The five stations with the highest market share in the Indianapolis market last month count people 45 or older as a considerable part of their audiences.
For the Daily Reporter
The metro Indianapolis radio market is getting a little gray around its ears.
Depending on whom you listen to, that can be a good thing — or bad.
The five stations with the highest market share in the Indianapolis market last month count people 45 or older as a considerable part of their audiences.
Two of them — WJJK-FM (104.5) and WFBQ-FM (94.7), both classic-rock stations — attract large numbers of middle-age and older men.
Two others — country crooner WFMS-FM (95.5) and adult-contemporary station WYXB-FM (105.7) — attract a considerable number of middle-age and older women.
The station with the fifth-highest market share — WIBC-FM (93.1) — draws mostly middle-age and older listeners with its news/talk format.
Those five stations account for nearly 40 percent of all radio listening in the central Indiana market, according to Nielsen Media Research.
Three years ago, those five stations accounted for 24 percent of all listening.
As younger generations move away from radio to digital options — streaming music services and podcasts — the slice of the pie the older audience represents is expanding. As it does, station programmers are faced with a tricky dilemma.
“The older audience has been a very loyal audience for radio,” said Bruce Bryant, president of locally based Promotus Advertising. “As a result, the stations that cater to them are growing in market share.
And it raises this key question: Do radio programmers cater to the trend — and play to the older audience — or do they fight it by trying to lure younger listeners away from Spotify, Pandora and other services?
In part, it depends on the station’s market position and the audience its advertisers want.
“Stations need to strategically determine their place in the market and not waste resources pursuing the wrong demographic for their advertisers,” said John Kesler, a longtime radio executive who is now chief operating officer of “The Bob & Tom Show,” which airs mornings on WFBQ and is syndicated nationally.
The younger listeners radio can claim spend considerably less time consuming radio than do their older counterparts, which tilts share numbers even further throughout the day.
But Mike Killabrew, senior vice president of programming for iHeart Media’s Indianapolis station cluster, said there’s another reason the gray-bearded stations are doing so well.
“All the stations we’re seeing at the top of the ratings in this market play very familiar music,” Killabrew said. “And WIBC drives content on a local level. With those (top five) stations, you know what you’re going to get — local content, original on-air personalities, news you can use and great songs.”
‘Sampling tool’
All is not lost for stations seeking younger listeners.
Radio is still the No. 1 destination for young people to find new music, said Scott Uecker, a University of Indianapolis communications instructor and general manager of WICR-FM (88.7).
“Radio is a sampling tool for young people,” Uecker said. “They tune in for a time, then they often go to Spotify, Pandora or they go to iTunes to curate their own music.”
WZPL-FM (99.5) and WNOU-FM (100.9) — both top-40 stations that cater to younger listeners — are among the market leaders in cumulative audience, which represents the total number of listeners that tune in at least once a week, according to Nielsen.
But having an older audience isn’t a bad thing for stations. In fact, three ad buyers say they often seek a 45-plus or 55-plus audience.
‘Head trash’
Still, radio programmers admit there is a problem — possibly psychological — in sounding too old.
“It used to be when you turned 55, advertisers didn’t care about you,” said “Bob & Tom’s” Kesler.
So eager were radio programmers to appear young, he said, they would even turn down some money-toting advertisers.
However, in the past decade, Kesler said, “we’ve started to see a shift. The ad buyers and ad agencies are starting to place more value on the 35-to-64 demo than they used to.”
Radio programmers have been slow to follow.
“For years, radio was in great denial,” Unmacht said. “They didn’t want to serve the audience they have, and instead wanted to pursue an audience they couldn’t get.”
Though some are still entrenched in that thinking, radio programmers nationwide have increasingly decided to ride the wave rather than fight the current.
“It’s no coincidence that we’re seeing more classic-rock and classic-hits stations crop up nationally over the last five years than we’ve ever seen before,” Unmacht said. “And we’re seeing formats like adult contemporary, news/talk and even some easy oldies doing really well.
“This might be the golden era of radio,” he said with a laugh.
