These Numbers Add Up For Radio Listening…

Tuesday, February, 2, 2010 by Mel Phillips.

While radio listening will never be as dominant as it was a decade ago, there are two recent studies that indicate that listeners have not abandoned the first media love for many of us. The Center for Research Excellence-Ball State media mapping study found that the average radio user listened for 109 minutes a day, without huge erosion to iPods or other media devices. Katz Media Group CEO Stu Olds says “Everybody assumed radio had lost its place. What that really re-established is that radio is the dominant voice in the audio world and it has not lost its cache. That’s playing very well with (sales) people we’re speaking with.” …

Radio listening has become a shared experience, having lost its exclusivity what seems like a lifetime ago and while over 60 million Americans listen to some form of Internet radio in a typical week, according to a new Bridge Ratings study, that listening includes both AM/FM simulcast streams along with Internet-only radio. Bridge adds that 84 percent of this group regularly listens for at least five minutes to AM/FM simulcast streams in a typical week and there’s more. 62 percent of the total streaming group regularly spends at least five minutes listening to Internet-only streams…

Radio will share its audience and fight for every dollar it can get forever but it’s still the grand daddy of all media forms and if we didn’t love it we wouldn’t be writing and reading about it. That part of radio is timeless…  

10 Timeline Memories:

1. 1653] Start spreading the news: New Amsterdam, now known as New York City is incorporated…
2. 1790] Supes on: The U.S. Supreme Court convenes for the first time…
3. 1876] Senior circuit: Baseball’s National League is formed in New York with these original franchises: New York, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Hartford, Louisville, Philadelphia and St. Louis…
4. 1887] They say we’re young and we don’t know: The first ‘Groundhog Day’ is celebrated in Punxsutawney (PA). The 1993 movie starring Bill Murray immortalizes the day and Sonny & Cher’s “I Got You Babe” wakes Murray up 33 times…
5. 1946] Debuted on this date: Mutual Broadcasting airs “Twenty Questions” for the first time on radio. The show moves to TV three years later…
6. 1967] Jump it up: The American Basketball Association is formed…
7. 1972] Bloody Sunday aftermath: The British embassy in Dublin is destroyed in protest over Bloody Sunday…
8. 1979] “Happy Trails”: Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols dies from a drug overdose at 21, less than 4 months after fatally stabbing girlfriend Nancy Spungen at the Chelsea Hotel…1996] The legendary Gene Kelly passes away after suffering two strokes…
9. 1990] Free Mandela: F.W. de Klerk, allows the African National Congress to legally function and promises to release Nelson Mandela…
10. 2007] And somewhere Al Gore smiles: The world’s leading climate scientists and government officials say that global warming is so severe, it would “continue for centuries” and humans were to blame…

Music Memories:

• 1956] Signed, Sealed, Delivered: The Coasters sign with Atco, an Atlantic Records subsidiary.  Here’s a short clip of their first big hit on Atco…
• 1959] Released on this date: “Venus” - Frankie Avalon…1959] “Charlie Brown” - Coasters…
• 1966] Number One on this date: “My Love” - Petula Clark…1983] “Africa” - Toto which dominates the Grammy’s by winning in 6 categories, including ‘Record of the Year’ and ‘LP of the Year’ (’Toto IV’)…

“Happy Birthday…happy birthday“:

Shakira (33), Christie Brinkley (56), Barry Diller (68), Graham Nash (68), Tom Smothers (73), Elaine Stritch (85), Liz Smith (87) and Red Schoendienst (87)…

Timeline Countdown: 5 days until Super Bowl XLIV, 12 days until Valentine’s Day, 13 days until President’s Day, 16 days until pitchers & catchers report to Spring Training voluntarily and 61 days until the MLB opener (Red Sox vs. Yankees)…

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