Americans & Media: Latest Numbers

Last week the U.S. Census Bureau came out with a 1,300-page study on the activities of Americans. Some of this report talked about how we use various different media sources. The report says that Americans this year will spend nearly 10 hours a day watching television, listening to music, surfing the Internet, reading books, newspapers and magazines.

To break this down more specifically, they projected Americans spend an average of nearly 4 1/2 hours daily in front of the television, or 1,555 hours in all. As for radio -- Americans will spend 2 1/2 hours a day listening to radio and a half-hour listening to recorded music. The rest of the nearly 10 hours are spent reading newspapers, looking at the Internet, playing video games and reading other media. The study also indicates that the time they spend with the Internet will exceed time spent reading newspapers for the first time! About 97 million Internet users sought news online in 2005, 92 million purchased a product, and 91 million made a travel reservation. Thirteen million created an Internet blog.

We believe radio usage can and should be a lot higher. The road to radio success is not like it used to be. So what directions do we take? Here are your ADG Radio-MapQuest results:

1. The first step to increased growth is to NOT run from these other mediums or pretend that they don't exist. Instead we need to learn how to embrace them so they can accentuate our station's brand.

2. The second step is to increase your interesting and compelling content. This requires ongoing, strong talent coaching. Radio is too much about itself and how the listener accentuates US when we really need to be perceived as the medium that accentuates the listener's life.

3. The third step is to market our product on a consistent basis. Mass marketing is very important, but direct "viral" marketing is extremely effective, when done correctly. Far too many stations fall short in this area.

There are countless breakouts of each of these steps, but nevertheless they are the BIG THREE. We have found that many stations spend a great deal of time trying to avoid these steps. What they are really doing is hanging on to an old paradigm that will lead them into an empty arena.