Where Are The Kids?

By Frank Absher

A recent survey indicates radio is doing a lousy job of creating a farm system; I’m not talking about talent. I’m talking about listeners.

The Edison Research survey, which has seen wide distribution, shows that listeners in the 12-to-24 age group spend very little time listening to the radio. These are formative years in terms of lifetime habits, so if radio has lost the kids, it may have lost its future.

Edison correctly notes there are many reasons for their waning interest, the greatest of which is access to new methods of passing time that the kids find much more satisfying. This age group spends about three hours a day surfing the Internet, and that doesn’t even include the time they’re IMing or texting. The survey also found that six percent of homes don’t even have an AM/FM radio.

These kids listen to the radio on average about an hour-and-a-half a day, which is half of what it was ten years ago.

And although that may seem a worthwhile number, there were other responses that should give the industry pause. The magic word…the panacea for these kids, is Pandora, the music service that allows listeners to end songs they don’t like, has no commercials and no yammering, self-proclaimed “personalities” to interrupt things.

This should come as no surprise. The percentage of this age group that tunes in to morning radio has been cut in half in the past ten years. They simply don’t like what’s on radio and are seeking out electronic companionship elsewhere. Morning television has picked up some of these radio drop-outs, as has the Internet.

When you look at overall media usage today among 12 – 24 year-olds, here’s how it breaks down on a daily basis: Internet 2:53, television 2:47 and radio 1:24.

Apparently radio isn’t terribly worried about this. The percentage of stations targeting this audience with a format is dropping and there’s no rush to serve those listeners.

Instead of developing this audience by giving them what they want, radio continues to do what management wants rather than what listeners want and apparently management has no desire to develop its future audience.

Anyone who knows anything about market development will tell you how important it is to grab your “customers” early and develop in them the habit of using your product. It’s obvious that radio is failing at this.

The question is why? My guess is these kids will never become radio listeners.

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