Radio prospers in the digital broadcasting age

While other media are looking nervously at the explosion of channels and digital opportunities, fearing the increasing fragmentation of their audiences, radio is set to thrive in the new environment.

Often an adjunct to other activities, radio fits into lifestyles which are increasingly led outside the home, and the industry’s PR is making much of the trend for young people to listen to the radio whilst using the Internet.

This healthy state of affairs is reflected in the latest Rajar audience figures, with total listening-hours up by 3.3 per cent overall on the previous quarter. However, slightly worrying for advertisers is the fact that the BBC, rather than independent stations, accounts for the bulk of that extra listening. The BBC’s audience share is ahead, with Radio 2 and the BBC’s local and regional stations doing particularly well.

Looking at the national picture in more depth there’s a clear trend away from the AM/LW stations, all of which are in decline. Listeners’ expectations of higher sound-quality, provided by FM, are probably playing a role in this, as is consumer inertia – most radio sets, particularly in cars, have FM as their default band.

However, one AM station is less worried about falling audiences than most. TalkSport has managed to shed many of the older, more downmarket listeners who were attracted to the talk shows and phone-ins of its previous incarnation as Talk Radio, and to replace them with a younger, male-dominated audience. That’s an audience which is highly sought after by advertisers – and also one which can often be hard for them to reach using other media.

Virgin’s national AM service is also hoping that a change in its programming will pay dividends. Its latest audience figures looked grim, and the station has already announced that its playlist is to move away from the charts and back to old faithfuls such as Radiohead.

Meanwhile, in London, the tug-of-war between Capital and Kiss for young Londoners’ ears has lurched in favour of Capital this time around. Radio is highly responsive to advertising, and Capital’s investment in new branding in late autumn has paid dividends in the form of increased numbers of 15- to 44-year-old listeners. And worryingly for Kiss, which before Christmas ran a cheeky campaign claiming “It’s our capital”, it’s been overtaken again by Capital within its 15- to 24-year-old core audience sector. With Capital achieving a 23.7 per cent audience share (against 17.2 per cent for Kiss), those who were proclaiming that Capital was an ailing dinosaur may have to reconsider. A new logo, new managing director and new programming director will take time to have an effect, but the initial signs are that Capital’s fightback is a serious one.

It’s good to see radio broadcasters competing for market share in a growing medium, rather than a declining one.

Yvonne Scullion is client services director at Universal McCann