Millennials are the future, but how do they really use audio platforms: Radio, online radio, podcasting, etc? And how do these platforms fit into their fast-changing lives? We recruited a special panel of Millennials at hivio 2016 so you could hear from 20-somethings themselves, and some of what attendees heard was shocking. When asked if anyone has an actual radio in their home, one panelist compared that idea to owning a laserdisc player! Among the questions these Millennia

So people are freaking out about the new Edison data indicating that consumers – that’s you and me – switch stations 22 times in an average commute. …unless you’re my beautiful wife, in which case you switch stations 2200 times in an average commute. Is that number (the 22) shocking? I don’t know why. Anybody who has ever been in a car has seen this firsthand. I know we want to imagine that no advertiser will ever figure this out, but hey, advertisers know this already. They

If there’s any medium more cluttered with commercials than radio, that medium would be TV. Or is it? Some signs suggest that the powers-that-be in TV-land sense a turning point. Witness these words from Kevin Reilly, president of the TBS and TNT cable nets last week at the TCA winter press tour: We have overstuffed the bird. We need to create a better viewing experience. A “better viewing experience”? How about a “better listening experience,” radio broadcasters?How about a b

There’s this myth out there that its the personalization that provides the primary motivation to use Pandora: The limitless allure of choice and variety. But I don’t think so. I think it’s much more about the comparatively clutter-free environment. That is, fewer spots. The “variety” argument: Everywhere we turn, it’s clear that consumers favor hits. Even when he was onstage with me at hivio, the audio future festival last year, Pandora CTO Tom Conrad acknowledged that there

What about the far worse ad clutter on good, old-fashioned terrestrial radio? Does the logic of minimizing spots in one place mean spots should, for the same reasons, be minimized in every place? Here’s my answer (and this may shock you): No. Three reasons: 1. Practical Reality On a purely practical basis, there is no way the radio industry is going to significantly trim on-air spots en masse. All the business pressures are moving in the other direction no matter what the aud

I’ve been on vacation in a remote corner of India, so you’ll forgive me for not paying more attention to the recent Coleman study of the impact of spots on listeners and the stations they listen to. Personally, I find these regular studies of the effects of advertising on listenership to be tiresome. Why are we studying what spots do to listeners instead of what spots do for listeners? Why are we trying to convince advertisers that spots still reach audiences rather than co

From Radio-Info: TRI has a copy of this email from the Kroger agency – “Hello radio partners, a couple weeks ago I had sent out a request for information in regards to your station using the verbiage ‘commercial-free.’ After much discussion with CB&S/Kroger Corporate, we absolutely cannot have spots running on a station that communicates that it is ‘commercial free.’ Please let me know as soon as possible that you will stop using this specific verbiage. All other stations acr