I’m willing to bet that you know exactly where you’ll be at 7:45 tomorrow morning. What you’ll be doing. And, if you’re listening to the radio, what station or platform you’ll be listening to.
The fact is we humans are creatures of habit. Sure, a universe full of variables forces us to improvise throughout the day, but if no fires are blazing we have – and take comfort in – our routine.
That’s what makes radio the ideal medium for marketing with dependable day-after-day exposure. DVRs have trained us to time-shift our television viewing – and then edit out the commercials. Online, we visit our favorite websites and ignore or click past ads to get to content. But real-time AM/FM radio advertising cannot be flipped, skipped or compressed. Better still, that’s how we, as creatures of habit, have come to expect and accept that that’s how the medium serves us content.
The on-air radio personalities we choose become trusted friends, even though we’ll probably never actually meet them. We know when Howard’s had a rough night, if Ryan’s genuinely excited about that new movie and what song Delilah chose to comfort that woman who’s lost her husband.
It’s all very personal.
So when our favorite personalities lend their voices to promote and endorse our brands, those messages get heard and processed.
Even radio platforms without live, air personalities (Pandora, or DJ-free radio formats) have loyal fans that tune in, every day, at the same time. Reaching this audience with enough frequency to inspire a buying decision is as simple as placing a horizontal frequency schedule airing the same ads at the same time each day. Mornings. Or Middays. Or Afternoons. Or Evenings. Or Overnights.
In a world fixated on technology’s newest bells and whistles, it’s all too easy to forget the dependable, medium of Sound Advertising that entertains:
• Over 242 million Americans on AM/FM
• Over 26 million on SiriusXM
• Over 75 million on Pandora
…and millions more through podcasts, platforms and an endless stream of music and spoken word programming that’s a daily and trusted source of information and content in our everyday lives.
Think about that as you’re planning for 2015. Or deciding how to put your available holiday 2014 dollars to good use. Radio: America’s listening.

Mark Lipsky is the President and CEO of The Radio Agency. Please follow The Radio Agency’s Blog “Sounding Board” by subscribing to the email or RSS links above.Visit our website TheRadioAgency.com