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Station apps are ready for their clo$eup. We are now squarely in an age of radio apps—version 2.0. Once used only for streaming music, radio apps are evolving into content-rich, user-directed destinations, ripe for monetization. “All signs point to apps being a key focal point for radio brands,” says Paul Jacobs, president of mobile developer jacapps. Along with live streaming, next-generation apps offer video, on-demand content and interactive opportunities, from social media to polls, contests and notifications. According to comScore, smartphone users spend more than 88% of their mobile time in the app environment. As part of the next step in this evolution, stations need to “take their broadcast brand and make it personal to the user,” says Daniel Anstandig, CEO of mobile developer Futuri Media. Streaming remains the main draw, but execs say users need more enticements to download. “An app has to provide some kind of value users don’t get on other platforms,” says Tim Clarke, Cox Media Group senior director of digital audience for radio. Cox stations, working with Futuri, offer exclusive features such as “Open Mic,” where users can submit 10-second audio messages, song voting and push notifications for news and contests. With on-demand features and podcasts growing industry-wide, stations can extend the shelf life of on-air content, such as morning shows and interviews, and create original programming. Social media features are key to drive all this engagement, enabling users to make song requests and dedications. And clever contests—a radio staple—is a big driver on apps. Anstandig says Futuri’s clients are having success with interactive “badges”—when listeners stream a daypart, they earn badge credit and can win prizes, such as free coffee for listening during a morning show.
App strategy: Aggregate OR separate. Radio broadcasters agree on the need for apps; picking the way to use them, however, remains a subject for debate that generally splits along independent/group lines. Some individual stations, and a few groups, prefer standalone apps; others groups, including Scripps and CBS Radio, preach the advantages of an aggregated approach. Others default to simple live streams on big aggregators such as iHeartRadio and TuneIn. CBS Radio increases exposure and expands content by uniting its stations in aggregate apps, including radio.com and CBS Local. Individual apps can have trouble sustaining audiences, says CBS president of local digital media Ezra Kucharz. He notes some TV programmers have done away with individual apps, including ESPN and Comedy Central, in favor of one destination. With one comprehensive app, “We’re getting people to look across all the different pieces,” he says. Entravision is developing an aggregate app for its Spanish-language stations and affiliates. Scripps’ Radio League app gives users access to more than two dozen local station apps with one download. Each station has a tile and can customize news, promos and contests. Users can tag a favorite to autoload, or the app can geolocate them. “This is an efficient way to provide great distribution and branding for each station,” says Jacapps’ Paul Jacobs, who works with Scripps. But talk of such efficiencies don’t jibe with advocates for individual station apps, who say standalones can zero in on a particular market and format. “Each one of our stations is a local specialist,” says Cox Media Group’s Tim Clarke. Meanwhile, Hubbard Broadcasting is developing individual
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station apps with a unified experience for mobile apps and mobile Web. Futuri’s Anstandig says most broadcasters he talks to want “a single-app brand experience on mobile that’s just for them.”
Here now the news—on your app. Stations developing new success formulas for apps are set to diversify the content beyond music. News, talk, sports, hip-hop and lifestyle are seen as emerging categories and branding opportunities. In its small and medium markets in Illinois, Neuhoff Communications is creating multi-station apps with news, sports and music, such as its “Now Decatur” app, and Danville’s “Vermillion County Now,” boasting original audio and video content. Neuhoff also outfitted its radio stations with HD video cameras and editing software to produce content such as a recent app-exclusive video interview with Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner. “Mobile is an opportunity to really seize upon bad competitive media coverage in our markets,” says CEO Beth Neuhoff. “We are positioning ourselves as the go-to source for news and information.” Similarly, local sports radio apps can tap into demand for hyper-local team news. “The Beast 980” KFWB, Los Angeles relaunched its app to focus on L.A. sports news, and Dot Com Plus’ “Sports Radio 105.5” WNSP Mobile, AL—situated in an area crazy for prep and college sports—offers headlines, podcasts and push notifications. On its Audio Roadshow app, CBS Radio users access all of its stations’ local sports programs. Lifestyle apps are also very much on the scene. Emmis’ powerhouse hip-hop stations “Hot 97” WQHT, New York and “Power 106” KPWR, Los Angeles joined forces with the “Where Hip Hop Lives” app. “This is not another music streaming app. It is a lifestyle app,” says Trinity Brocato, Emmis’ national director of mobile innovation. Along with free content, the app features a $3.99 per month subscription service with commercial-free feeds and an exclusive second channel, New at 2, with music from emerging artists selected by club DJs.
Key to app growth: If you build (and promote) it, they will come. The world of radio apps is filled with new ideas and good press; what it lacks at the moment, unfortunately, is a big enough audience to appreciate them. A recent Bridge Ratings report says only 14% of people surveyed have a station app on their smartphone and of those, only one-third used it. Fortunately, stations have an idea tool for fostering growth—on-air promotion. When Futuri clients promote apps on morning shows, benchmarks, and with live polls and contests, the stations post a 30% app adoption rate, according to CEO Daniel Anstandig. When they don’t, adoption falls to under 20%. One major obstacle—the difficulty of measuring and monetizing apps—may soon be erased, with Nielsen moving toward measuring digital audio usage. More than 30 broadcasters and third-party vendors are participating in Nielsen’s test, though no firm launch date has been set.
