Gordon Borrell: 'Radio Will Continue To Lose Market Share'

Gordon Borrell

In an interview in MEDIA LIFE MAGAZINE, BORRELL ASSOCIATES' GORDON BORRELL predicts some tough times ahead for radio.

When asked how radio is, "Faring in local markets in light of all the turmoil and changes in local advertising?" BORRELL said, "Radio is doing relatively well, but note 'relatively'. In our survey of 7,200 local advertisers earlier this year, more were pegging newspapers and yellow pages for cuts than broadcast media. I think that’s due to pricing and targetability."

What does BORRELL think radio can do to garner a larger share of local ad dollars? He said, "The only way radio can grow market share is to lose its blind love of radio and adapt to a marketing environment that doesn’t believe the 'radio is best' story anymore. Stations can grow market share again if they adopt an extremely aggressive approach to digital. That means building a digital-centric offering that includes radio as a 'magnifier' of that marketing plan. Unfortunately, most radio stations still see things the opposite way -- radio is the center and digital the add-on."

BORRELL saves his harshet assesment when discussing what's five or 10 years down the road, predicting, "Radio as we know it will continue to lose market share until it’s nearly gone entirely. I’d give it 15 years, when the majority of cars on the road have dashboards with way too many fun options to radio."

"There will, however, be survivors," BORRELL shares. "I suspect that they will be companies like ENTERCOM and TOWNSQUARE, who have started to think like blacksmith shops did 100 years ago. They realized their business wasn’t serving people who owned horses but serving the transportation needs of those people."

Read the full interview here.

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