Traffic on the Nones

The future of traffic information on the road.

It's social.  It's visual.  It's not particularly distracting.

And it's not radio.

It's Aha, it's for the iPhone, and it's coming to a market near you (right now the service supports only San Francisco, LA, and San Diego).

There will come a point in time when radio is not used for traffic information by commuters at all.

Not "on the 1's," not any time.

The question "what do listeners want from us?" is gradually shifting to "what can we provide to consumers that nobody else can?"

Traffic is about to come off that list.

Not just because of Aha, but because technology is providing better in-car solutions to the traffic problem than any chopper on the 1's possibly can.

Consider your strengths and leverage them.

Recently I did some focus groups for a music station.  One question was, do you want traffic reports?  "I don't mind them on that station," said one listener.  "As long as they're short."  And this kind of response is not unusual.

If you think "I don't mind them" is the kind of ringing endorsement for service elements that will keep listeners coming back to your station, think again.