Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Testicle Ratings are Down

My good pal at TSS-Radio (see the ad) wants me to mention that Sirius is free today for everyone who wants to take an on-line test drive.

http://www.sirius.com/wo/Howard/freetrial.html

But frankly, fuck the test ride and just get Sirius. You won't regret it. And you can't do better than by ordering a radio on line from TSS-Radio. They have the best price and service and you'll have the lastest model sent to you a lot faster than you can find one by driving around town.

But back to my blog (if you fucking don't mind TSS-Radio).

There's been a lot of news, and a lot of discussion on Howard's show, about the fact that ratings are not only down for the stations in the morning time slot that Howard left, but they are down over all. That is not only in the mornings, but in the afternoons and around the clock.

Howard and others credit this to the "halo" effect. That is, that once someone sets their radio dial on a particular station because they like that program (Howard Stern) out of laziness they tend to listen to other programs on that station even when they know Howard isn't on (like in the afternoon).

Certainly, the "halo" effect is a problem for traditional broadcasters. A big problem.

But frankly, they face an even bigger one. That is the "you can get what you want when you want it" effect. And I think this is a much bigger problem than the "halo" effect.

Traditional radio is completely over. It's a dinasour. It's dead. Seriously.

The whole idea of a "morning show" and an "afternoon show" is dead. These are completely artifical creations that were set up by the stupid fucking conglomerates who didn't understand technology and didn't care about servicing their "captive" audiences.

The "morning show" was the most important revenue generator for traditional radio because it had so much of a captive audience of people making their commute. So they knew they had to put their best and brightest (Howard) into that time slot. For afternoons, they went for their second best and brightest (non-Howard). For all the other times they went for whatever idiots they could hire and pay shit.

The real reason ratings are dropping so fast is that the 5 million people who have abandoned traditonal radio for Sirius, now can get a wide variety of Howard programing (on two channels) 24 hours a day.

So why bother to listen to the second best guy in the afternoon? Regardless of the "halo" effect. Why the fuck would you listen to something that isn't as good as what you can get somewhere else?

And that's why traditional radio is so doomed. They like to talk about the fact that 280 million people can potentially listen to traditional radio (vs. 5 million Sirius subscribers). But the fact most people don't even listen to radio. Say… 200 million people. Sirius is also availible to any of those 280 million people who might be interested, and thanks to the internet, they don't even have to buy a radio.

Press reports put Howards "regular audience" (whatever that means) at 12 million. He's already stolen the five million hard care listeners not only from "morning radio" but from radio in general. He's adding more subscribers each day. The writing is already on the wall.

If you're in your car, morning, noon, or night and you're bored, you can listen to Howard. And that means all those number two guys (who really sucked) have lost their audience overnight.

Mary DeSade

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