Where Is It All Going?

I like to take time and talk to younger listeners of radio to get a vibe of what we need to do for the future and move our attention slowly to meet the new listeners where they are. Granted, I have 2 children. One is 10 and the other is 5 (a precocious 5, going on 15).

Both of my kids give me a glimpse into what the younger generations are doing, but because they are around a father who is all into radio, I have to take some of their interest in music and online activity with a grain of salt because of my influence. That being said, about a week ago, I went to a career day for 5th graders and had 8 sessions with kids from 4 different schools. The discussions were quite interesting, but not too surprising, because of my kids.

I opened every session with questions about what they do online, as a general Q&A, as though I hadn't started the session and we dove-tailed some of this info into session content.

I don't think any of us will be surprised when I tell you that after 15 years of Facebook, it will be dead in our lifetime (see MySpace as a reference). Not because of the recent scandals (though that may hasten its decline), but kids think of Facebook as something that "old people do" and "it is something my parents do". When I asked, is Facebook something that they are interested in, the answer was a resounding "No!" As a matter of fact, there wasn't one kid in the over 100+ kids I spoke with who even wanted to deal with Facebook. It was all about Instagram, Snapchat, Music.ly and Twitter.

Now think about this for a second. How much time do we spend forcing our content exclusively (or a majority of our energies) onto Facebook. We hear all the time that 80% of all people are on Facebook. While that may be true, who comprises that 80%? While you have to be over 13 to have an account on Facebook and the kids I spoke with are under that age, they don't want to be on that platform. It is a bellwether to what is coming. These kids can't have it and don't want it. Not because they can't have it, but because Mom and Dad are doing it. So they choose other platforms like Snapchat (and they taught me some new info about Snapchat, which I will impart in another blog), Instagram and Twitter.

Why these platforms? Because #1 they allow for kids to be on it. #2 Most Moms and Dads don't get it and (some) are scared to try it. #3 They can follow their favorite people. #4 They can talk with each other.

Now this isn't exclusive to just 5th graders. First of the year, I spoke with High Schooler's who said pretty much the same thing. Because of this, if you haven't been developing a plan to integrate these services, don't wait for it to come to you. If you are first in this space vs. your competition, you will have more of a chance to maneuver and perfect your brand within these apps.

Oh, and let's talk about apps for a moment. I have heard from kids from 5-18 that a large majority of them are exclusively using apps. A lot of kids don't "surf" the web like we used to. They want it on their phone and they want it in the form of an app, because it is quick and easy as a touch. So, if you aren't in the app space, don't wait, as those younger generations will grow up and their habits solidify as they get older. Meaning, if they are using apps now, they will continue to do so and "surfing" the web will be less and less important as time goes on.

Then we moved on to radio. "Who listens to radio?" I asked. In each session, every hand went up, except for maybe one or two. Then I asked what they listened to. I got a plethora of answers as far as styles of music. When we dialed into what radio stations they listen to, I got a majority of FM stations , (to pat myself on the back) most of which were the ones I run, but then something interesting happened. With every mention of an FM station was a mention of YouTube, Pandora, Sirius/XM and/or Spotify. (This is something I saw happening with the High Schooler's, as well).

This struck a cord with me, as for years I have said that YouTube and Pandora IS radio to listeners. The majority of my peers have scoffed at that notion that it isn't radio. Maybe to those in traditional radio, it doesn't look like the radio we have worked in, but it is radio to the listener and THAT is what matters. The kind of hubris that dismisses online as "not radio" has come back to bite us in the rear end (TSL losses and phantom cume). (Remember those people who said that classic 80s music was never going to fit into mainstream radio, then it did? Yep, same people).

Now I am not ignorant to think that these online options will kill radio. I do, however, see them as a distraction. One that should not be ignored, lest we become newspaper, TV or cable. Remember, the younger generations do like radio...and yes, contrary to some of my nay-saying counterparts in the business, they do like FM radio. So, we just have to keep in touch with growing habits to continue to capture their interest by coming to them and entice them to stay.

We live in their world. We MUST program TO the audience. We cannot sit back and think that they audience will just matriculate to us. THAT is an arrogant approach that will kill your station/group.

I have developed a plan for stations to be in these online spaces and win. Let's talk about how to make this happen for you.

(In my next blog, I will discuss next some of the research I have done, recently, that deals with spotloads, specifically, spotload quality. This could make you rethink how you deal with spotloads on your station. )