Fred Jacobs & Jason Hollins

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." The fictional Ferris Bueller said that, but that's all too true in the reality of radio. Nothing illustrates that better than the Techsurvey, which has monitored the massive business, programming and especially technological developments impacting radio for the past 18 years. Here, Jacobs Media Pres. Fred Jacobs and Research Dir. Jason Hollins discuss the most important and topical issues being canvassed in Techsurvey - and how stations can participate with their own listeners - so radio won't "miss it."

What were the biggest revelations of the 2017 Techsurvey and how have they impacted what you're planning to do in 2018?

FRED: There were lot of findings that we felt were breakthroughs. On-demand continues to become a bigger issue, be it on-demand TV or on-demand audio, so that will be continue to be one of the big headlines. The second one that's really going to impact the 2018 survey concerns smart speakers. We saw smart speakers jump out with a really healthy start of 11% penetration. People are getting more and more comfortable with voice commands to any gadget, be it Alexa, the car or the smartphone. Tracking voice command tendencies was pretty strong last year; we expect to intensify that tracking this year.

JASON: With the holiday season here, we expect smart speaker penetration to surge in households around the country. Techsurvey 2018 will get a deeper look at what the penetration was as well as variation usage - the parameters of whether people were using smart speakers to listen to audio as opposed to using it for home automation. We do expect that more devices in U.S. households offer more opportunities for media companies, including radio stations.

FRED: One of more interesting things about smart speakers is that usually new technology starts out with young millennials, then older groups fall into place. The remarkable thing about smart speaker data in 2017 was in how little difference there was in demo and gender. We are expecting that to hold this year; it was fascinating to see smart speakers really cut across all different types of groups in terms of popularity.

More than a few people in radio look at smart speakers as the new home radio. Does the TechSurvey confirm that?

FRED: We are tracking penetration of AM/FM radios at home ... and there has been a slow leak. It's a little lower every year but when you zoom in on the demos and look at millennials, it's not surprising they're least likely have an AM/FM radio where they live. Most of their radio listening takes place in the car.

We don't know specifically whether smart speakers will completely replace AM/FM radio in the home, but that potential exists. We'll take a deeper dive to get a sense of the people who own these devices and how they use them - do they use them to listen to music radio, or use them to order supplies? Obviously, we'll measure that by all the usual parameters - gender, age, format and like that. But I, for one, am very excited to find out about the tremendous potential smart speakers have to put radio back into the household.

Where does podcasting fit into Techsurvey's mix?

JASON: Over the last two years, we have taken a very deep look into podcasting and what types of programs use podcasting, what people listen to, the metrics on how often people listen monthly, weekly, etc. We certainly expect to look at a wealth of data for the radio industry - podcast users' listening patterns and what devices they listen to them on, as well as the most popular kind of podcasts and how long they're consuming them. We'll also get into advertising and sponsorship of podcasts, the use of podcasting for branding and station revenue opportunities.

FRED: Podcasting is a big area and we're tracking it carefully to expand our question series. The reason Jacobs Media got so involved with Podcast Movement extends to what we've seen in Techsurvey, and we'll continue to supplement podcast information to help guide stations. This year's Techsurvey questions will be especially directional, so stations can better understand the space.

Will you be looking into any new areas in Techsurvey 2018?

JASON: We'll look at the term "fake news" that has been all over the real news for the past 12-16 months. We want to dive into that to get a sense of how much of that stuff is on people's radar.

FRED: Another thing we saw in last year's survey we were concerned about -- and we really want to track it in 2018 - is the question whether the audience who streams favorite stations willingly gives up basic registration information, such as name, zip code or e-mail, for the stream. Three years ago, we got a healthy number - 61% say they'd readily give up this info in exchange for using the station stream. The next year that number was up 10 points to 71%, but last year it dropped. If it continues to go down, it'll say something about how people feel about giving up data, and their concerns about hacking and breaches. That area can really help us understand our relationship with the audience.

