In many markets and in many arenas, broadcast radio continues to struggle with getting its fair share of the media dollar. This is exacerbated by listening declines, particularly post-pandemic. The world has moved away from linear radio, especially commercially supported by twentysomething commercials every hour. As radio’s owners and operators have learned – oftentimes the hard way – its current travails revolve around unhappy consumers rather than disruption. When listeners get fed up with the quality of radio in their markets, they have learned precisely where to go to scratch that media itch.
But radio isn’t suffering alone. Far from it. The newspaper industry is in a world of hurt. While the New York Times and Washington Post are successful exceptions, newspaper companies are under immense pressure to survive.
Enough about old school media. The streaming video world has had a tough go in 2023. Netflix has struggled, and so have its many competitors. The newest fix revolves around lower-priced tiers with commercials. And recently, Amazon Prime Video announced it will add commercials to its shows. For a mere $2.99 a month (over and above the $139 fee subscribers are now paying for Amazon Prime), viewers can rid themselves of this new commercial clutter Amazon has added to their movies and TV shows.
And finally, podcasting, a content vertical with so much promise is suffering another midlife crisis. For many of the reasons we’ve discussed in this blog – primarily a glut of content and mediocre metrics – it is nearly impossible for most podcasting content creators to cash in.
All this hit home when I read a truly remarkable and very ironic article in this Sunday’s New York Times – right on its front page. In “TV Networks’ Last Best Hope: Boomers,” writer John Koblin maps out the radical new strategy executives hope can save the medium from itself.
After years of attempting to chase those coveted younger viewers, the big networks are now refocusing their programming that appeals to the one group that never left:
Baby Boomers.
Now, they’re unabashedly chasing those consumers who show up in droves to watch traditional, over-the-air TV programming – those over 60.
Koblin tells the story of “The Golden Bachelor,” ABC’s newest entry to appeal to AARP members. Of course, the 72 year-old single guy looks like he’s in his 50s. Here’s the network’s brilliant introduction to him:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_N28jaDWUk
Still, Variety’s Elizabeth Wagmeister reports this “Bachelor” spinoff has an interesting twist: “Hometown dates consist of meeting the children, rather than the parents.”
All of a sudden, aging Baby Boomers are charming and attractive, so says Rob Mills, ABC’s top executive for unscripted shows:
“It’s everything you love about ‘The Bachelor,’ but everybody loves senior citizens because they have different love stories to talk about.”
Koblin reveals some of the network strategies for recapturing all those senior viewers. Actually, most have never gone away:
- On Wednesdays, prime time slots of “Wheels of Fortune” and “Jeopardy”
- On Sundays, a three-hour edition of “The Wonderful World of Disney”
- Last year, NBC rebooted “Law & Order” starring 82 year-old Sam Waterston
- Old shows have been relaunched with new stars: “Quantum Leap,” “Matlock,” and the old standby “Magnum, P.I.”
His article tells the story of an amazing about-face in TV. The average TV viewer for most entertainment shows has now passed the Big 6-0. And many networks shows – including “Young Sheldon,” “The Voice,”
and “Grey’s Anatomy” have an average viewer age of 60 or older.
What’s remarkable is how the networks now look at senior citizens as their lifeline. Here’s Radha Subramanyam, former iHeart research guru who now holds the same position for CBS:
“At CBS, we love older viewers. They watch a lot of television. And advertisers love them because they have tons of spending power.”
Well whaddya know? You’ve read that same quote from me many times in the past several years as radio execs have stuck by their fading 25-54 year-old target. Since COVID, the aging process in both broadcast radio and TV has accelerated.
Kobln’s article about the aging of television fits radio like a glove. Consider my obvious edits below, with my substitutions in bold:
“It’s no secret that network television radio ratings have plummeted in recent years as viewers listeners have fled prime-time lineups in favor of stream-at-your-leisure outlets like Netflix and Hulu Spotify and YouTube.”
