Cleveland Radio: Pandora Says 83 Percent Listen On Smartphones

Gabe Tartaglia

Gabe Tartaglia, VP/Sales for Pandora internet radio, compares the evolution in how to listen to music to what happened to the television industry 25 years ago, according to cleveland.com. Streaming Internet and satellite radio have permanently altered the audio landscape, he told members of the American Advertising Federation - Cleveland Chapter, and radio will never be the same.

"Back in 1980, there were three networks: ABC, NBC and CBS. And if you wanted to watch something on TV, you turned on one of these networks," Tartaglia said. "By 1990, there were 153 networks with original programming." And with more shows and more channels to watch, overall TV viewership went up. The pie got bigger, except for at the original three networks, whose shares of the audience got smaller.

Tartaglia, a native of Bay Village and a graduate of Miami University of Ohio, currently oversees Pandora's 17-state central region from his office in downtown Chicago.

What are the major changes on the audio front? For one thing, technological innovations have given listeners different ways to get their music, he said.

Second, consumers want more personalization.

What's unusual about the Cleveland market is that the percentage of listeners who are streaming Pandora via their smart phones is 83 percent -- 5 percentage points higher than the national average of 78 percent. "Our listeners are big mobile device users," Tartaglia said. "This is either a very tech-savvy marketplace, or people here are on the go, and they're not tethered to their homes or offices."

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