Media Researcher Predicts The Demise Of Radio… Again

Well, its not the first time, that’s for sure. First it was TV that was supposed to kill radio, more recently satellite radio was to act as the grim reaper to terrestrial radio. Now, according to IBISWorld, an industry research publisher, it will be streaming services and mp3s as well as competing mediums in combination, in combination with lack of interest and a slumping economy that will do the industry.

Taken right from the report, ““Radio’s role will not be eliminated overnight, but will instead diminish slowly as companies dedicate more resources to reaching consumers online.” Now I don’t claim to be any sort of industry expert, but a few things are amiss.

1) I tune in to the radio for companionship on my drives, it offers interesting opinions and banter that I don’t get from an mp3 player.

2)Other people agree, as currently the most popular format of radio is talk radio, pulling in ten percent of radio listeners.

3) Despite predictions in the report that revenue will fall annually by 2.5% over the next 5 years, radio posted 1% growth this year…otherwise seen as a very tough economic year.

As my radio profs often told me, what radio has going for it is the “local”  factor, and as long as we keep that, we will always have something our competition.

-The Copy Writer-

The Brits Want Cliff Richard Banned From Radio? (At least for Christmas)

Christmas time is a great time, don’t get me wrong, but this month long barrage of pop Christmas hits playing on the radio HAS TO STOP.

Apparently the people that Musicgaurd (a UK instrument insurance business) surveyed agree, and singled Sir Cliff Richards out as the worst of the worst. With 1000 people surveyed, a whopping 46% said they would be happy if they never heard Richards holiday tunes on their radio again. And while I’m not familiar, it can’t be much worse than this right?

In happier news, everyone agrees that “The Fairy Tale of New York” should be played more on the radio…if only I was a music director.

-The Copy Writer-

And the Numbers Are In…

Nielson in the states released their media consumption numbers, and by all appearances, it looks like radio did well (see mom, it’s not a dying medium).

T.V came in at number one, with the average American watching 35 hours a week ( for the sake of the world, I hope that was mostly PBS time). Second place went to Radio with an average of 14 hours a week (horray). To me this seems like a high number, but I’m sure there are still people who keep in on while at work all day, driving up that number.

I’m guessing that the Canadian numbers would be very similar to this, but one number makes me think that maybe Americans were fibbing when doing these surveys: only 5.1 hours a week on the internet????Sure.

 

-The Copy Writer-