Radio On Crest Of ’16 Success Wave

INSIDERADIO

January 6, 2015

 Traditional radio may be the classic entry amid so many options in today’s media landscape, but the airwaves are in fact thriving with renewed vigor. It’s appealing as much to Millennials as to mature listeners—and evolving at breakneck speed…again. "I see our industry getting bigger and bigger. After years of negativity, some of it self-inflicted, radio is changing, and I think that wave will only get bigger in 2016," offers Entercom president of Programming, Pat Paxton. "Wall Street analysts and artists like Bono are publicly praising radio and extolling its virtues." With an eye on the revenue pie, CBS Radio VP of Programming, Jeff Sottolano, believes the year ahead will include a focus on new streams of information and data now available to PDs, including traditional callout, local digital sales, M-Scores and Shazam. "Programmers will continue to mine new sources of data and that could lead to some really interesting experimentation and discovery," he tells Inside Radio. Such value-added options as on-demand, podcasts and mobile listening will continue to evolve as stations in all formats shape playlists in the near future. Justin Chase, Beasley Media Group’s VP of Programming, posits, "We should be making our great talent available to listeners when they want to hear [them]. On-demand is something the general market expects," along with making content more mobile-friendly. It needs to be more than just a station app, available across numerous social channels. "Mobile is so critical to radio moving forward," he says.


Besides big gains in local-direct....here's
Top 10 2015 Spot Advertisers—More Doing At Home Depot. In 2015, Home Depot was once again radio’s leading spot advertiser, according to Media Monitors’ annual tally of broadcasters, which includes radio, TV and local cable. The retailer logged a total of 2,327,163 spots on AM/FM during the year, followed by Geico (2,095,754 spots) and iHeartRadio (1,652,728 announcements). The remainder of radio’s top 10 includes McDonald’s and Walgreens (maintaining No. 4 and No. 5, respectively), Macy’s (up from No. 8 in 2014), AutoZone in seventh, the U.S. Government’s Department of Health & Human Services, O’Reilly Auto Parts and Wendy’s (way up from No. 23 to No. 10). Media Monitors’ survey of TV spot advertising reveals just how much gap there is between radio and television. Among the top 10 in the latter medium, only two advertisers are shared with radio: No. 1 McDonald’s and No. 7 Geico. The majority on the tube are automakers, including Toyota (No. 2), Ford (No. 4), Chevrolet (No. 5), Nissan (No. 6), Honda (No. 8) and Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge (No. 10). Along for the ride at TV are No. 3 Progressive and No. 9 Walmart. Cable demonstrates Geico’s dedication across multimedia, where the company hit No. 1, followed by Progressive, Liberty Mutual Insurance, AT&T Wireless and Burger King. They are followed by State Farm, XFINITY Internet/Phone/TV, Subway, Taco Bell and T-Mobile.

Stations Find Value Feeding On-Demand Fever. In the New Year, radio broadcasters are doubling down on creating more value through portability and personalization. While stations have long connected with listeners in multiple locations—the home, the car, at work—station managers say a top 2016 priority is making their product available everywhere a listener may want it. "On-demand" is the all-encompassing buzzword, but it represents the idea of radio on any device, at any time. "On-demand is just a way of accessing content," says Rob McCracken, E.W. Scripps director of digital solutions. "We want to be there wherever our audience chooses to consume audio." At Scripps-owned stations, McCracken says on-demand includes both original content and repurposed broadcasts available on a consumers’ whim, rather than the on-air schedule. Public radio stations, considered among leaders in digital offerings, are already experiencing a growing appetite for on-demand content. Among 163 non-commercial stations tracked by NPR, total downloaded hours of on-demand content increased 18% from January to August 2015. With new devices rolling out constantly, broadcasters want their material delivered to every possible platform, including mobile devices, digital in-car dashboards and newer products, such as the Amazon Echo or Sony voice-controlled speakers. "We can literally turn any connected device with a speaker into a radio. Devices like Apple TV and Amazon Echo will provide opportunity for even more [listening] occasions," says Cox Media Group’s Tim Clarke, senior director, Digital Audience. As voice recognition software improves, radio stations need to have searchable content listeners can access easily, or they’ll go elsewhere, says Federated Media’s director of Interactive Media, James Derby. "If we are not findable or searchable, or don’t have content ready to be consumed, it won’t work," Derby says.

Why 2016 May Be the Year Of the Podcast.

 

On-demand is already a top priority for radio in 2016, and podcasting looks to be the star player. Podcasts are the hottest topic in programming, and execs say they’re increasing production this year considerably. Podcast awareness among both listeners and advertisers is growing, and radio execs say they plan to have content ready. Experts say radio is well positioned to be a top provider. "Podcast listeners are very loyal to their hosts, just like someone is loyal to their morning hosts," says Rob McCracken, E.W. Scripps director of digital solutions. "What has been happening in radio for years is now happening in an additional medium." Jacobs Media digital specialist, Seth Ressler, agrees. "Radio already has an audience to tap into and already has relationships with sponsors," he says. To get a boost in the space, Hubbard Broadcasting acquired a stake in the PodcastOne Network last year, while Scripps purchased Midroll podcast network, and both companies are working to integrate their partners into operations. At Hubbard, digital director Jeremy Sinon says its Minneapolis stations have launched two shows on the PodcastOne Network, and more will be added in 2016, and Hubbard stations promote the service on-air. CBS’ play.it podcast network features more than 400 podcasts,

including news, lifestyle, sports and entertainment series. While there are no hard rules on what a podcast should be, broadcasters are experimenting, with offerings ranging from a few minutes to as long as an hour. Cox Media Group stations, for example, create short-form "snackable" podcasts culled from broadcasts. "The long tail of podcasting allows that content to live on," says Tim Clarke, Cox Media Group senior director, Digital Audience. Everybody Gets Into the Act—Read how station groups are imaginatively working podcasting into strategies, only at InsideRadio.com.

Numbers Show Clients Who Try Podcasts Aren’t Sorry. While radio stations are embracing podcasting more and more, broadcast execs are still grappling with how to generate money from the format. "Stations are trying to figure out how to measure podcasts and how to monetize them," says Seth Ressler, Jacobs Media digital specialist. Stations can analyze their usage and share that with potential advertisers, but there isn’t an industry standard or a common language with buyers, which is holding some advertisers back. A more illustrative method comes from experiential numbers—several intrepid brands are dipping into sponsorships, and the results are overwhelmingly positive, broadcasters say, with loyal listeners reporting high brand recall. E.W. Scripps says it has over a 90% renewal rating for clients who do a test with Midroll. "We’ve had amazing success once advertisers try the medium," Scripps’ director of digital solutions Rob McCracken says. Hubbard digital director, Jeremy Sinon, says PodcastOne Network provides much-needed data and analytics. Similarly, Scripps receives a trove of data from Midroll, including 400,000 completed surveys from listeners. To grow podcasts’ advertiser support, however, radio execs say they need independent, third party data to share with clients and media buyers. Nielsen’s new digital audio measurement SDK, expected to roll out this year, is a positive step forward. So far, 2,500 stations have integrated the SDK in streaming audio players, as have streaming service providers such as Triton and Clip Interactive. For measuring podcasts, a potential obstacle is getting listening data through Apple’s podcasting app. According to a Clammr survey, 82% of smartphone podcast listening occurs on Apple’s app, making it paramount for stations to get access to that data. Need for Sellable Metrics—The importance of Nielsen’s SDK data can’t be overstated when it comes to podcast data;