If you haven’t read the report, here are 12 bullet points that are instructive relative to enhancing the female radio user experience. The one thing that does not make sense is point 4 regarding Pandora. Burns says his research suggests women won’t pay for streams and like radio music as well as customizable streams. In the last 10 days Edison Research did a conversion of Pandora’s numbers to fit the Arbitron model and found that Pandora was knocking it out of the park compared to the top radio stations in the top 5 markets. I’m told there is more info that hasn’t been published yet that further supports these numbers. Ignoring or discounting customizable audio streams is growing at a ferocious rate. Discount these claims at your peril.

The 30,000-foot view of women who like AC and CHR

Consultant Alan Burns presented his fourth and final webinar yesterday, based on a proprietary research study called “Here She Comes 2011.” Each of these points is worth pondering, and not just about women and music radio. Here are Burns’ overall “2,000 Women in 12 Bullet Points:”

1 - Attitudes in general toward radio are very positive, including among younger listeners.

2 - Younger listeners, though, are less passionate about the medium and more at-risk to other music sources. They are more likely to use social media, texting, and streaming, and radio needs to engage them there on their terms.

3 - Radio doesn’t do social media well yet.

4 - Pandora, etc., are not eating radio’s lunch and not likely to. Willingness to pay for music streams is very low, and most women rate the music on their favorite radio station as about as good as that on customized streams.

5 - However, personalizable music streams and the eventual presence of in-car internet will both create more fragmentation of radio listening.

6 - Only 36% of women 15-54 normally listen to radio before leaving home in the morning. That’s a disappointing number that reflects radio’s having ceded a great deal of early morning “news and companionship” ground to television. Another number that indicates weaker than ideal morning content: less than 40% of women who do listen to radio in the morning have a morning radio bit or feature they look forward to.

7 - Women expressed interest in hearing information on the radio that relates to the safety of their children. Smart programmers and morning talent will spend some time thinking about what to do with that.

8 - Money has overtaken time stress as women’s number one concern – at a time when radio generally offers fewer cash promotions.

9 - Radio’s most valuable listeners tend to be: Heavy/Deeps (heavy radio users who are deeply committed to their P1 station). At-work listeners. Women who listen to radio before leaving home in the morning. Facebook fans. Web site visitors. All of those groups are greater TSL potentials than the average listener.

10 - Heavy/Deeps tend to bond with talented air personalities.

11 - Arbitron panelists and diary keepers are different from other listeners in some significant ways.

12 - Top 40 listener tastes currently lean more pop than they have in years, and AC listener tastes continue to become more contemporary.

At the Future of Radio Conference in March of this year, John Gehron talked about Pandora having a 3 share in every market across the country. This put Pandora about where FM was in the early 70’s. That was stunning for those of us who remember FM’s growth through the 70’s. By the mid-80’s everyone was asking, “What do we do with these AM’s?” A recent report in Tom Taylor’s newsletter would suggest Pandora and streaming in general is growing much faster than FM did in the late 70’s and into the 80’s.

Still thinking that developing a multi-platform strategy is a distraction from your traditional terrestrial business seems out of step?

The velocity of change is moving at an unbelievable rate. Listeners are telling you that they are seeing “radio” or “broadcasting” as any way they can get entertainment that is convenient. Advertisers are saying they like the new digital opportunities for marketing their business. The time is now to develop your multi platform strategy for serving your customers!

Click here to read Tom Taylor’s article, Pandora Comes Out Swinging.

Generational Media—the name says it all. It makes me think about how I listened to radio as a teenager and why. Radio and more specifically music, meant everything. Radio was transcendent for me, taking me from the mundane military base where I lived in Texas to a place where rock was king.  In fact, radio and music were synonymous to me. In my case, that started with AM radio and ultimately gave way to FM.

I loved and lived music. So did all of my friends. Radio introduced me to the trendiest music and I bought singles based upon what I heard on air. I even loved the “B” sides to the singles I was buying. Without a doubt, I loved radio (no surprise that I chose radio for a career later). Even loud, fast-talking DJ’s seemed to fit and work.

When FM emerged as a new source for music that went beyond “hit music” I was even more enthralled. I recall telling one of the disc jockey’s from the new local FM rock station that I thought their station was perhaps one of the greatest rock stations anywhere. He gave a slight smile mocking my naivete and asked how many other FM rock stations I had listened to. The answer was none but really shows how the exposure of new rock sounds presented by disc jockey’s that loved and also knew music affected me. It was pretty obvious that radio was at the center of my generation’s world. It should be no surprise that would carry throughout my young adult life, buying thousands of albums and later CD’s with big sound systems in my car and home to enjoy. Radio owned me; a P1 listener on steroids. None of this is revelational. You probably had a similar experience if you are from the same generation that came of age in the late 60’s or early 70’s.

This went on for years but then something happened. A true “sea of change”. The Internet was born and suddenly radio wasn’t the only game in town to discover new music and trends. Meanwhile, the radio industry was about to change. Wall Street was going to allow radio to consolidate and digital technology was going to make radio less expensive to produce and deliver. This fit nicely into the spreadsheets driving the new economics of radio and ROI for investors. Research would drive airplay. The disc jockey that used to create “sets” of music was replaced by automated playlists and recorded jocks churning out the same music, promos and liners heard everywhere. Satellite radio was born offering an option for music without commercials. Pandora and other music services were available letting listeners control their music choices instead of the new automated Program Director. Music listeners suddenly had a myriad of choices to access music.

THE BIG QUESTION

If my legacy and love for radio and music through the years was not enough to keep me satisfied and behaving like a P1 listener, how are we to expect new generations that did not grow up with similar radio experiences to embrace radio at the same level?

THE SMALL ANSWER

This article is not intended to be negative on radio. Quite the opposite. Radio has an ability to change with media consumption trends and new delivery vehicles from a technical perspective. We connect to listeners at a more personal level than the online jukeboxes, however, we must be mindful of how much “personality” is appropriate in each formatic environment. We have the ability to create branded versions of our stations online that allow listeners to customize their experience. We can recycle listeners across platforms like we always have across dayparts. We have the ability to change the way we monetize our broadcasts and level of commercial inventory. We can meet and exceed the relevance of online only services.

We really can “eat the lunches” of our online only service competitors with our multiple platforms for content delivery. We just have to remember this Stephen Covey quote:

“Seek first to understand, then to be understood”.

Sorry for rah-rah and keen grasp of the obvious—couldn’t help myself.

I thought this article did a good job of illustrating how future media models will require multiple streams to really excel.

The “Heinz 57″ Media Business Model

I’m sometimes asked what the new business model for media will be. My answer is that it will be a “Heinz 57″ model. The Heinz food brand often has “57 varieties” in its promotions. And that’s a good metaphor for the emerging media business model.

Frédéric Filloux illustrates this very well in his recent post about Fairfax Media, the Australian media giant. The company publishes 328 newspapers, 46 magazines, it operates 284 web sites, and 15 radio stations.

Fairfax Digital, a division of Fairfax Media, represents 10 percent of total revenues and 16 percent of its EBITDA in fiscal 2009.

Mr Filloux notes that:

… when we compare audiences for NYTimes.com and smh.com.au in their respective markets, the Australian news sites has roughly three times the penetration of the NY Times. And if we compare advertising market shares: the SMH is doing twice as well as the NY Times.

And its impressive financial performance is based on multiple revenue streams. Read more