Roulston Media Partner Mark Ramsey on the Problems with Traditional Radio's Business Model

Roulston Research’s Media Partner Mark Ramsey recently created a blog posting discussing how the challenges traditional radio faces today are a result of it's business model. Traditional broadcast radio has always been focused on ratings being the key measure of success in the industry but an increasing amount of its competitors don’t focus on ratings at all. Mark states, “Radio is constrained by a model that rewards broadcast licenses with agency dollars but invites radio’s competitors to compete for everything else and even for the growing fraction of agency dollars transferred out of advertising and into marketing.”

Mark believes that control is moving more and more toward the consumer and broadcasters need to focus on providing content where consumers want it and monetize on that relationship. Fans will find content that they are interested in wherever it is located even if it is not local. Therefore, broadcasters should not delay or get rid of podcasts and provide more streaming content on their website to better meet the needs of consumers otherwise other competitors will take advantage of their lack of exposure in this space. He cites Apple as a perfect example when they introduced the iPhone even though they knew it would cannibalize some of the iPod’s market because if they didn’t someone else would have. You can read Mark’s full article on how he thinks traditional broadcast radio needs to adapt their business model at http://www.markramseymedia.com/2011/06/the-problem-is-radios-business-model/



Mark Ramsey Media is one of the best-known research and strategy providers to media companies in America. He has worked with several television and innumerable radio broadcasters over his career, including all the biggest names, from Clear Channel, CBS, Bonneville, Sirius XM, and Greater Media in the US to Corus and Astral Media in Canada. Clients from outside broadcasting have included EA Sports and Apple.