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is more diverse
Industry consolidation has led to more formats
By Kevin Downey
We all know the complaint: You hear the same songs on the radio over and over on every station you turn on. There's less and less choice.
Those complaints have been growing louder since media giants like Clear Channel began snapping up stations when ownership rules were loosened under the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
Too bad they are not true, at least according to a new study by Katz Media Group.
Quite to the contrary, according to Katz, radio formats are now more diverse, not less, and they now more closely track the changing tastes and changing demographics of radio listeners.
“There are more formats, in terms of there being a lot more diversity,” says Lisa Chiljean, vice president and director of research dimensions at Katz.
The perception that there are fewer stems from how the radio industry is covered by the press.
“When a station switches formats it gets covered by all the trades now because those stations are owned by the big boys," she says.
The great diversity has a simple explanation, says Chiljean.
In pre-consolidation times, when a company could own only one station in a market, stations programmed to a broad audience, each station vying for a slice of that audience and a slice of ad dollars. So a lot of stations ended up sounding alike.
Now media companies with multiple stations can program each station with a different target audience in mind.
Radio ratings from Arbitron released this week, in fact, show that there are more formats today than a few years ago, but the biggest still have about the same share of listeners as they did in 1998.
In the fall of 2002, the top five radio categories -- news/talk, adult contemporary, contemporary hits radio, urban and rock -- accounted for 61.1 percent of listeners, compared to 60.6 percent in 1998.
Within all categories there are three more radio formats than there were five years ago, several of which have had significant gains. In the contemporary hits radio category, for example, the share for the rhythmic CHR format grew 27 percent in the past year, to 5.7 percent.
At the same time, relatively new formats have been replacing older ones.
The fastest- growing category is Spanish-language, including the Mexican and Spanish contemporary formats, which had an 8.4 percent share last fall. That is an increase of 17 percent from a year earlier.
The religious format, although still small with a 2.7 percent share of listeners, grew 4 percent in the same time period.
Most other formats were flat or down, including news/talk, which fell 6 percent from a year earlier, when the events of Sept. 11 were still drawing people to all news sources.
“Consumer taste [dictates] which formats are hot,” says Chiljean. “When Garth Brooks was hot, you had a lot of stations switching over to country and country niches. Now there’s a change toward R&B and classic rock.”
Radio stations are making the switch to more popular formats, with Hispanic FM stations, for example, growing from 109 stations in 1998 to 139 last fall.
In total there are some 10,000 radio stations, according to Plunkett’s Entertainment & Media Industry Almanac. More than one out of 10 stations are owned by Clear Channel, which has about 1,200 stations. Cumulus Media is the second largest with roughly 425 stations, while Citadel Communications has about 200.
|
RADIO FORMATS |
|||||||
|
Format Category |
Format |
FALL
AVG. |
% Change |
||||
|
1998 |
1999 |
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
Year |
||
|
Adult Contemporary |
15.7 |
15.1 |
15.3 |
14.6 |
14.7 |
1% |
|
|
|
A/C |
8.6 |
8.7 |
8.7 |
8.0 |
8.5 |