How much emphasis will Techsurvey devote to the impact of on-air personalities?

FRED: A number of years ago, it dawned on us that with all this technology around, why people would still listen to broadcast radio stations? Our "Why radio?" series has been especially helpful for stations in all 14 different formats, to give them a better understanding where radio's appeal really lies - and that's been personalities, music, companionship and mood elevation. All those questions will be tracked and we're thinking about different variations so we can learn more.

Although it's called Techsurvey, many survey questions delve deeply into why people listen to broadcast radio -- and why people are listening to less radio. The good news over the past several years, in terms of more vs. less, is that there's been a positive direction. We hope to see that again.

JASON: We always like to zoom into people who listen to less radio; we really take a deeper dive into those soft lifestyle-based people who change jobs and move or start school. The "less radio" people bring up more self-inflicted wounds, such as too many commercials or too much mindless talk. All that's still there in our Techsurvey, Of course, we also survey those who listen more and why; it has been very helpful to keep radio vibrant and appealing.

Are you content with the level of participation from radio stations, and will the recent stations sales and acquisitions by various radio groups impact that?

FRED: It's interesting. We had 321 stations participate last year, which is one of our high points. What's really amazing about that is that there has been a certain turnover every year. While some stations will decide to participate, others will sit out a year. What's quite remarkable is how steady the data has actually been, year to year, throughout the constant tumult in the industry.

There are always stations sales, companies changing hands and regime changes, but it doesn't impact us at all. Thanks to All Access for getting the word out; acceptance has been robust. The sample is always large, although there will be some differences between last year and this year.

So you are content with the sample size.

FRED: We have the biggest sample size in all of radio. More than 51,000 people participated last year. We reach out to people through e-mail databases and social media platforms of the radio stations. I will say this: In every research company, it's more arduous to survey people using any kind of instrument. When there's so much research that takes place; it's definitely a task to get people to cooperate.

We make Techsurvey as interesting as possible to keep people engaged. It's easier to do that when you're surveying from an entertainment and media standpoint. Our only concern is the length of our survey; there's no question we cram a lot of questions into it, but we also have to respect the respondent's time.

JASON: Running Techsurvey online is the best way reach people, particularly the makeup of respondents who would be most interested in our survey - and that's from radio station databases and social media platforms. This is the best way to get a very large sample because we directly target respondents who already have a relationship with the stations. We spend one to two minutes to ask a number of questions about that relationship, then we ask a wide range of questions. Not everyone will answer every question; every question doesn't apply to everyone. Nevertheless the online environment is the best way to engage a large number of responses.

FRED: Keep in mind, Techsurvey is the only industry study that provides format specific breakouts and provides stations that participate with the ability to look at their own discreet audience -- and not just general pools such as millennials, men or people with smartphones, Stations will have the ability to look at their own audiences and compare them with the larger format group.

The other big advantage is that many people who take the survey receive an invitation to do so from the station. Stations reach out to their own audience, so respondents come away from doing Techsurvey saying things like, "Thanks for asking my opinion." The listening audience who participates feel a sense of involvement with the station. It's research as marketing.

So are the requirements for participation the same as last year?

FRED: Identical. The costs to participate haven't moved in many years. It's either $300, $400 or $500, depending on market size. There are also two options: Stations can opt to pay that fee to get their own line-level individual audience data. But if for whatever reason, they don't have the money but want to participate to make sure their audience is represented in the general pool, and be part of the early presentation before anyone else sees it, they can still participate at no charge.

JASON: It's open to all commercial radio stations in the U.S. and Canada. We're getting a great amount of Canadian signups early on. We'll be presenting the Canadian version of TS2018 at Canadian Music Week next spring, so it will be great to have a robust sample.

The deadline to participate is Jan. 19th. We go into the field in mid-January to early February. We'd love to have another big turnout.

You can register to participate here: www.jacobsmedia.com/techsusrvey