People Earning A Paycheck Listen To AM/FM Radio

While the Internet (mostly Alphabet and Facebook) has been busy overtaking TV to become the #1 ad platform in the U.S., AM/FM has quietly increased its rank from fifth to third in total ad revenue.

The challenges facing TV go beyond cord cutting and Netflix overtaking cable, something that Pandora has tried, but failed to achieve against AM/FM Radio.

The issues for TV are being compounded with a massive and sustained ratings decline. Media analysts Moffett/Nathanson recently issued a report, Worse Than We Thought. In it, the Wall Street analysts concluded, "The fact is, ratings declines in 2017 were even worse than we imagined with seven of the past 11 months declining double-digits."

What Do Advertisers Want?

AdAge columnist Shelly Palmer shares this insight: "Marketers have never wanted to buy a GRP or a CPM. They want to drive velocity or brand awareness or create purchase intent or some other metric of their own choosing. They're not governed by how well they buy ads; they're governed by revenue, and everyone is under extreme pressure to perform."

AM/FM Radio's Leading Value Proposition

When we position radio as providing "Cheaper reach than TV," we are selling ourselves massively short. More importantly, a race to the bottom on rate doesn't help advertisers "drive velocity" and certainly doesn't help our industry.

What rings the cash register? Reaching those with money to spend. People earning a paycheck listen to AM/FM radio.

In fact, each month, adults in the U.S. (18+) consume 700 BILLION more minutes of AM/FM radio than pure-play streams. That's an advantage of almost 600 BILLION quarter-hours per year.

At the same time, while unemployment is less than 5%, that doesn't mean everyone is working. In fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while 150 million American adults work, 100 million are out of the workforce. They are home watching TV.

The current Golden Age of Audio isn't being driven by podcasts or streaming, but rather by the sustained strength of AM/FM radio.

Radio's ability to "drive velocity" for clients is directly related to growing your audience with the right mix of employed, heavy consumers of radio, while keeping these super-fans and Amplifiers actively engaged with your brand, so they are consistently thinking of you first and most, each time they turn on the radio.