Forecast: 12% growth for online radio, despite sluggish economy. Zenith Optimedia’s new Advertising Expenditures Forecast says U.S. radio advertising spending will have “a very slight increase” of just 1% this year. But as digital streaming continues to grow, categories such as automotive aftermarket, insurance, retail and restaurants are expected to invest more than in previous years, creating opportunities for “deeper engagement and creative solutions.” The forecast singled out Pandora’s efforts to increase targeting as a positive and significant step. Meanwhile, it anticipates Google’s entrance into the market via YouTube Radio may muddle up YouTube’s Music Key, which lacks a radio feature and could find itself held back by the new service. According to the forecast, “Our largest increases in spend for 2015 are all from the digital category”—that is, social media up 32%, and online video rising 23% and 12% for both Internet radio and display. For the entire U.S. market, Zenith notes that “while we are well past the worst of the economic downturn” the economy remains “sluggish.” It also predicts a 3.7% increase in U.S. ad spending for 2015, followed by 4% next year and 3.7% in 2017. Zenith Optimedia also lowered its forecast for global growth from 4.4% to 4.2%, and from 5.3% to 5.0% next year because the strong U.S. dollar will push down the contribution from faster-growing markets. The U.S. is still the biggest worldwide engine for new ad dollars; Zenith estimates that from 2014 to 2017, the U.S. will contribute 29% of the new $72 billion that will be pumped into ad spend.
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Canadian radio revenue mirrors U.S. trend. If flat is the new up, count Canadian radio in on the business catchphrase. Total revenues for AM and FM stations north of the border fell 0.52% to $1.614 billion for the broadcast year ending August 31, 2014, according to new data from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). “Revenues have remained relatively stable from the previous year in spite of competition from satellite, online and mobile services,” the CRTC writes in an explanation that could just as easily apply to the U.S. radio market, which turned in a flat performance last year. Local radio ad sales in Canada dipped 3% to $1.09 billion, national jumped 4.4% to $497.4 million. The country’s 568 FM stations brought in the lion’s share of revenue: $1.32 billion, down by 0.4%. Total billings at Canada’s 127 AM stations dipped 1.3%. Revenues for English-language FMs decreased 1.1% while French-language FMs increased 2.4%. However, English-language outlets accounted for four times the revenue of their Francophone counterparts.
Honda Stage earns an encore performance. One year into the Honda Stage marketing initiative, the automaker is declaring the music-driven, Millennial-focused enterprise a success. The music showcases—staged in conjunction with iHeartRadio and other partners—were successful enough that Honda is cutting back its TV spend as it fires up round 2 of the campaign. The program brought more than 50 acts, from Ariana Grande to Pitbull, to iHeartRadio’s Los Angeles theater, where they performed more than 200 songs on the Honda Stage. The performances racked up more than 2 billion impressions and 100 million views on the program’s website and YouTube channel, according to Adweek. They also generated 4.4 million social engagements and 1 million experiential impressions. Honda assistant VP of advertising Tom Peyton tells Adweek the program built more of an emotional connection with consumers than straight TV ads would have. “So 100 million people watched that content—and they saw our 15-second TV ads in front of them,” Peyton tells Adweek. “That really replaces the need I had to be on MTV or CW. More importantly, the people who saw those ads said, ‘that’s very cool.’” Peyton believes the “more emotional” reaction to free music content that Millennials are passionate about helped build additional consideration for the Honda brand. Even with this success, Honda is making some program tweaks for year 2. After discovering that most of the viewing was taking place on its YouTube channel through organic search, it has shifted all the content there rather than the HondaStage.com site. Also, since shorter on-demand clips performed better that live streaming concerts, video-on-demand is the game plan for the future.
Florida rules against Flo & Eddie in royalty lawsuit. The former leaders of ‘60s pop band the Turtles have suffered their first court setback in the battle for a performance royalty for older recordings. A Florida judge has ruled in favor of Sirius XM Radio in Flo & Eddie’s suit against the satellite broadcaster over the payment of royalties for songs recorded before 1972. The songsmiths (and former New York radio hosts) filed separate lawsuits in California, New York and Florida. They won in California and New York – both states are home to record company headquarters, have large populations working in the music biz and laws on the books to protect artistic rights. “Florida is different,” Judge Darrin Gayles writes in his decision. “There is no specific Florida legislation covering sound recording property rights, nor is there a bevy of case law interpreting common law copyright related to the arts.” If the Florida court sided with Flo & Eddie, “it would be creating a new property right in Florida as opposed to interpreting the law,” Gayles concluded. Under California and New York state law, Sirius XM was liable for copyright infringement by airing the Turtles’ pre-1972 songs without paying royalties, judges in each state decided earlier. Both decisions are being appealed.
