Bridge Ratings Warns Of Radio/Listener Breakdown

Know What Listeners Expect ... And Deliver It

BRIDGE RATINGS has completed its 16th annual progress report of music radio, tracking how radio is performing with its music consumers. In a series of posts on its Navigate the Future Blog, the company tried to answer the question, "Why are radio listeners –- still highly passionate about their favorite type of music –- tuning in less to the station that primarily plays that music?"

"It comes down to knowing what listeners expect and delivering it," DAVE VAN DYKE wrote. "Some radio music formats achieve a better relationship between listener passion for the music and tune-in. Others show an alarming trend that could affect the ability of those formats to recover. Music radio song category structures and exposures no longer align with how the audience consumes music, and in our latest findings here at BRIDGE RATINGS, we've discovered that passion for music radio is slipping for 75% of the four major music formats we analyzed: Top 40, Country, Urban Contemporary and Alternative."

Noting that, "Reduction in passion for music radio doesn't necessarily mean less passion for the music; on the contrary," VAN DYKE railed against only using published airplay charts to determine airplay. "Bottom line: Published airplay charts -- in general -- do not correlate with actual consumption of music as represented by on-demand streaming charts. Radio listeners have very good taste in music and through viral sharing and social media recommendations, music fans and radio are now on divergent paths.

"Radio station programmers who understand this reality will reflect today's true music consumption behavior and will properly reflect consumer tastes."

Read the entire post -- with breakouts of four formats -- here.

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