Gene Simmons was recently quoted as saying “Rock is Dead” and as you can imagine, it’s caused quite a bit of controversy in the Hard Rock/Heavy Metal community. But just because some modern day bands don’t share the same level of success as veteran bands like KISS, Aerosmith, and Metallica, that doesn’t mean that the entire genre of music is dead.

I see many parallels to that situation with Radio. Being the Senior Media Buyer here at the Radio Agency, I’ve heard it all at this point, especially that listenership is too splintered and fragmented between AM/FM, Satellite Radio, and Podcasting. This argument seems particularly valid when referring to Millennials, those currently in the Adults 18-34 demographic. But dig a bit deeper and a recent study done by Nielsen Audio shows that just the opposite is true.

It states: “Of the 243 million Americans (aged 12 or older) using radio each week, 66.6 million of them are Millennials. This far outpaces the size of the weekly Generation X and Boomer radio audiences, with 57.9 million weekly listeners each. Millennials spend more than 11 hours a week with radio, and nearly three quarters (73%) of their listening occurs while outside the home and close to making purchasing decisions. For those advertisers and brands looking to reach Millennials on the radio, the afternoon drive (defined as Monday-Friday 3pm-7pm) is the most listened-to time of day.”

And while AM/FM is still clearly the king of the mountain, podcasts are another form of radio that is quickly gaining ground. There are literally hundreds of choices with many featuring top tier celebrities/talents who deliver results on a regular basis for Direct Response Clients and do a great job of providing Branding and Public Relations for companies at very affordable costs.

Some naysayers look at new audio channels like Pandora and Podcasts as the end of radio. They fail to realize that these platforms are an extension of radio and that many AM/FM properties also have separate audio on demand programming on Podcasts, as well as a presence on Satellite Radio. Eddie Trunk, famed Hard Rock/Heavy Metal disc jockey has been on the air on Q 104.3 in NYC for over 20 years and also pilots his own weekly Podcast with PodcastOne and hosts a weekly show on the Hair Nation Channel on SiriusXM.

Just as I don’t believe rock is dead, I believe that those who think radio is dead need to head back to the drawing board. For Radio, this expansion into other forms and delivery systems isn’t the beginning of the end. It’s the end of the beginning. Through technology and innovation, we’ve broken ground into a new, diverse age of multiple platforms that help advertisers reach their target audiences with increasing efficiency.
Get in touch with me if you’d like to kick around the best options for your best to leverage the best of what radio has to offer in 2015. It’s what we love and do best here at The Radio Agency.