Bridge Ratings Analysis Points To 'Oversaturation' As News-Talk Radio's Challenge

Van Dyke

BRIDGE RATINGS has released the results of its annual monitoring of News-Talk radio listening patterns, focusing on what Pres./CEO DAVE VAN DYKE calls "listener FATIGUE" with topics and their frequency.

Noting slipping shares and an aging audience as well as the challenge of "how to move the demographic appeal of the format younger, even as that younger target is finding other sources for the news information they are interested in," VAN DYKE writes that the market for political news coverage has become "oversaturated" and that "(w)eakening satisfaction (with radio stations) is directly tied to volume and tone of the way information is delivered."

VAN DYKE says that "oversaturation, ever-shortening of news cycles and repetition of hard news with too-little updated information, is wearing thin on consumers who are seeking alternative sources for information that is fresh, entertaining and positive."

His solution is for News-Talk stations to "take advantage of this atmosphere by adjusting its programming to be additive or complementary to all of the resources available to its potential audience ... There are services available to news and talk stations that provide real-time information about what topics are trending with listeners. These tools should be part of every news room to better appreciate immediate consumption topics. The secret is in how to use those tools so listeners see the information as complementary to what they already know."

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