Legacy media's attempts to create and maintain their audience's attention

A local radio station made a format change this past weekend, making the switch from classic rock to new country. That is not ground breaking by any stretch, but their approach to launch the station has the attention of some radio listeners I'm sure, but also has me scratching my head a little too.

The new "Blake FM" format was launch by announcing that they were playing 10,000 songs commercial free. It has been a few years since I was a music director at a radio station, but I can still tell you that will equal out to be roughly 20 days of music before the first commercial hits the airwaves. This is great for listeners, who will hopefully get hooked to the new station.

To me, this signals that those commercials are an annoyance, and something that the listeners will, eventually, have to deal with should they choose to continue listening. This sends the wrong signal to the listener, I believe, and has the potential to create negative impact to advertisers who break the commercial free marathon.

I joked today that a similar approach would be for a newspaper to stop running ads for the next three weeks. Crazy to suggest, financially as well as it relates to what the audience wants. You have to give that audience what they want, which is music. But you also have to be respectful of how that radio station stays on the air; commercials!

All legacy media types are losing audience attention. Radio is no different. I was at the Promotions Summit in St. Louis, MO this week hosted by Second Street Media. Gordon Borrell was the speaker, and he discussed this very topic.

Borrell's chart shows the decline in average time spent on media from 2008 to the present, and then the projected losses (or some gains) over the next five years. The decline is staggering, so I understand the pressure to secure audience at all cost; well, almost all costs.

All legacy media has to wrestle with the best promotions to attract and maintain their audience's attention. Even a 10,000 song marathon might make sense. But media companies must weigh the benefits of such a promotion with the unspoken message they are sending. In the case with this radio station, are they telling the audience that commercials are bad? I think perhaps so, which could drive that same audience away once those dirty 30 second commercials return.

One final note on that chart, that chart for radio includes several commercial free or nearly commercial free options such as Pandora and Apple Radio. And it doesn't include commercial free options like personal music devices and XM Radio.