Jacobs Media Strategies Techsurvey 2023 results have shown, not surprisingly, that radio ownership is declining and being replaced by smart speakers and apps. But, there are some other results unrelated to the 30,000 listeners sampled from 430 US radio stations, worth contemplating.
This year, for the first time, Fred Jacobs decided to ask the Zoom participants, media and radio industry observers, some questions too, including this:
What is the ONE most important issue to you in 2023?
- Artificial intelligence
- Radio and the Gen Z audience
- Finding the next generation of on-air personalities
- The future of radio in the car
- The Metaverse
- Podcasting
- Social media concerns
He (and I) guessed what we thought would be the “winner” of this, for lack of a better word. Before you read on, please guess yourself, and choose yours.
My thoughts were AI first, for how it could change the radio and podcast landscape in ways that we couldn’t have imagined a year ago. Then personally, podcasting, as it makes up bulk of my employment and I’ve felt that less businesses are now thinking they need one if they have a TikTok account.
More than 200 participants voted, a small sample when compared to the 30K radio listeners the TechSurvey evaluates, but none the less the result was actually old school and perhaps more relevant to the current elimination of AM stations from a great many vehicles, like Tesla, BMW and now Volkswagen, something that has yet to greatly affect Australia, especially as many AM stations are still obtainable in new vehicles via DAB.
Techsurvey 2023 showed that the car still is the No 1 listening location for radio.
These questions of those of us who are engaging with TechSurvey results should continue. Next year AI is likely to have evolved and impacted the audio industry further.
But while so many of us still drive and want to know what is happening in the world and on the roads, on the way to work, radio will still have a captive audience. With much more competition from Spotify, audio books, podcasts and the like, perhaps surveys of what we are listening to in the car, and for how long, might be a question for TechSurvey 2024.
"....many AM stations are still obtainable in new vehicles via DAB..." may be the correct assumption if driving around a metrpolitan area.
Such an assumption does not hold when driving in rural areas where DAB+ reception is non-existent where the only radio is AM or line-of-sight VHF FM.
The response by manufacturers to ditch AM because its reception is supposedly is interfered by an EV's motor is unadulterated bulls*@%t!
Ford is ditching AM on its fossil-fueled engines.
I have said many times that I have not experienced interference to AM reception when the electric motors in my hybrid are operating.
Demodulation of broadcast signals can be implemented by SDR which is more economical than using discrete components.
In summary, don't believe the reasons by the manufacturer for ditching AM.
Thank you,
Anthony, don't believe repeadted lies that becomes the truth because it ain't the truth, Belfield, in the land of the Wangal and Darug Peoples of the Eora Nation
Why such surveys are irrelevant outside of the USA.
The USA has no Government owned broadcasting for internal consumption. I understand that AM radio is mainly religious and shock jock broadcasters.
Their HDradio is not popular because a station's digital signal is transmitted in the channel of other broadcasters. This means that the power of the digital signal has a much smaller coverage area than the analog signal. They don't have any digital only HD radio broadcasts in the FM band. In AM band they have 3 low powered transmitters.
Whereas elsewhere DAB+ has a coverage area which is only slightly smaller than FM. We don't use Digital Radio Mondiale can cover the same area as FM but at one 1/10th of the transmitter power. It can also cover the whole of Australia from a single high powered transmitter.
The telcos particularly in the USA have been trying to convince broadcasters to use their mobile phone and land based internet services for their own profits. For example they stopped the enabling of the FM receiver which is within every mobile phone.
The BBC has found that the cheapest method of broadcasting programs to a large audience is using DAB radio. DAB+ is even cheaper per program. Now that DRM can also transmit 6 x 3 sound programs from a single transmitter it is also very cheap. Broadband and FM cost more and AM is the greatest. Lastly the last Telstra CEO is on record saying that Telstra is one of Australia's largest electricity consumer, thus produces lots of greenhouse gases. We also have two other telcos!