HBG Media Minute: Radio Presets are Alive and Well
We, at Harker Bos Group, found in a recent study conducted in April 2022 with over 1,000 respondents in 10+ markets, that 87% of radio audiences have preset radio stations programmed into their vehicles. 84% of that audience with presets programmed into their car’s radio have 3 or more presets. 31% have programmed 6 or […]
HBG Media Minute: Radio Listening Pre-Pandemic vs. Now
In a recent study conducted by Harker Bos Group, we found that 52% of people are listening more to the radio now than they did before the pandemic. Two years on from the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a drastic shift in radio listenership. We, at Harker Bos Group, are pleased to […]
Making Radio Relevant…Again
Disk jockey, personality, host, call them what you will, but virtually every radio station has them. But why? It’s presumably because stations believe that personalities can bring listeners to the station or keep people listening longer. But is it true anymore? A recent post here pointed out the outsized role DJs played in the 1970s. […]
When Radio DJs were the Influencers
Larry Lujack, Gary Owens, Charlie Tuna, Chuck Leonard, Wolfman Jack, Dick Biondi, Cousin Brucie, Real Don Steele, Tom Donahue, and Tony Pigg. If you’re new to radio, the names probably won’t mean anything to you. If you’ve been in radio a while, you probably grew up listening to some of them. They were some of […]
Time to Rethink Music Formats?
Music formats – radio stations playing a single genre of music – are as old as radio itself. The notion that stations succeed by staying in their music “lanes” is accepted as programming gospel. Recent research, however, raises the question whether our focus on music format purity might be outdated. An analysis of Spotify users […]
Direction of Local Radio
MTV was going to kill local radio, but it didn’t. Napster and then iTunes were going to kill local radio, but they didn’t. Sirius and XM were going to kill local radio, but they didn’t. None of these newer competitors crushed local radio as media pundits predicted. Why not? With today’s overwhelming number of choices […]