Chapter 4

Radio Today

Three “C’s” of Radio Today

• Competition• Consolidation• Control

Competition

• Most competitive of today’s media• More “radio” than anything else• More radios than TVs; more radio stations

than TV stations or newspapers• Take in the least amount of media advertising

dollars (about 8%)• Radio is largely a local medium• Audience share: 82% tune into FM

Consolidation

• Prior to the Telecommunications Act of 1996, most radio stations were owned by single owners; at the time, you could not own more than one AM and FM in any one market

• Market: a geographically based media area; its size determined by population

• Telecommunications Act of 1996 allowed for multiple station ownership, resulted in supergroups like Entercom, Clear Channel & Cumulus

Consolidation

• After an initial boom in acquisitions, many of radio’s biggest groups are now selling off stations, after failing to turn the kinds of profits expected

• LMA: lease management agreement/local market agreement – allows a radio group to control the programming, operations and sales of additional radio stations in the same market (without violating ownership rules)

Control

• Rigorous product control• Research driven programming and advertising• A lot of cross- talk between sales, promotions

and programming to create a unified station message for both advertisers and the audience.

Programming: Formats

• What is a format?• The genre of the station; its

music, personalities, contests, positioning

• What is a target audience?• Broken down with demographics (age, race,

gender, socio-economic status, geography)• How to identify the target audience?

Types of formats

• Country• News/talk• Oldies• Hispanic• Adult contemporary (AC• Sports• Contemporary hits radio (CHR)• Classic rock• Classic hits• Hot AC• Modern rock• Active Rock• Urban

Noncommercial radio

• Community stations: supported by members of the community, serves that community, and employs the community

• College radio: licensed to schools as a learning tool, serves college communities

• Public radio stations: meet criteria established by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting

• Low Power FMs (LPFM): news stations that serve small listening areas (i.e. the Thruway traffic channel)

Satellite Radio Today

• Started strong, forecasters predicted annual revenues of $8B by 2014

• iPod and other mobile media may have been a factor in decreasing audience

• Today, just one company: SirusXM

Growth of Internet and Mobile Broadcasting

• More than 80% of Americans have access to broadband connection, and nearly 505 of homes have at least 2 computers (Arbitron)

• ComScore: 2010 – 14% of smart phone usage was to listen to music

• Internet music services have to pay a fee to the Copyright Royalty Board for performance rights for music

• Some services are limited (number of skipped tracks, time length of stream – all part of their CRB agreements)

Radio station structure

• Operations: Traffic department – coordinates advertising on a station, between sales and programming

• Sales department: sells airtime for a station• Program department: on-air staff, program

directors, production • Engineering: responsible for keeping the

station on the air, and sounding good!

Radio employment today

• Consolidation, automation, syndicated programming, has made the job market very competitive

• 17% ethnic minority, 42% female• Starting salaries are very low, but the

potential for success is always there!• Typically sales will make the most, average on

air salary is $25,000