.
This is the real game changer and it must be addressed on two fronts. First, as you mentioned in this blog, in partnerships with the auto makers. Second, programming must be able to compete with everything that the center stack makes as easy to access as radio. IMO, it doesn’t now.
That means playing hardball with the music industry on streaming royalties, making a deal with AFTRA (that probably won’t require hardball) on streaming ads and getting in the trenches with the auto industry so that radio can partner with them as things are developed, rather than look backwards at how its competitors took radio out by doing it.
No, the future isn’t in phone chips, HD radio, more cost cuts, further consolidation, national concerts and contests or telling radio’s story better.
Radio’s future is in doing the hard work of what old stoners used to refer to as “being here now”.
A radio sales consultant who saved my sales career named Don Beveridge convinced me that if I didn’t adopt a more consultative approach to my job that my career was, in his words, “deep fundamental trouble”. He said that a 1960s-70s approach to sales just wouldn’t cut it anymore. Radio should consider that the only significant change it has made to its product since the 90s is cost cuts and whether that will stand up to the connected car.
Dude, start by driving one!
I agree that a sweeping mega-issue like the “connected car” will test radio’s resilience in a profound way. Thanks for the comments and perspective, as always, Bob.