It is broadcast radio’s message of the moment. iHeart’s legal IDs promise that “free never sounded so good.” Station sweepers tout “no subscription fees.” For more than a few of the readers asked about radio’s next priority, delivering the message about free radio is what we must do now. Radio is “always there, always on [with] free content 24/7,” as Connoisseur’s Kevin Begley noted.
I agree in the power of “free” as one of broadcast radio’s key advantages, although not its only one, as long as stations are still able to deliver genuine companionship, community, localism, entertainment, and music curation. I believe in “free” as a saleable commodity for radio, but that defends both how we explain it to listeners and what we decide the battle to be. Radio is competing with a variety of subscription services, and some fill different needs that we will not replace.
I also believe that “free radio,” like “live and local” or “today’s best music” during a format doldrums, is easily rendered risible by our detractors, and sometimes it’s an inside job. When CBS Radio’s “Free FM” spectacularly failed to replace Howard Stern to a chorus of rivals’ derision, nobody stopped to say, “But ‘free’ is a key part of our strategy, so we need to be careful to avoid scorched earth.”
“Free FM” (the format) is far behind us now, part of a 20-year-history of short-term industry priorities from HD Radio to NextRadio and messages (“download our app”) that have been ubiquitous without ever quite being compelling. Our mantras are repeated often enough to become background noise. Often, they occupy just enough time in the space of an hour to waste it.
Like “live and local,” “free” is not a magic bullet. As a child, I saw ads in movie theaters constantly railing against “pay TV” for years before cable became a substantial threat, and without any apparent effect. More than a year ago, Edison Research’s Laura Ivey pointed out that a growing number of consumers — particularly 18-to-34-year-olds – had no problem paying for commercial-free audio.
So how do we get the maximum value out of “free”?
Understand what people are paying for. The time that is spent on Spotify and Apple Music is now agreed to have come both from radio and the CD player. The money spent on the ability to hear “any song, any time” comes from what used to be spent purchasing music. Being free is irrelevant against Spotify and Apple Music as long as broadcast radio has no comparable product (except the paid tier of iHeart Radio). Only the On.Radio app, which will find you a station based on the song you want, comes close to approximating it. And by adding podcasting and now audiobooks, subscription services are making more inroads on broadcast territory than we are in theirs.
The radio that people are paying for is an agreeable experience for many. SiriusXM satellite radio has its own issues, with concerns about the economy, the new-car market, and streaming services. But it has made far more inroads than broadcasters expected over two decades because it:
- Offers more variety than any one local market and organizes it well;
- Offers a classic radio experience with companionship (although less on some channels) and between-the-songs content;
- Plays commercial-free music consistently, not in just some hours.
To compete with that sort of paid radio, broadcasters need to:
- Emphasize the variety they offer and better organize it;
- Address both the quantity and quality of commercials so that “ads-for-free-entertainment” is again a trade-off that more people find reasonable;
- Point out all the things that radio is doing for free — companionship, reliable local information, and, yes, continuous music and music discovery — and deliver those consistently.
Let the listeners say it. Nothing has been more ubiquitous-but-not-compelling than consistent reminders to “download our app.” San Jose’s KRTY.com showed how much more effective those were with just a few more examples of concrete usage. And real listeners, articulating what they value about radio, will be far more effective than just adding “there are no subscription fees” to an imaging package full of generic actualities.
Let the personalities say it. There’s a balance between consistent messaging and the sort of repetition that makes listeners glaze over. Our personalities are considered difference-makers now as well. We are more aware than ever of the power of endorsement spots. Personalities should be talking about all of radio’s selling propositions, including being free. As with the KRTY ads, multiple variations on the theme will be most easily heard.
Say it somewhere other than on their own air. The decision to pay for a subscription service rather than listen to broadcast radio is being made by people who are beyond the influence of radio-station sweepers. Acknowledging the need to reach beyond our own walls (and having the ability to do so) probably would have made a difference in our other campaigns, or get more radio apps downloaded now.