Ira Glass has a plan: Sell podcasts to Madison Avenue. With so many offbeat corporate job titles, is CPE—Chief Podcast Evangelist—in the cards? Broadcasters trying to monetize theirs may wish to so anoint public radio icon Ira Glass. NPR’s “This American Life” host is preaching podcast’s power this week to marketers at the Cannes Lions global advertising summit. Following NPR’s incredible success with its “Serial” podcast series, which attracted 7 million downloads per episode, Glass says advertisers should view podcasts as ways to extend branding, and reach coveted high-end listeners. “I think there are
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still CMOs who haven’t heard that there are podcasts getting audiences of 7 million people,” Glass, an editorial adviser for “Serial,” said in an interview with Adweek. Podcasts are a centerpiece of NPR’s digital strategy, and, along with “Serial,” are attracting sizable audiences. “This American Life” podcasts rank No. 1 among iTunes podcast downloads, and another series, “Invisibilia,” counted about 5 million downloads per episode. In NPR audience surveys, people have incredible recall of brands named on podcasts, according to Glass, and audiences tend to be more affluent and, therefore, very desirable among ad clients. According to Edison’s Infinite Dial study, nearly one-in-five Americans are now listening to podcasts. Those consumers are more likely to have a college degree and be affluent. In another sign that podcasts have moved that much closer to mainstream acceptance, President Obama addressed the Charleston shooting yesterday on Marc Maron’s “WTF,” marking the president’s first podcast appearance. Glass points to two recent advances to mark the form’s continued evolution: Apple recently added a podcasting app on iPhone home screens, making them much more accessible; and an Edison report stated that more Americans are listening to podcasts than ever before. Stomp and whittle anyone? Here’s what music cable cord-cutters are listening to. As consumers’ cable bills grow along with online viewing alternatives, the cable business worries about “cord-cutters,” for whom most of television isn’t as alluring and/or just not worth the money. So what are those disaffected TV viewers listening to? According to new research conducted by Experian Marketing Services for Spotify, cable cutters are 27 times more likely to stream music as those who keep those cable bills coming—although cord-cutters are much more likely to be younger. (The data comes from 25,000 U.S. adults.) Cord-cutters are more into Latin music, techno, electronica, New Age and children’s music than the still-connected Spotifier…or, as programming consultant Gary Berkowitz put it upon reading the list, “Oh, everything [that] there aren’t many radio stations doing.” On the other hand, cord-cutters aren’t as interested in gospel, Christian, easy listening or AC. To Berkowitz, who offered Inside Radio his expert programming opinion on the findings, it all makes sense. “There’s a lot of places for young listeners to go,” he says. “The competition for ears is enormous.” There are also Spotify subscribers who stream music to connected devices (the way some access Netflix through another service such as Chromecast). According to a different worldwide study of all Spotify users, those more tech-minded listeners are more likely interested in very esoteric genres, such as minimal dub, modern uplift, intelligent dance music and something called stomp and whittle, among others. If you have never heard of them, Spotify’s Insight websites confirms that, “these genres are firmly based in reality.”
WTOP promotes McMearty to head of programming. Market-leading all news WTOP, Washington, DC (103.5) has filled its programming opening by promoting long-time news director Mike McMearty to director of news and programming. The 23-year station vet replaces Laurie Cantillo, who left the Hubbard Broadcasting station in March. McMearty certainly knows the inner working and history of the lauded all-news station. In more than two decades with WTOP he has been an editor, producer, reporter, anchor, sports reporter, assistant news director and, for the past 15 years, news director. He led the station’s newsroom to “hundreds of industry awards for excellence in journalism, including 18 National Murrow Awards and more than two-dozen honors already in 2015,” senior VP/GM Joel Oxley said in a statement. The appointment is part of a series of changes in the station’s newsroom. Mitchell Miller was promoted to senior news director, managing the newsroom weekday mornings. Darci Marchese moves up to full-time news director weekday afternoons. Jamie Forzato will now manage news operations Saturdays and Sundays as weekend managing editor. Jim Battagliese continues as director of traffic, transit and weather. Meanwhile, Meera Pal will be reassigned as social and digital engagement director, reporting to Julia Ziegler, who moves from Web and operations manager of sister news outlet FederalNewsRadio.com to become news director of WTOP.com.
Radlovic makes SBS return. After nearly four years as market manager for Cumulus Media in Los Angeles, Marko Radlovic is returning to Spanish Broadcasting System as SVP and West Coast regional manager. Radlovic spent a decade at SBS in various roles, including general manager, market manager, chief revenue officer and chief operating officer. Remaining in L.A., Radlovic is now tasked with supervising operations for regional Mexican “La Raza” KLAX-FM (97.9) and Spanish CHR “Mega 96.3” KXOL-FM in Los Angeles and regional Mexican “La Raza KRZZ, San Francisco (93.3).
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