The entire article very much reads the same way. And it makes you wonder if the broadcast TV business is in such dire straits they must turn to the only reliable audience they have, why aren’t radio’s head honchos having the same conversations?
Because if there was actually unanimity among radio owners that the most accessible and marketable audience they have has aged out of the 25-54 demo, it might change the entire nature of how radio is programmed, measured, and marketed. And succeeds.
If broadcast radio were free to embrace its most natural audience – Baby Boomers – how might that change how stations would program and what reps could sell?
Formats like Oldies, Smooth Jazz, and Soft AC would make respective comebacks. We know there’s an available audience for all these formats that “aged out” if FM radio put them back on the air. Many of these “new” stations would score impressive ratings in both diary and PPM markets.
Their audiences never went away. Radio just gave up on them.
If the “demographic cliff” ceased to exist, Classic Rock would likely fragment and flourish once again. The current version – 80’s leaning with more and more 90’s songs – would continue to exist. But throwback stations that resembled how Classic Rock stations originally sounded 3+ decades ago would spring up, too. They would emphasize the period starting with the early Beatles reaching into the early 80’s, resembling how the format sounded when I first introduced it.
On the public radio side of the street, perhaps some of the hand-wringing so common in today’s strategic meetings would abate. After all, it is common knowledge Boomers are the most reliable financial contributors. Leaning into these 60+ fans is natural, freeing public radio stations to use other platforms besides towers and transmitters to craft programming for younger and more diverse audiences.
Sometimes business reality forces decision-makers to backtrack on the plan, reassessing the assets and the audience that first made the medium successful. It sounds like TV is retrenching, going back to the basics.
How much longer will radio wait to try the same game plan?
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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I’m constantly amazed at the people who are amazed at the drop in radio listenership over the past 10 years or so. Radio and the music industry has done everything they can to run us away. The lengths of commercial breaks is insufferable. I once counted one big conglomerate station had over 7 minutes in a break. This was over four breaks that I caught that day. Of that 7 minutes 5 minutes were national spots that I’m sure was a corporate buy that was forced on the station.
The stations sound horrendous. That comes from a combination of stations not having an engineering staff that knows how to set up a processor, and music labels sending out over processed, garbage MP3s for us to play.
The quality of the songs is questionable at best. Brainless pablum is the nicest way I can describe it. Everything is a formula now, and you don’t deviate from that formula, period.
Yeah, I wonder why listeners have turned us off? It’s baffling if you ask me.
oh, and if the show producers on TV don’t start mixing their shows for the boomers like me who’s hearing isn’t the best anymore, we probably won’t hang around long there, either. I’d much rather watch a 40 year old episode of MASH where I can still understand the dialogue than waste my time on their stuff.
Carter, you and I used to disagree all the time at All Access (RIP) so it will not surprise you that I will answer your “brainless pablum” comment with a rhetorical question.
Have you tried programming a station with a playlist beyond the tested audience consensus favorites, and if you have, how did it do in the ratings and revenue?
The problem is NOT the programming (although I agree with you that moving away from mega-length stopsets would certainly help) but — as noted by Frank Mueller below — the only potential advertisers for these “resurgence” formats target the 55+ audience, and there are only so many times we can run “blue pill” spots before the audience turns off. As Frank said, the audience has a lot of money, but the agencies still refuse to rethink their “conventional wisdom” and ignore the stations serving those audiences.
And I can see the logic in Frank’s experience of local businesses going to stations with younger demos. They likely don’t want to be associated with the “senior-targeted” advertisers.
So our problem is the usual one: We know there’s an audience with $$$ to spend but no one wants to advertise to them.
KM, nothing new here. Watch any midday TV show and be amazed at the number of pharmaceutical/walk-in-bathtub/you-name-the-ailment spots we see. I once begged a sales manager to please look at other categories after we had a run of spots with retirement homes, cemeteries, senior citizen issues. Unless agencies find a way to create campaigns for other advertisers targeting boomers. We’re more than aging, infirm and crippled folks. I concur with Carter and his assessment of “current” music-as much of it is as stated. If “CHR” is still a format that plays “current” music -much of the product available is pretty sad. But those SEVEN (or 8 or 9) minute sets away from programming? Brutal.
