14) HELP RADIO STATIONS RETAIN THEIR OVER-THE-AIR LISTENERS

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Imogene Barker
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1 14) HELP RADIO STATIONS RETAIN THEIR OVER-THE-AIR LISTENERS Summary Radio listeners are increasingly turning to online or satellite radio instead of local over-the-air broadcasting. Challenge: Streaming radio over the web entails costs to the broadcaster, which increases the need for bandwidth. Not so for over-the-air broadcasts. How can listeners be motivated to listen to radio programming broadcast over-the-air. 1) The name of your company / organization? North American Broadcasting Company WRKZ "The Blitz"1 458 Dublin Rd Columbus, OH ) Explain your challenge. Be as descriptive as possible, providing relevant background or other information to help student competitors clearly understand the problem to be solved. How do we attract radio listeners to our traditional "over-the-air" broadcast in an increasingly "online radio" listening environment? Background: According to, "The Infinite Dial 2012: Navigating Digital Platforms," a national research study conducted by Arbitron/Edison Research, the consumption of online radio (AM/FM station streams and Internet pure play programming, i.e. Pandora) has grown over threefold in the past decade and now reaches an estimated 103 million Americans per month. However, for the most part, online listening is a complement to AM/FM radio as opposed to a replacement; 87 % of those who have listened to online radio in the last week also listened to traditional over-the-air radio stations in the last week. Radio remains at the core of consumer's media consumption with a user base of 241 million listeners per week. In order to satisfy its increasingly digital connected consumer, WRKZ "The Blitz" makes its broadcast easily accessible by way of a streaming link at and via downloadable iphone and Android apps.

2 The Problem: As online radio listening increases, so does the cost, to both the consumer and the radio station. There is a fee associated with all Internet services and most mobile providers offer a finite amount of data per month before imposing additional fees or, restricting data usage. Unlimited data plans are rapidly disappearing. WRKZ pays significant fees in order to stream its broadcast signal. As the number of streaming listeners increases, so do the fees. There is a finite amount of bandwidth available to Internet service providers and, at some point, usage fees and the costs associated with providing the streaming broadcast could inhibit the growth of online radio listening. Listening to WRKZ's traditional over-the air signal is free. It remains free regardless of how much listening is done. The costs associated with providing a traditional over-the-air signal are the same for North American Broadcasting Company regardless of whether WRKZ has 1 radio listener or, 1,000,000. 3) How would you know if a student entry has produced a good solution? That is, how would you measure the effectiveness of the solution (e.g. surveys, online audience metrics, etc.)? Audience metrics (Arbitron audience measurement) would provide clues to usage. 4) Are there additional criteria against which the proposed solution should be evaluated? (e.g. well-designed, attractive interface, usability, mobility, low-cost implementation, etc.)? (No Response) 5) What resources are available to help inform and guide the student competitors (e.g. data sources, reports, articles, audience metrics, etc.)? The Infinite Dial 2012: Navigating Digital Platforms ( Arbitron, Inc ( 6) Please provide the name(s) and contact information of someone we may contact if we have questions about your challenge.

3 North American Broadcasting Company 1458 Dublin Rd Columbus, OH Hal Fish VP Programming & Operations ( ) Matt Mnich President/CEO ( )

4 Challenge #14 Online radio listening is increasing, but it can be costly because of fees (such as those imposed by mobile providers). Thus, a radio station is seeking ways to retain and grow its audience that listens to over- the- air broadcasts, which are free. Written materials 1 : 1. Cover page with title, number of the challenge addressed, list of contributors and contact information. 2. One page executive summary w. title required (12- point type, may be single- spaced) 3. White paper a. Required: Title, problem restatement and proposed solution (What is your innovation?), maximum three pages b. Required: Measurable aims: how will you know if your solution works, maximum one page. c. Required: Project description, maximum of 10 pages total i. Required: Evidence to support your approach. ii. Required: Necessary resources to implement your solution, as well as identifying hurdles to implementation. iii. Required: Implementation plan. Company says deliverables would include any hardware, software or marketing solutions devised to cause listeners to utilize (its) traditional over- the- air broadcast. iv. Required: Timeline v. Optional: Initial pilot plan that will provide quick feedback on whether it s working so that short- term adjustments can be made before full implementation. d. Required: Financial Information no page limit i. Required: Proposed budget and budget justification. What will this program cost? e. Appendices optional, no page limit. Note: judges are not required to read appendices. Presentation Materials 2 : 1. Set of PowerPoint slides without voiceover maximum 20 slides as a PowerPoint file OR 2. Link to a viewable set of PowerPoint slides with voiceover maximum 20 slides, 5 minutes OR 1 All written materials in the white paper must be in a normal 12- point type, double- spaced, unless otherwise noted. Charts, tables, illustrations and embedded spreadsheets may be single- spaced. Final deliverables of the cover sheet, executive summary and white paper must be three, and only three, separate Word documents or PDF files. 2 If the presentation materials are posted on a private website, complete instructions for accessing the site must be given.

5 3. Link to viewable video presentation, maximum 5 minutes. NOTES: Station says audience metrics will help in understanding its challenge.

The Infinite Dial 2013

The Infinite Dial 2013 Navigating Digital Platforms 2013 Arbitron Inc. and Edison Research Methodology Overview»In January/February 2013, Arbitron and Edison Research conducted a national telephone survey