Use “commercial-free” more meaningfully and judiciously. Broadcasters throw “commercial-free” around a lot, usually as part of the three-card-monte game of commercial-free hours made possible by unlistenable hours elsewhere. We’re not just devaluing “commercial-free” by doing that, we’re making the word “free” itself less meaningful when we’re not delivering our current value propositions.
“Free” has been a big part of TuneIn’s launch of its three Garth Brooks-related channels. By bringing back The Garth Channel, a former SiriusXM offering, this month and emphasizing that it’s now free, TuneIn has come a lot closer to directly countering subscription radio than any single broadcaster. There is not yet the depth of the SXM curated experience, but there is clearer intent than radio itself has expressed thus far, and TuneIn has been unveiling new showcase channels being created at a regular clip over the past six months.
“Free” does make a difference to me. I’m using the Android Auto that came with my car, along with three years of free data, even though I was perfectly happy with Apple CarPlay and in no hurry to learn a new protocol. The AA-versions radio apps I’ve downloaded so far have given me something that eluded me for years — easily usable push-button choices for stations. I’m spending more time with both iHeart Radio and TuneIn than before. More about that in a future column.
We never say “commercial free” on the air. Makes it seem that those commercials are a negative. Listeners expect commercials on AM/FM radio. Research that we did several years ago showed that 3 commercials in a row is reasonable to the listener. 4 is tolerable. More than 4 and they’re gone. Those gigantic PPM commercial sets have always made ZERO sense to me. 10 units is ridiculous. If I was the advertiser and my commercial was last, I would be severely pissed. “Quality” of the commercial is more important than ever.
I agree completely. To the mix of radio’s other issues, we can add “payback for how we treated sponsors” and “problems with how we treat them now.” There are so many voids in the industry and I wish everybody was as aggressive about filling them as Optima Tax Relief.
Many 18 to 34 year olds are college or trade school educated, so I must ask, who exactly is radio attempting to convince with platitudes? Speaking of SiriusXM John Mayer has brought a refreshing take on radio. Sorry to the geezers, but Becky sets the mood with music. Modern music radio could run tight and yet have variety with dayparting, but knowing radio, 5 years from now they will still talk about playing the most music from the 80s 90s and today.
Brandon…You’re right on the money about dayparting and the overuse of “tired” slogans. I would guess mentioning of decades still has some value if you’re targeting a specific audience. I listen to a lot of old airchecks from the 70s and 80s. It’s noticeable that they rarely even mention an “era” of music. Of course, those stations had less music history to deal with. My favorite station of the 80s is KFRC when Gerry Cagle was the PD. The tightest of tight top 40 stations. “Playing the best music” was their slogan and it was used only the LIVE top hour ID. Simplicity works.
I loved KFRC during that era. Mark will also remember that there was only one produced sweeper on the station. It was a brief, almost downbeat read of just the “KFRC” calls and nothing else. That played every hour at :30. All of the imaging excitement went into the contest promos at the end of stopsets (back when that was still the norm and stopsets weren’t so long that your promo would never be heard at the end). And there were usually 2-3 contests on the station at any time.
Yes! It sounds like Bobby Ocean on the KFRC sweeper. Mark McKay did the majority of the promos I believe. There’s a Bill Lee aircheck where he talks up the intro of a commercial!
In the ’70s, talking up the intro to a commercial was a common practice. I hear it a lot on CKLW and other airchecks of that era. But now we have to move this discussion over to another story, because radio doesn’t want to talk over intros of songs any more, much less commercials.
However obvious it might seem to some, it finally dawned on me recently that the station playing “music of the ’70s and ’80s” is today’s equivalent of “Music of Your Life.” Yow!
I read your views every week and here is a couple of points from a radio guy living in Ireland who tries to listen in USA as much as possible (don’t ask how).I and lots of
non Americans here Europe would never pay for radio.it been tried in both UK and Ireland and failed.But after listening recently to WCBS in New York and regardless of how good the music is and hot jock Broadway the ads drive me away .If I hear that awful ad cash for cars you can kill me now.I now have come round with heavy heart i would pay for radio to hear no commercials. Radio in Ireland and UK so bland with big fish eating everyone we are getting more like Iheart every day.