Even with Large Commerical Radio Stations Taking Over Smaller Ones, Statistics Suggest that Personalized Internet Radio is on the Rise while Terrestrial Radio is Flattening Out

• According to Edison Research, the number of listeners listening to terrestrial radio has stayed relatively flat, but the listeners of internet radio and other streaming services are growing.

• Advances in technology, such smartphones and a growing number of streaming services, have lead to the overall rise of personalized internet radio

• Some journalists speculate that traditional radio will continue to decline as the years progress

The 1930's was a golden age for the traditional radio. In the average American family home, you could expect to see a large radio set in the family/living room. This is a drastic change from today where people have several different options when it comes to listening. Though terrestrial radio still has a steady number of listeners, personalized internet radio is clearly becoming the more popular option.

According to a media study done by Edison Research from 2013, the number of people listening to traditional radio remained stagnant from 2012 (91%) compared to the growth of online listeners (29% to 33%). In addition, online radio listening in cars (a popular place to listen to traditional radio) jumped from 17% to 21%. Another study done by Edison Research in 2014 looked at Americans 13 years and older and found that with the variety of ways to listen to audio, traditional radio was slowly losing its audience. There are a couple reasons as to why this is occurring.

Internet radio appeals to many nowadays who prefer to have stations styled more to their specific tastes. Services like Pandora and Spotify provide personalized radio options along with less advertising. Premium upgrades even get rid of the advertising and allow you to listen offline. Along those lines, satellite radio is gaining momentum as well. Why would people be willing to pay for something that is essentially available for free? An article by Rick Munarriz explains why: think of satellite radio as cable television and regular AM/FM radio as free local television. Satellite radio offers more options along with commercial free channels. Also, traditional AM/FM radio does not have the money to hire the various talents that appear on satellite radio (Howard Stern being a notable example).


Overall, streaming is becoming the new trend when it comes to listening to music. A third research study done by Edison Research found that more teenagers listen to streaming music services over traditional radio. Polling more than 2,000 teenagers from the ages of 13 to 17 , Edison found that more teenagers listened to streaming services longer than terrestrial radio by 11 minutes. With teenagers making up a large part of the transition from traditional ways of listening, this could be a sign that the terrestrial radio may slow lose its audience in the near future.

The second reason behind the transition from traditional to streaming radio is the multitude of devices from which people can listen to audio nowadays. With new tablets, smartphones, and personal music players coming out almost every year, the old fashioned radio set does not need to be around. A study done by Pew Research Center found that people listen to the traditional radio out of convenience rather than having the desire to.

But what about large radio companies such as Clear Channel? Clear Channel's revenue actually increased thanks in part to the iHeart Radio Music Festivals in Las Vegas and other promotional events. It is the country's largest radio operator with 850 stations and 238 million listeners a month under its belt. Does this mean that terrestrial radio still has a chance of sticking around for awhile? Some journalists think not. Munarriz believes that AM/FM radio will slowly go downhill, even though Clear Channel is doing reasonably well. While Clear Channel makes several of its stations available almost everywhere, "local advertisers are unwittingly overpaying for their terrestrial spots and they will find even less value in the product."


Gordon Borrell, a student of media history, also believes that most of the radio industry may die out. He points out how the newspaper industry ridiculed the early days of the Internet. With new ways to listen to music, the radio may go the way of the newspaper. Borrell does not believe that the radio will die out completely, he muses that there will be other ways of sending out audio without requiring an FCC license. There is some truth to what Borrell talks about, the newspaper industry is not dying out so much as transitioning digitally. In a way, the radio is doing the same with streaming services and radio stations themselves are streaming online.



With these statistics and opinions, I believe that the transition from traditional AM/FM radio stations to online personal radio stations is more important in the development of radio rather than large companies obtaining. Online personal radio stations provide more options for listeners and they can tailor radio stations to their specific tastes while at the same time discovering new music. Online music is also easier to access nowadays, with the multitude of handheld devices that can be carried around with ease. Though large radio companies such as Clear Channel are having some success, in this day and age where new technology comes out almost every day, people want something that will fit their specific tastes while also being able to discover new music all while having it at the touch of their fingertips.