If Carter meant CHR when he said “brainless pablum” I agree with him. But as we are talking about a format for the aging Boomers, I presume it’s going to be gold-based.
I think we all agree that the original strategy of clustering spots into longer stopsets has now totally backfired. There’s a station in Fresno which has now set both a limit on commercial time per hour and number of spots per set. The philosophy appears to mirror Bill Drake at KHJ in 1965; when you have a limit and you sell out to that limit, you have a good basis to raise the rates.
Of course, the problem is that the agencies (them again) deciding that their buy has to be accepted no matter what. That’s still something we need to work on …
It’s not just boomers, even my 19 year old daughter watches TV with subtitles on. She has perfect hearing. It’s the Christopher Nolan effect: intelligibility secondary to the guise of authenticity.
Back to radio – I’ve timed breaks I’ve heard on major market stations at 14 minutes. Many more young people would likely still be onboard with radio if they hadn’t been conditioned to associate radio with bloated commercial loads.
If network TV ran 12 to 14 minute long commercial breaks I doubt even boomers would be watching.
Sorry I thought I was replying to Carter Burger’s comment!
Mr. Jacobs has some great points, but the thing radio owners worry about is advertisers will not follow. I tried such a format (Top 40 hits from 57-79) on a station for 4 years in a market of about 500k, so certainly not a bad audience, and we did draw in the listeners, but the majority of people who wanted to advertise were ED companies and a few others who only targeted seniors. Even with all the money the audience had, ad agencies ignored them and local advertisers went to a station with a younger demo. Sadly, most of these agencies have young reps who don’t get the reason they should advertise to an older audience and most stations need agencies to survive. They don’t get that boomers are not their parents, that they will spend their children’s inheritance, and that they are not content to just stay at home and sit on the porch. Until ad agencies see the 60+ crowd for who they are, it will be difficult for programmers to make that leap.
Thanks for trying, Frank. Understandable that you’d bail on a format that couldn’t pay the bills. Has anyone researched the agencies to see what the problem with 50+ is? As we’ve seen here (and elsewhere), the 8 minute stop sets and paid programming are poison to radio. We’ve also seen that the “boomers” still have a large amount of disposable income-and yet the majority of advertisers are still looking at 25-54. Look at the grey hair in the drive-thru. The weather-worn faces at Home Depot or the people walking their dogs in your neighborhood. Radio at one time spent a good portion of their budget on audience research. Agencies and marketing companies would do themselves (and THEIR clients) service to find out who’s keeping their businesses afloat -or even to find new customers. Was a time when radio owners would sit there and answer the phones with advertisers wanting to buy schedules. In 2023, the advertising choices are now in the thousands-and the need to create a more compelling story is greater than ever. That means reaching out to every potential advertiser-and every potential consumer of your product. Create a format for your intended audience, and let the consumer-and the advertiser know it’s there. It probably won’t put 80% to the bottom line, but if done right you can definitely keep the lights on-and offer up a brighter future. It takes more work than ever, but it can pay off.
My heart just leapt a little bit when you mentioned an OG Classic Rock format….
Its a two front war…boomers/sub boomers (anybody born before 1975ish) -and- everybody after 1990. (there’s a no man’s land currently unclaimed in the middle too). The boomers/sub-boomers want to like radio but haven’t been able to for at least a generation. They’ll (probably) come back….Everybody ages. Every modern cluster has multiple stations that have no billing and even fewer listeners. Target the boomers the way you target 18-34’s…slice/dice/etc. National sales should target the advertisers on the network newscasts to start…nothing but pharma! 🙂 On the younger front…I’m still not sure. I think the crystal ball is still really foggy on what happens with them. We might be an industry waiting on the “inevitable” music cycle that never returns…
I would have to ask though, with pharmaceuticals requiring long legal disclaimers, how do you even do that on radio. TV can show the rejuvenated senior enjoying life, radio, not so much.
