Radio Advertising: Is Anyone Really Listening To You?

[By Sarah Faglio]

Radio transmission began in the late 19th century, when physicists started looking at how variations of electric current could be projected through space in the form of radio waves.  In 1896, Guglielmo Marconi received the world's first patent for his invention of a system of wireless telegraphy, which sends wireless communications over long distances.  Wireless telegraphy eventually led to the development of the widespread use of the radio. Radio broadcasting began in the early 20th century, with KDKA being the world's first commercially licensed radio station in 1920.  


Radio is available in AM and FM stations in commercial broadcasting, non-commercial educational public broadcasting and community radio.  Commercial broadcasting can be heard by audiences through portable radios, cars, online, satellite radio, and mobile apps.   

Radio broadcasting originally began without paid commercials, but as the communication medium's outreach grew and the cost of operating a radio station became significantly expensive, radio advertisements emerged in 1922.  These advertisements take the form of commercials, sponsorship/endorsement mentions and banner ads, except in the case of satellite radio that is substantiated by paid subscriptions from its listeners.  

Arbitron reports on radio audiences and provides ratings data of specific cities, to allow advertisers to select a specific segment of the listening audience and purchase radio airtime based on that target demographic.  According to a September 2011 report from Arbitron, radio has added an additional 1.7 million listeners since September 2010, aged 12+ tuning in on an average week.   The number of listeners aged 12+ listening to the radio each week has reached an estimated 241.4 million, representing 93% of the population aged 12+.  This growth in radio listeners is largely attributed to young demographics, with a growth of 80,000 listeners aged 18-34 since September 2010.  

However, despite this growth in radio audience, there are new technologies and public responses that have led to the Top 10 Drawbacks to Radio Advertising:

1. Messages are strictly audio and therefore have no visual support.
2. Listeners may "channel surf" to avoid having to listen to commercials.
3. "Ad clutter" prevents one ad from standing out from the others.  Multiple exposures are usually necessary for the message to be remembered.  
4. "Commercial clutter" is an excessive amount of non-program content, where the number of commercials sometimes irritates listeners to a point where they change the station or turn off the radio completely.
5. Messages are short and fleeting, making it difficult to attain listeners' attention as well as provide sufficient marketing messages.
6. Advertisements can only sell one idea (or product/service) at a time.
7. Messages cannot be reviewed by the listener, so if they did not hear a part of the message, they may be unable to react or follow-up.
8. A lack of "track-ability" in the advertisements prevent marketers from evaluating the effectiveness and reach of the message.
9. The ads have no tangible reference for listeners to go back to and look up the marketing message.
10. Many listeners who find ads to be annoying or intrusive, simply turn off the radio entirely due to their frustration of listening to these type of advertisements.  

Due to these disadvantages of radio advertising, a trend toward fewer commercials is arising, such as "commercial-free hours."  In addition to these perceptional drawbacks of listening to radio commercials, portable media players such as MP3 players and iPods, allow people to listen to music that they have compiled on their own.  These portable devices allow listeners to play a song of their choosing without having to listen to any advertising commercials.


While the number of radio listeners has increased, the effectiveness and reach of advertisement commercials has subsided.  What used to be a valuable medium of reaching a target audience,  has turned into a place where advertisements are avoided and may unproductive in its efforts.  With the ease of portable media players, radio stations are avoided all-together.