Should we talk about radio? I don’t mean streaming Pandora/Spotify/ Beats kinda radio, I mean radio radio, with DJs & local news, contests & requests. You don’t have to close the door—it’s not like we’d be talking about masturbation or menstruation. It’s just radio for God’s sake!
Good. Now please remove your ear buds. Since every Earwitness column is accompanied by a soundtrack, assuring the reader an interactive experience involving not merely ideas, but emotions, remembered history and a groove thing (You’re welcome again!), here’s the soundtrack for our radio piece: “Wavelength” by Van Morrison. (Sadly, young Evelyn in my office had never heard it.) So go listen, get it in your head and come back, baby, come back. Brilliant song. Achingly joyful. Drive fast with the windows open and turn it up. Have the courage to ask her out. You can do it!
Sorry. Radio. For nearly 70 years, since the early days of TV, people have been writing the obit for radio. “Nobody listens to radio” has been a battle cry for newer media forever. And since so many in our industry are selfishly focused on the visual side of the creative realm (this publication is called SHOOT, after all) for the benefit of their portfolios, radio tends to be overlooked. Hey, you can’t look at the radio and actually see anything—except the ideas, emotions and images painted in words, music, sound. Hmmm.
This is a song about your wavelength
And my wavelength, baby
You turn me on
When you get me on your wavelength
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
With your wavelength
According to a Nielsen report roughly 90% of Americans listen to the radio for an average of over 2 hours each day. Want more proof? “Traditional radio reaches some 240 million people in the U.S. each week, or 93% of people older than 12, who listened for an average of between 10 and 20 hrs. weekly,” according to the Daily Beast. Seems unbelievable, right? Fine, so just make up another, smaller number—say 70%. Still incredible. In New York City alone the top 5 radio stations have a combined listenership of over 20 million. That’s 40 million individual ear drums!
Remember “Video Killed The Radio Star" by The Buggles? It was the very first video broadcast by MTV at 12:01 AM on August 1, 1981. Turns out that video did no such thing—radio stars are still ruling radio, and video, simultaneously. In fact, you might say that radio has helped democratize the music business; we thought for a moment that video would make physical “beauty” a music industry mandate (Britney, Christina, Duran Duran, Backstreet Boys..). Then along came: Adele, Nicki Minaj, Lorde, Sia…Mumford & Sons, Pitbull, Sam Smith. None of them skinny-pretty girls & boys—just voices / skills…and a lot of hit making. Digression. Sorry. Point is, the top 10 radio hits at this very moment also have a combined total of over 800 million video views/listens on YouTube. Boom Clap or what?
So what’s an advertiser to do (which I suppose is more to the point)? If I were the CMO of a brand that wanted to get the attention of the non-hearing impaired I’d grab my agency by the scruff of the neck and demand an intelligent radio strategy and compelling creative to go with it. And if they didn’t deliver, I’d punish them…by finding someone else who could give me that lovin’ feeling. (You know how that goes.)
Clear Channel’s iHeart Radio has been a fascinating experiment in combining the intimate bond listeners have with their local stations and DJs with the excitement of a “world stage” represented by this year’s iHeart Music Awards , providing a targeted radio “network” advertisers could quantify the value of. With over 800 stations in their network, that’s a lot of airwave clout, and it’ll be fascinating to see how it plays out.
In the meantime, I just hope I’m caller number 9 so I can win two tickets to see, uh, anybody. Will stay tuned to hear the birthday shout-outs, the Top 5 at 5, what the weather’s gonna be for the ride home…and some terrible 2014 model car clearance commercial that coulda been so much better…
I heard the voice of America
Callin’ on my wavelength
Tellin’ me to tune in on my radio
I heard the voice of America
Callin’ on my wavelength
Singin’ “Come back, baby, come back”
Lyle Greenfield is the founder of Bang Music and past president of the Association of Music Producers (AMP)
