Sunday, May 21, 2006

Where is the Audience Now?

One of the interesting after-effects of Howard Stern's move off of commercial radio is the boost it's given NPR. In a nutshell it goes like this: listeners who have spent years driving in to work listening to fart jokes and didn't want to pony up the cash for Sirius radio, have instead locked the serious-toned "Morning Edition" into their radio dial.

NPR knows this pretty well, as I heard a promo during a recent fund-drive that used clips from Howard Stern. Although, I doubt that means Steve Inskeep is going to be interviewing strippers.

Mark Jurkowitz isn't sure of the connection between the two shows, but I think that's the point. Retailers have already figured out that just because someone shops at Wal-Mart, that doesn't mean they avoid high-end retailers. In fact, many Wal-Mart shoppers can probably be found on Newbury Street as well. Just because they want a bargain, doesn't mean they don't have money.

In the marketing world we often try to pigeon-hole people, but it doesn't always work that way. People who like fart jokes also want to hear about Mike Wallace's career.

Is there a connection? No... and that's what makes this new media world all the more interesting.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would suspect that WAAF's "The Hill Man" show got a huge boost when Stern switched to satellite. The program is a lot easier for many in Stern's audience to digest than Nina Totenberg, IMHO.

Chuck Tanowitz said...

It may have, I haven't looked at the ratings. But nationally there's been nothing to pick up the slack. I'm sure some small players in specific markets picked up a chunk, but Stern's audience was (and is) much bigger than WAAF's listening area. Plus, I haven't heard much by way of promos on the Hill Man show, so maybe they need better publicity.