6% |
|
HOT A/C |
3.0 |
2.9 |
3.1 |
3.4 |
3.4 |
0% |
|
|
MOD A/C |
1.2 |
1.1 |
1.1 |
1.0 |
0.9 |
-10% |
|
|
SOFTA/C |
2.8 |
2.4 |
2.3 |
2.2 |
1.9 |
-14% |
|
|
Alternative |
4.9 |
5.1 |
5.0 |
5.0 |
5.0 |
0% |
|
|
|
AAA |
0.8 |
0.9 |
0.8 |
0.8 |
0.8 |
0% |
|
ALTERN |
3.3 |
3.2 |
3.2 |
4.2 |
4.2 |
0% |
|
|
NW ROCK |
0.9 |
1.1 |
1.0 |
- |
- |
|
|
|
Contemporary Hits Radio |
10.7 |
11.7 |
11.4 |
11.7 |
12.1 |
3% |
|
|
|
CHR |
10.7 |
11.7 |
- |
- |
- |
|
|
POP CHR |
- |
- |
7.8 |
7.2 |
6.4 |
-11% |
|
|
RHY CHR |
- |
- |
3.7 |
4.5 |
5.7 |
27% |
|
|
Classical |
1.7 |
1.8 |
1.7 |
1.5 |
1.5 |
0% |
|
|
|
CLASSCL |
1.7 |
1.8 |
1.7 |
1.5 |
1.5 |
0% |
|
Country |
9.5 |
9.2 |
9.0 |
8.4 |
8.2 |
-2% |
|
|
|
CLCNTRY |
0.2 |
0.2 |
0.3 |
0.2 |
0.3 |
50% |
|
COUNTRY |
8.9 |
8.5 |
8.4 |
7.8 |
7.8 |
0% |
|
|
NWCNTRY |
0.5 |
0.5 |
0.4 |
0.3 |
0.2 |
-33% |
|
|
Adult Standards |
3.7 |
3.3 |
3.0 |
2.3 |
2.2 |
-4% |
|
|
|
EZ LIST |
0.3 |
0.3 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
|
|
MOR |
2.4 |
2.2 |
2.2 |
1.7 |
1.7 |
0% |
|
|
NOSTLGA |
0.9 |
0.7 |
0.5 |
0.4 |
0.3 |
-25% |
|
|
VARIETY |
0.2 |
0.2 |
0.2 |
0.2 |
0.2 |
0% |
|
|
New AC/Smooth Jazz |
3.0 |
2.7 |
2.7 |
3.0 |
3.1 |
3% |
|
|
JAZZ |
0.2 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
|
|
|
NAC |
2.8 |
2.7 |
2.7 |
2.9 |
3.0 |
3% |
|
|
News/Talk/Information |
16.4 |
16.0 |
16.9 |
17.6 |
16.5 |
-6% |
|
|
|
ALLNEWS |
2.4 |
2.4 |
2.5 |
3.0 |
2.6 |
-13% |
|
ALLSPRT |
2.1 |
2.2 |
2.4 |
2.3 |
2.5 |
9% |
|
|
NWSTALK |
10.3 |
9.4 |
9.8 |
10.1 |
9.2 |
-9% |
|
|
TALK |
1.6 |
1.8 |
2.2 |
2.3 |
2.2 |
-4% |
|
|
Oldies |
7.3 |
8.5 |
8.1 |
7.8 |
7.7 |
-1% |
|
|
|
70 HITS |
1.1 |
0.9 |
1.1 |
1.0 |
- |
|
|
80 HITS |
- |
- |
- |
1.0 |
0.8 |
-20% |
|
|
CL HITS |
- |
- |
- |
- |
1.2 |
|
|
|
OLDIES |
6.2 |
6.0 |
5.4 |
5.0 |
5.1 |
2% |
|
|
RHY OLD |
- |
1.5 |
1.6 |
0.8 |
0.6 |
-25% |
|
|
Religious |
2.1 |
2.3 |
2.5 |
2.6 |
2.7 |
4% |
|
|
|
CHRSTN |
0.3 |
0.4 |
0.5 |
0.8 |
0.8 |
0% |
|
CO INSP |
- |
- |
- |
- |
0.3 |
|
|
|
GOSPEL |
0.7 |
0.9 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
0.8 |
-20% |
|
|
RELGOUS |
1.1 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
0.8 |
0.7 |
-13% |
|
|
SGOSPEL |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
|
|
|
Remaining Formats |
0.3 |
0.3 |
0.5 |
0.4 |
0.3 |
-25% |
|
|
|
CHLDRAD |
0.0 |
0.1 |
0.1 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
|
|
EDUCAT |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
|
|
ETHNIC |
0.2 |
0.2 |
0.3 |
0.3 |
0.2 |
-33% |
|
|
R&B |
0.1 |
0.1 |
0.1 |
0.0 |
- |
|
|
|
Rock |
9.6 |
9.3 |
9.0 |
8.9 |
8.7 |
-2% |
|
|
|
70SROCK |
0.1 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
|
ACTROCK |
- |
- |
- |
1.7 |
1.8 |
6% |
|
|
AOR |
5.4 |
5.2 |
4.8 |
2.8 |
2.4 |
-14% |
|
|
CL ROCK |
4.1 |
4.0 |
4.2 |
4.5 |
4.5 |
0% |
|
|
Spanish |
6.7 |
7.2 |
6.9 |
7.2 |
8.4 |
17% |
|
|
|
MEX REG |
- |
- |
2.4 |
2.6 |
3.4 |
31% |
|
SP CONT |
2.3 |
2.4 |
2.0 |
2.1 |
2.6 |
24% |
|
|
SP LANG |
0.7 |
0.4 |
0.1 |
- |
- |
|
|
|
SP NEWS |
0.4 |
0.8 |
0.8 |
0.8 |
0.6 |
-25% |
|
|
SP OLD |
- |
- |
- |
- |
0.1 |
|
|
|
SP REG |
1.9 |
2.3 |
- |
- |
- |
|
|
|
SP RELG |
- |
- |
- |
- |
0.1 |
|
|
|
SP TROP |
1.1 |
1.0 |
0.8 |
0.9 |
1.2 |
33% |
|
|
SP VRTY |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.6 |
0.6 |
0.3 |
-50% |
|
|
TEJANO |
0.1 |
0.2 |
0.2 |
0.2 |
0.1 |
-50% |
|
|
Urban |
8.2 |
7.5 |
8.0 |
9.1 |
9.1 |
0% |
|
|
|
URB A/C |
2.6 |
2.4 |
2.5 |
3.4 |
3.2 |
-6% |
|
URB OLD |
0.5 |
0.3 |
0.3 |
0.2 |
0.3 |
50% |
|
|
URBAN |
5.2 |
4.8 |
5.2 |
5.5 |
5.6 |
2% |
|
|
Source: Arbitron, 2003 |
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March 12, 2003© 2003 Media Life
-Kevin Downey is a staff writer for Media Life.
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