A Radio Fad.

Commercial radio hit a big milestone last week. It turned half a century on Wednesday and celebrated 50 years of existence. It is an important milestone to note, as almost since it began there have been detractors and those unsure of its continued success.

As Paul Chantler commented in his social post which appeared in my feed, the industry has never been stronger. Record audiences and record revenues to match. Name another commercial outlet with 39 million WEEKLY users and £740 million revenues in 2022.

Of course there are still some refuseniks, “I don’t like listening to adverts” being a common utterance. I’m reminded of a quite successful campaign in the US many years ago when UK commercial radio was in its infancy. The background of US versus UK is very different of course with a lack of BBC and so the relationship to commercial outlets has a different footing, but the premise was “Advertising gives you the right to choose”. Without ads and promotion, increasing your awareness of the options available to you, you might miss out on the best option for you. Of course sense seldom silences stubbornness, and when I engage with those “advertising refuseniks” and suggest that they must find it hard not using the internet ever, not travelling down any roads which have billboards or bus stops, not using public transport and avoiding bus routes in case they see a bus, all for fear of polluting their eyes by seeing advertising, it generally becomes non-sensical. Of course I’m being extreme for effect. No more extreme than saying I don’t want an advert in an audio only form in some purist stance that defies logic.

Commercial radio is alive and well because it finds audiences and super serves them. Creates new audiences and provides choices for listeners who previously might have listened to something out of “least worst option”. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it may well be that the potential audience for a particular audience segment might be unviable as a commercial option- or just has not become viable just yet.

I had a conversation with someone a few weeks ago who was new to radio, unaware really of the ultimate power of the medium and commercial radio in particular. They thought social media was all powerful and all consuming. Now, they might have a point about its power and strength and commercial radio (and radio in general) needs to consistently evolve and adapt in a technological environment which didn’t exist 50 years ago. I suggested that we should perhaps do a link on air on the station we were listening to, saying that everyone visiting a city centre location in a couple of hours time, they would buy them all a drink. Seemed to work.

Just those numbers again a different way. London has a population of around 8.7 million people. Commercial Radio alone has MORE than the entire population of London, FOUR TIMES OVER, listening every week… and it’s been around for FIFTY years and is at record highs.

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