When I was younger, so much younger than today

It was 50 years ago today that The Beatles released their first single, ‘Love Me Do’.  It peaked a few weeks later at number 17 in the UK charts.  This was quite a feat in those days as they had not undertaken any radio or television appearances before then, certainly no iTunes and the only social media around was word of mouth in the small pubs and clubs up and down the country.   Anyway, the rest, as they say, is history.

Let’s fast forward to 2012 and how many of today’s new artists will the nation be thinking about in 2062?  Quite often their instant, global fame precedes an equally rapid fall into obscurity – let’s call it the Ex-Factor.  Money can’t buy you love.  We live in a fickle online world where the young, connected generation want instant communication, adoration and gratification.  I don’t get it myself as I would quite happily spend a week without any media and I have done.  But, of course, I’m not 15-24 anymore. 

At last week’s fabulously fun and quirky nextrad.io conference, aside from wearing blindfolds, getting tattooed and seeing an image of stapled testicles (really!), we learned that social media is a great opportunity for radio stations to have conversations with their listeners and not to simply broadcast to them.  It’s also about the audience, not the station, sharing content.  This will really drive radio engagement and loyalty among the younger generation, if not build reach.

We know that consumption of traditional media among the young ones is in steady decline.  15-24s are the least likely age group to listen to the radio compared with the adult population as a whole: listening on average for 17 hours a week according to RAJAR.  That said, they are more likely than the population as a whole to listen to the radio via a digital platform, which is encouraging.  Twice as many 15-24s listen to the radio via the Internet or mobile apps compared with all adults (22% v 12%).  Mobile is increasingly becoming the one-stop shop for all media consumption and radio is no exception.  Radioplayer’s imminent launch of their mobile app is as much exciting as it is timely.

Well, at least my 4 year old hasn’t asked for a mobile phone yet, but, in the words of the Fab Four, it won’t be long (yeh yeh yeh), it won’t be long (yeh)…

John Carroll is Senior Director in Ipsos MediaCT and Chairman of the Media Research Group (follow John on Twitter @MediaCarroll)