Growing up, I had a few favorite radio stations and when I think of the reasons that I was so attracted to them, the top three reasons would have been:
- Air Personalities
- Station Imaging/Jingles
- Music
Favorite Songs
When it comes to music, the number one way most people today access the songs they want to hear is via streaming with YouTube now the top source for streaming people’s favorite songs.
No longer in our “I want it now” world does anyone want to wait until a radio station decides to play their favorite song, we just ask Alexa, Siri or Hey Google to play it.
Gone for radio is the #3 reason on my list above.
Don’t Be Generic
As I spin the radio dial today, all radio sounds much the same; in a word “generic,” and no one ever became attracted to anything generic.
Gone for radio is the #2 reason on my list above.
People Made Radio Attractive
Over the years, radio has had personalities that made the medium special: like Howard Stern, Rush Limbaugh, Dan Ingram, Larry Lujack, Robert W. Morgan, Wolfman Jack, Arnie “Woo Woo” Ginsburg, Dick Biondi, Boom Boom Branigan, Ron Lundy, Dale Dorman, Paul Harvey and many more.
As these people retired or were RIF’d (Reduction In Force), my #1 reason for listing to radio went with them.
People are attracted to people and experiences which stimulate the part of the brain that triggers craving and longing, releasing habit-forming, feel-good chemicals such as dopamine and endorphins.
Your iPhone does that for you.
Your voice activated smart speaker does too.
For radio, great air personalities did it for you.
Radio Is Show Business
Unfortunately, most of today’s radio is focused only on the business part of the equation.
Don’t get me wrong, the business part is important, but without a focus on the show part, the business end will suffer.
Radio’s big advantage is offering advertisers an engaged audience to expose their goods and services to, but without unique air personalities, which attract listeners to tune in every day, radio’s audience will depart, as will those very advertisers that provide the economic engine for the radio industry.