Radio remains America’s most widely used ad-supported audio platform, but its long-term strength will depend on something more fundamental: whether the listening experience actually delivers what viewers want.<\/p>\n
That was the central message from consultants Mike McVeigh, president of McVeigh Media, and Laura Ivey of Edison Research during a wide-ranging conversation at the NAB Show where data and anecdotes converged on a clear theme. Radio’s biggest challenges are often self-inflicted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of things in radio today that are contrary to what the audience wants,\u201d McVeigh said. “We’ve hurt the listening experience.”<\/p>\n
Audio still dominates, but competition is everywhere<\/strong><\/p>\n According to Edison Share of Ear data, Americans spend just under four hours per day listening to audio, a number that has remained roughly stable for more than a decade. This includes all audio listening, including paid subscriptions without ads. But the way we allocate that time has changed dramatically.<\/p>\n AM\/FM radio still accounts for 33% of daily audio listening, the single largest share, but that’s down from about half in 2014 due to fragmented streaming, podcasting, and YouTube usage.<\/p>\n Still, wireless holds a strong advantage in reach. According to Edison data, AM\/FM reaches 57% of Americans 13 and older every day, far more than any other audio platform.<\/p>\n The myth of the \u201caging listener\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n One of the industry’s persistent concerns, that radio is driven solely by older audiences, is not fully supported.<\/p>\n Among listeners aged 13-34, radio still accounts for 20% of their daily audio time, much of it in the car. The percentage jumps to 36% for those aged 35 to 54, and nearly half for those aged 55 and older.<\/p>\n “Young listeners don’t necessarily think they listen to radio,” McVeigh said, citing the example of teens using in-car systems and apps without distinguishing between platforms.<\/p>\n In-car listening remains radio’s stronghold<\/strong><\/p>\n Despite increasing dashboard competition, radio continues to dominate in-car listening. Edison reports that 55% of total in-car audio time is spent on AM\/FM, including 46% of younger listeners.<\/p>\n Radio is preferred when travel time is short (often less than 10 minutes), as listeners prefer immediate, fluid content over setting up playlists or podcasts.<\/p>\n But discovery remains problematic.<\/p>\n “There’s a lot of competition going on inside the dashboard,” Ivey said, noting that the new system could make it harder to find AM\/FM, especially for inexperienced users.<\/p>\n Streaming is growing \u2013 but wireless still dominates<\/strong><\/p>\n Radio streaming is on the rise, but nearly 90% of all radio listening still happens over the air.<\/p>\n This gap highlights both opportunities and weaknesses.<\/p>\n “Streaming should have fewer technical issues, but it doesn’t,” McVeigh reiterated, citing repeated ads, glitches and poor execution. \u201cRadio should be everywhere and heard everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n Commercial Road: Experience Killer<\/strong><\/p>\n Perhaps the sharpest criticism centers on the commercial breaks.<\/p>\n Although research consistently shows that listeners prefer short, frequent breaks (less than 2 minutes), many broadcasters still run long break sets closer to 10 minutes or more.<\/p>\n “We’ve taught our viewers that if you stop, your 10 minutes are over,” McVeigh said. \u201cThat\u2019s the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n He pointed to New York stations limiting commercials to six minutes per hour as evidence that lighter loads can achieve higher ratings, but acknowledged that economic tradeoffs make change difficult.<\/p>\n The quality of creativity is also important. Ivey noted that younger listeners respond more favorably to ads that match the surrounding content, similar to podcast-style production, than traditional spot breaks.<\/p>\n Podcasting: From threat to opportunity<\/strong><\/p>\n Podcasting continues to grow, with 58% of Americans reporting that they listen to it monthly. Rather than seeing this as competition, McVeigh urged broadcasters to embrace this as an extension of their brand.<\/p>\n “If listeners are going to leave your station for a podcast, wouldn’t you want it to be yours?” he said.<\/p>\n This medium also enhances radio’s key advantage of personality-driven connections.<\/p>\n Listeners are increasingly seeking deeper relationships with talent, and podcasting, along with video, provides an additional way to create those bonds.<\/p>\n The human element still wins<\/strong><\/p>\n One point that both speakers were clear about was the importance of credibility.<\/p>\n Qualitative research on AI-generated audio shows that there is strong resistance among listeners to such content as it lacks \u201chumanity\u201d and emotional connection.<\/p>\n In the Edison survey, one respondent said, “I would feel cheated.”<\/p>\n McVeigh’s advice to talent is: “Do what AI can’t do. Be realistic. Be emotional. Be observant.”<\/p>\n Fix your listening experience<\/strong><\/p>\n Ultimately, the session returned to a core idea: that the future of radio depends more on internal execution than on external threats.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n #future #radio #content #commercial #loads #local #connectivity<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Radio remains America’s most widely used ad-supported audio platform, but its long-term strength will depend on something more fundamental: whether the listening experience actually delivers what viewers want. That was the central message from consultants Mike McVeigh, president of McVeigh Media, and Laura Ivey of Edison Research during a wide-ranging conversation at the NAB Show … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2998,3000,2997,1170,150,2999,952,294,1851],"class_list":["post-1087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-commercial","tag-connectivity","tag-content","tag-free","tag-future","tag-loads","tag-local","tag-news","tag-radio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}