Major Radio Player Audacy Modernizes a Durable Medium

Audacy headquartered in Philadelphia Pennsylvania was the fourth largest broadcaster until it merged with the former CBS Radio in 2017 creating a media powerhouse with over 230 broadcast stations in 47 markets and monthly listenership of 170 million The company is now second only to iHeartMedia in size and is the No 1 creator of original premium audio contentFormerly known as Entercom the company on March 30amp160announced a rebranding as Audacy quotIt is time to embrace a new name and brand identity which better reflects who we have become and our vision for the futurequot said David Field chairman president and CEO At the same time the company doubleddown on its commitment to the fastgrowing podcasting division and has elevated its footprint in the rapidly growing sports betting space including most recently via a partnership with BetMGMAudacy is what you39re probably listening to if your local station hosts a sports talk show with all the latest on the state teams It39s the station that39s playing a song you love forcing you to sit in your car until it39s over Although your infotainment system can play music from your phone or connect you to Spotify Sirius XM or their own Audacy app it also has free AM and FM radio and that39s where a lot of the listeners are quotAudio reaches 95 percent of Americans on a daily basisquot said Dan McKinney Audacy39s vice president of data and analytics quotNo other medium is able to do that todayquotBroadcast radio has been the soundtrack to our lives for 100 years Has all that changed because of digital Hardly The advent of television led a lot of people to predict that it would kill radio broadcasting That didn39t happen When satellite and digital radio arrived they said the same thing Nope And streaming audio hasn39t killed terrestrial radio America39s No 1 reach medium either Long may it waveAn Infinite Dial 2021 survey prepared by Edison Research and Triton Digital found that AMFM radio still holds a commanding lead when respondents are asked about audio sources currently ever used in their cars AMFM radio is at 75 percent followed by owned digital music at 48 percent then trailing the fastdisappearing CD player online audio podcasts and SiriusXM This does represent a decline 81 percent had listened to AMFM in 2019 and 2020quotRadio still has massive reach and everyone has access to itquot said McKinney quotWe39re heavy into talk radio and believe we have the original social influencers Studies show that information obtained from audio has the highest level of engagement It39s easy to buy an 39impression39 on Facebook but audio has the most intimate relationship and biggest engagementquotRadio is quotbroadcastingquot in the widest sense of the word it reaches a mass audience The challenge is quantifying itamp160and gathering information on its listeners in a way that will satisfy advertisers entranced by digital Audacy thinks it has found some new ways to do thatWorking with thirdparty companies member stations with callins concert tickets or contests are able to harvest the phone numbers and email addresses of their listeners which the companies can then translate into data points about the audienceThe data is anonymized so nobody gets their privacy invaded But advertisers can get statistics about the percentage of the audience that bought a car in the last year or is planning to buy one They can also get demographics about household income home ownership and job status McKinney said that in the Los Angeles areaamp160this process has yielded data and listening preferences of approximately 17 million listeners which is far more informationrich than what can be collected from the 2400 households that existing broadcasting survey companies might useEnter the connected car which had 32 percent of the market in 2020 but will be at 97 percent by 2035 Audacy said Americans spend about an hour a day in their automobiles which are increasingly connected in many ways The software and sensors in cars generate more than 25 gigabytes of information per hour The future of radio might pepper the broadcast signal with personalized programming and advertising that39s driven by dataAccording to Audacy quotOpportunities for advertisers go beyond geotargeted ads or customized coupons based on recent visits to a store Brands with access to connected car data can use it to create truly personalized content and experiences This means understanding not only where that consumer drove but using identity resolution to understand who that consumer isquotThe upshot is that auto brands can be interactive with radio listeners including ads that can be connected to voiceactivated purchases Hear an ad for a new show and it can quickly be downloaded to a user device A Global Web Index survey shows that 57 percent of respondents want voice command radioA case study of Taco Bell found that 30second radio commercials were very effective at driving restaurant visits especially when voiced by local personalitiesWith the car serving as the new sanctuary audio listening behind the wheel is increasing Audacy is working with all the automakers to get them to realize the full value of databased audience targeting and measurement The company can identify listeners who were tuned in when a company39s ad ran and soon even the volume level on the radio If it was a Ford ad the data can tell if the driver later visited a Ford dealerCreative tactics similar to these are also used by the outofhome OOH industry including billboards which has an equal challenge in putting data behind the impressions gained by its adsYou know why printers are so cheap The companies get to sell you ink for a long long time Something similar might happen with the automobile claims former 20122014 Ford global technologist John Ellis in his book Zero Dollar Car He says that automobiles are in a position to generate Big Dataamp160that will be so useful to marketers that they39ll give you the car free in exchange for access to that information It39s a nice thought isn39t itThe car39s radio is an integral part of that developing process as the listeners39amp160choices yield a lot of information about them Knowledge is power in today39s media environment And about those podcasts Audacy through Cadence13 and Pineapple Street Studios is a top threeamp160publisher in the field with more than 2500 of them on every possible topic and more to comeiHeartMedia and Cumulus also big radio station owners are emphasizing podcasting Audacy complemented its rebranding with the announcement of a new podcasting partnership with Demi Lovato The star will host her first podcast with Audacy39s Cadence13 More details will be released in MayquotWe have high expectations for our podcasting business and believe it will be an important driver of future growth generating significant symbiotic benefits to drive listenership and revenues across our various audio platformsquot Field saidSome 900 of the podcasts are locally oriented but there are also 350 sports and recreation podcasts and 100 on news politics and business There are 150 million monthly downloads and 25 million unique listeners worldwide quotIt39s a huge growth areaquot McKinney said quotAudio isn39t going away it39s going through a reimaginationquotNew original podcasts and other projects will air exclusively on Audacy39s digital platform including new shows from WFAN 1019 FM660 AM morning show host Boomer Esiason V103 morning show host and rapper Big Tigger and a distribution partnership with The Rich Eisen Show A revamped Loveline with Dr Chris Donaghue is set to debut this summerAs the connected car market grows and voice command communication becomes second nature audio content in cars will play a larger role in direct consumer interaction influence and purchaseClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of 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