Then there’s the issue of listening to the music of my youth while simultaneously being reminded I’m old, my parts don’t work, I can’t see as well, etc, etc…..I don’t know
As for the pharma stuff, radio needs to figure out a creative approach. When EVERY drug uses the exact same freakinig creative (normal looking people living their best lives), there has to another approach that will get the message across. As for the disclaime, we need to finrkd a way to direct them to a website. If that’s not feasible, then the tag read at Mach 2. But somewhere there’s got to be a way to make this work.
I think you could also make the argument that the roles of broadcast networks, station groups, cable providers, and other video-focused companies have really started blurring over the past decade or two. If Disney does end up spinning off ABC–and especially if someone like Nexstar indeed emerges as the buyer–it very well could reshape the entire industry. (A good backgrounder on that is at https://qz.com/disney-abc-tv-nexstar-media-1850848200.)
This might have a particularly notable role when it comes to news: Even though the broadcast networks themselves have been greatly increasing their output, so too have many of the largest station groups (like Nexstar, Scripps, Gray, and Sinclair), along with some of the larger cable providers–most notably, Altice USA (which owns the national Cheddar, plus News 12 Networks in suburban NYC) and Charter Communications (which has the Spectrum News brand in a lot of its territories).
Great post, Fred-and of course more issues surface. When a business succeeds it brings in revenue. A successful business combines a clear vision, quality products or services, customer focus, effective leadership, and adaptability to thrive and achieve its goals while maintaining strong ethical and social responsibilities. Do we have that these days? Who’s the customer? In radio it’s the advertiser and the listener. Sales needs to support programming as much as programming needs to support sales. Fish where the fish are! How many cliches are out there ? Account executives want to travel the easiest road there is-and you point out the road not traveled these days -boomers. The smartest minds in media congregate here daily to discuss the ills of a media landscape that is more fragmented every day. The answers are as plain as the wrinkled old nose on my face. The big driver of formats these days still seems to be the advertisers who want the best value for their dollars, the most customers. Has anyone asked Madison Avenue why-in 2023-they’re still looking at 25-54? Please show us the answers. In a recent zoom session with some radio friends, I asked how many spent the time needed to connect their phone to the in-car audio system. Of 10 people – there was one. Granted most were boomers…but with a lack of radio targeting those people there’s not much incentive to even turn ON the radio. Low rated FM? Failing AM? No excuse. Look for something that will make the tuna look for what you’re putting in their tuner.
Dave, thanks for the supportive and inciteful comments on this post. I’m beating the same drum, of course, but when you see an article like the Times piece, it’s hard NOT to ask questions.
Radio’s failure to educate gen-x media buyers is a major problem. We need to reach those CEO’s who are in the demo. Dealing with former receptionists and college cheerleaders is a fool’s errand.
And take a look at your colleague John Sebastian’s The Wow Factor in Phoenix. It’s dominating these upper demos and convincing buyers of its ROI potential.
Jim, is it possible that radio’s relationship with those media buyers might be a little tenuous these days ? Time to hit up the CEOs of these agencies and see where they’re coming from. Many relationships in 2023 (as they were in 1963) were based on personal contact. In the age of force reduction, is there a benefit to investing in “client relations”? This is the department that basically lobbies agencies to utilize a product that (still) works. Now, more than ever, station departments have to support each other and make it all work. There are tactics that can work to everyone’s benefit.
Let’s be honest here. If conventional radio tried to do an oldies format they would mess it up. AND IT WOULD FAIL! No one, including us baby boomers want to hear the same tired, overplayed oldies coming out of our listening devices. The logic behind this flawed strategy is fraught with holes. Oh and one other thing. Seniors don’t buy anything? Guess again. They still buy cars, eat at restaurants and go on vacations. If you can’t sell this demo it’s probably because you stink as a salesperson. Radio, AM & FM can survive. But it’s going to take people with a real love and knowledge of oldies music plus the ability and smarts to sell it. Those of you who say it can’t be done, step aside. And take your business plans and your outdated ideas and use them as back up toilet tissue. Radio needs “new” older people. People who know the difference between what needs to be played versus what is overplayed. And let’s not forget live disc jockeys, NO VOICETRACKING and radio sales people who really know how to sell. There’s plenty of them. Let them shine through.
