I love “future of radio” discussions, even though the premise of the phrase is completely wrong. Radio people care about “the future of radio” – listeners don’t. Indifference to what listeners really care about is why Clear Channel didn’t acquire Pandora when it was bargain-priced. It’s why there are many podcasts that sound like radio shows and enjoy radio-sized audiences but have never played on a radio station. The issue isn’t about the “future of radio” per se, but rather

Think digital and radio are two separate worlds and digital learnings can’t make audio content across platforms better and more popular? Think again. Anya Grundmann is NPR’s Vice President for Programming and Audience Development. She leads NPR’s programming center and its strategy for program acquisition, evaluation, and development. In this remarkable presentation from hivio, Anya shares what NPR has learned from its digital efforts and how those digital efforts have enhanc

Recently Radio Ink asked whether podcasting was “the secret weapon” to attract younger listeners. That was based on reports from NPR (echoed by NPR’s Anya Grundmann at hivio recently) that, thanks in large part to on-demand content and digital distribution, “We’re seeing some very encouraging signs that younger people are coming into NPR that previously haven’t listened.” But the conclusion that this is all thanks to podcasting is wrong. In fact, the way to attract younger li

So NPR has decided it won’t promote its podcasts or NPR One on air, and many critics are calling them out for what they describe as stupidity. I think these critics are missing the larger point. Sure, NPR derives a huge portion of its revenue from local stations, and local stations have long been uncomfortable (to say the least) with NPR’s practice of routing around them to deliver their content – in many cases, content popularized by these very local stations – directly to c

Everybody wants to go viral. It’s as if your little corner of fame or infamy is not complete unless you have some tidbit of content achieving the kind of exponential exposure that used to require things like, say, TV or radio. The same goes for those who create audio content and post it online with all the best intentions and hopes for a viral miracle. So the other day I read something that stopped me cold. It was a comment from Jenna Weiss-Berman, director of audio at BuzzFe

Listening to NPR member stations is slipping among younger listeners. That’s from new NPR data shared at the recent Public Radio Program Director’s Conference (always a great event, by the way). The writeup in Current reports: Average–quarter-hour (AQH) listening during morning drive time has dropped 11 percent in the past five years, and afternoon drive audience has declined 6 percent. The only age bracket that has increased listening to NPR stations is the 65-plus audience

If you’re in the TV business, you’re familiar with the UpFronts. That’s the annual dog and pony show put on by the networks to debut their new shows and to impress and dazzle advertisers and media. On the digital side, we have the more recent NewFronts. Sponsored by the IAB, this event features 20 or more companies in the digital video space, including Google, Yahoo, Hulu, and others. And as of this month we finally have some equivalent events in the audio space. And for the

There’s been lots of attention in the radio industry trades lately about the lack of audience momentum for many broadcasters in the streaming space, even as so-called pure-plays like Pandora and Spotify grow by leaps and bounds. Tom Taylor writes: iHeart’s not the only terrestrial operator with flat or negative growth over the period from February 2013 to October 2014. #3-ranked CBS is down from about 69,000 average domestic streams (6am-8pm weekdays) to a little less than 60

Is NPR’s performance on the digital front a sign that radio’s digital evolution has stalled? Or, worse, that it’s just a big hairy mistake? So says would-be town crier Richard Harker. Harker’s basic point is right on: Broadcasters should direct some of their innovative attention towards content on traditional radio channels and not only experiment with all things digital. I agree! But saying innovative effort should be spread around is different from saying initiatives on the

One of the great things about non-commercial radio is that it’s supported largely by fans – the very “public” embodied in the term “public service.” And this is as true of NPR-type stations as it is for non-commercial Christian stations. And these stations have something else in common besides their business model: They both tend to lack a marketing funnel. What is a marketing funnel? It’s the process whereby consumers move from awareness and sampling of your station at the w

And I’m not talking about streaming here. It’s already clear that radio is not necessarily serious about that, or we wouldn’t suffer endless debates about whether or not we should create a business model native to the Internet that leverages all the wonderful advantages of technology to offer up targeting and dimensionality and accountability to clients who desire it and consumers who appreciate it. Yes, we should do all that. No, we should not simply aspire to simulcast our

Republican soul-searching followed the demographic slam to the gut from younger voters, African Americans, and Hispanics in the election earlier this month. And the reverberations from that punch have resonated through the ranks of News/Talk programmers and talent nationwide. While I can’t be specific about the research I have done in that area (it’s both extensive and proprietary), I can tell you this much: It should come as no great surprise. Interest in Talk per se – as e

NPR’s recent deal with Triton Digital is more than a means of measuring webcast metrics.  It’s also an important step in the direction of monetizing NPR’s streaming content and sharing that revenue potential and that power with affiliate stations. Listen as I talk with Jay Sterin, Triton’s VP Digital, about what the new capabilities of NPR’s streaming assets will mean to the the network and its affiliates alike: Alternate version: Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or

Once upon a time “NPR” stood for “National Public Radio,” and the “radio” in NPR was the exclusive means of distributing the network’s content. This was an era when stations would solicit funds from listeners to support this and other programming and send a big chunk of those funds back to the network. That was then, this is now. Today, radio is not the distribution channel for NPR content, it is simply another distribution channel for that content (albeit the most important

Let’s suppose you provided a very specific product – unique to the world.  Let’s suppose the demand for that product was enormous, so much so that many consumers of it do what most radio listeners would never do:  They actually pay for it.  Suppose the consumers for this product have enormous trust in the brand, a vast sense of “us” – a sense that we who consume this product are similar to each other in important ways and different from others who are apart from our community