Commercial radio continues to go through an unintended or even forced metamorphosis of such in order to endure and/or sustain relevance.
The situation is very black and white. Either the radio corporation is very aggressive in changing its direction and appeal or they are sitting idly by and waiting for the “return” of radio where listeners relinquish their desire to hear compelling podcasts, audiobooks, clubhouse, or streaming music and they come back home to commercial radio … and the papa bear said “Who ate my Porridge” and the research company said “Me, but you should have known better.”
The corporations that think we are going back to where we were, even within the last five years, are in for an abrupt and brutal awakening.
There is not a single person that I personally know who listens to radio on a regular basis. I’m speaking from all age ranges, but the press releases that we get from research companies on a regular basis indicate radio is hotter than ever. I’m sure people still listen in certain parts of the country but the major markets have shifted drastically
Of course, they are going to say that it’s in their best interest. The Black community has always been the driving force and the cultural architect for our own “research” which has often been from the streets, not a research corporation that has no black decision-makers on board like many industry research companies in the industry today. I am more than willing to acquiesce if they have Black staff on board who MAKE DECISIONS please let us know so we can act interested and correct ourselves.
Yet, it’s easy to understand everyone’s position in all of it, radio is held hostage by PPM and they have to adhere to a “research” recipe in order to win, or at least they think so, but there can be a difference in “winning” and “remaining relevant.”
It’s not easy to have it both ways in this current commercial radio landscape but who can blame them for choosing “winning” over “remaining relevant” in order to survive. It’s really easy to see this is a massive traffic jam that involves listeners, radio, labels, streaming, audiobooks, podcasts, and research companies
I get all sides but I like the research side the least.