Oh my god. This is the boomeriest boomer post I have ever seen. I see your logic and I understand where you’re coming from. HOWEVER,
What are you going to do when they’re all dead? It’s the death demo and you all know it, you just don’t like to admit it. Now that you all are out of the sweet demo and out of where everything everywhere is about THAT generation, you all decide that to save everything, we have to go back and pander to them AGAIN, like we’ve been doing for the last 30+ years.
Network TV seems to be making one last desperate attempt to save their medium without realizing by doing that they’re aging themselves out of relevance.
By the way, plenty of people who are not boomers ARE watching TV, just not how you are all used to. It’s time to adapt to the app. My 79-year-old mom likes network TV. Me, 55, I get my network shows on the app that carries them and I pay for no commercials. My 36-year-old daughter and my 29-year-old daughter have no use at all for any live TV and pay for a few apps to get the entertainment they want. Again, with no commercials. My grandchildren, ages 1-14, have a hard time even figuring out what the commercials ARE when we’re at my mom’s watching TV and it bugs them they interrupt their show.
Instead of reverting to what USED to work, it’s time for radio to adapt. This SAVING RADIO you’re talking about is only good for what, 10 years realistically? Then who will you program to? This is like saying that the world can’t live without milk men.
Boomers are super good at a couple of things, including shoving their favorite things down everyone’s throat. It’s time you step away, take a breath, and take a good long look at the future instead of living in the past.
The future of radio may be what Townsquare Media is doing. I know it sounds like I’m pandering because they just bought us. In the last year or so I see the method to their madness and it is working. They’re adapting to how people use media NOW and bringing radio along for the ride. Not trying to change the way that people consume media to revive their medium. Of course, only time will tell, but it sure seems to be working really well.
Thanks for the great read, Fred
I love you, Tammie. Seriously. You’re maybe the only person I can think of who I drop what I’m doing on a Friday afternoon to quickly respond to.
The only thing missing from your response was #OKBoomer. Seriously, of course you’re right. This “strategy” is desperate and short-term. But given how cash flow starved traditional media is, it may not be a bad idea to buy a little time. You mention 10 years – probably not even THAT much. But enough time to get those Boomer dollars flowing while other teams in the company are using that cash to develop younger strategies on digital platforms. There’s no way a “Boomer exclusive” plan can work over the long hall. Just ask any actuary.
You’re also probably right about Townsquare. But just about no one has the cash on hand to even attempt that play today.
I love your passion. Keep reading me and keeping me honest, Tammie.
I was weighing in on whether to respond or not.
To start with the technology to listen to “content” on a smartphone is no different than the transistor radio I had as a kid (and the tiny little earphone and hopefully didn’t get caught at school).
I do get tired of the pandering that streaming is some kind of amazing new thing. It isn’t. And in 30 years Gen Whatever will be shoving it down the throat of the next generation.
Listening to RewoundRadio over Labor Day weekend (WLS/WCFL) was not only amazing but educational.
I grew up in the market listening to a great deal of it.
Amazing: The “DJ’s” were entertaining and spoke to me. If you didn’t like song (or commercial) you flipped the dial to the other station.
Educational: Breaks were short, more live reads, the station was out in the community.
Ok, boomer, what are you doing now? Pay to watch TV (with commercials, but the breaks are shorter). Pay for Sirius in the car (the free demo got me). Car radio has HD (it’s underused technology).
Just some observations…..
Always interesting, Jerry. Thanks for engaging on this post. It got a lot of people thinking about who they’re talking to. And I’ve heard from several people about the WLS/WCFL weekend.