There are now almost two dozen radio stations around the country that are attracting a relatively significant percentage of their local markets to their web sites.
   Among radio stations in 80 major U.S. markets, 23 now have web sites visited by at least two percent of all adults in their markets, according to new data from Media Audit.
   This represents notable progress, according to Media Audit researchers.
    "Radio stations that are doing something with their web sites are starting to show up with a growing base," says Media Audit co-chairman Bob Jordan. "A couple of years ago, there were almost no stations even over one percent."
   Now there are three stations in the country with web sites that themselves are attracting more than four percent of the total number of adults in the market—alternative rock station WNNX-FM in Atlanta and classic rock stations KMJX-FM in Little Rock and WEGR-FM in Memphis.
    By comparison, Media Audit notes that only half of the 345 broadcast TV web sites recently surveyed by the company were attracting four percent of adults in the market. 
    And radio, Jordan notes, is generally a much more fragmented medium in local markets.
   What’s more, he says, radio station web sites are attracting visitors despite the fact that few radio stations appear to be reaching promotionally beyond their existing audiences when it comes to driving traffic to their web sites.
   "Newspapers and television stations have promoted their web sites beyond their own audience via other vehicles," he says.
   For instance, says Jordan, many newspapers have taken to promoting their web sites with outdoor advertising.
    "But radio stations are hardly promoting their web sites beyond their own existing listening audiences," he says.
    Of the 23 stations now attracting at least two percent of their markets to their web sites, 10 have album rock formats and four have classic rock formats. Nine other formats were represented on the list. All were formats seeking young to middle-aged adults.
   Market size appears to have no connection to whether stations are attracting web site visitors. The 23 stations on the list come from markets ranging in size from roughly 300,000 to 3 million.
    The implication here is that radio stations have an opportunity to make sizable inroads on the web—something that might have a lot to do with the relative ease with which they can put their existing product straight onto the web in terms of streaming their programming online.
   Media Audit is careful to note, however, that it is not measuring an online listening audience but merely reporting on visitors to stations’ web sites.
   Jordan believes radio is a medium particularly well-suited to the web because of its local orientation. That’s why radio remains a popular medium over the airwaves, and that may have a lot to do with its appeal online.
    He doesn’t think existing stations have much to worry about from pure-play radio outfits—except to the extent that the economics of radio continue to drive local content off the dial.
   "If there’s anything on the horizon that might be a danger spot for radio it’s that group owners are often taking the local aspects out of their programming," he says. 
    There will be little reason, he believes, for web users to flock to generically programmed stations that don’t give them a sense of their own communities.
   Then again, it’s also possible that radio stations are succeeding in part because of their ability to tap more directly online into their audience’s apparently built-in interest in female skin.
    For instance, KMJX’s web site features something it calls "Fabulous Rock Babes computer wallpaper," which it promotes on the main page through an animated picture of heaving breasts in a bra.
   And the WEGR site features a "Pic of the Week" submitted by visitors that frequently depends on something lewd or rude for its allure.
     Media Audit culled its numbers from some 120,000 phone interviews conducted during the past year. More than 80 markets in all were covered, encompassing more than 3,100 radio stations.
   All the data cited was obtained from approximately 120,000 phone interviews conducted during the past 12 months. The 80+ markets covered in the survey are home to more than 3,100 radio stations.

April 11, 2001 © 2001 Media Life

-Jeremy Schlosberg is the senior editor for new media.

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