Indy Radio: Regular Radio Listeners Are Graying

The five stations with the highest market share in the Indianapolis market last month count people 45 or older as a considerable part of their audiences.

According to the Indy Business Journal, two of them—WJJK 104.5 FM and WFBQ 94.7 FM, both classic-rock stations—attract large numbers of middle-age and older men.

Two others—country crooner WFMS 95.5 FM and adult-contemporary station WYXB 105.7 FM —attract a considerable number of middle-age and older women.

The station with the fifth-highest market share—WIBC 93.1 FM—draws mostly middle-age and older listeners with its news/talk format.

Those five stations account for nearly 40 percent of all radio listening in the central Indiana market, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Three years ago, those five stations accounted for 24 percent of all listening.  That’s not to say those stations don’t draw some younger listeners. But a major chunk of their audience—in many cases, well over half—is closer to retirement than to starting careers.

As younger generations move away from radio to digital options—streaming music services and podcasts—the slice of the pie the older audience represents is expanding. As it does, station programmers are faced with a tricky dilemma.

Bruce Bryant

“The older audience has been a very loyal audience for radio,” said Bruce Bryant, president of locally based Promotus Advertising. “As a result, the stations that cater to them are growing in market share. That shift has opened some eyes and even raised some eyebrows.”

And it raises this key question: Do radio programmers cater to the trend—and play to the older audience—or do they fight it by trying to lure younger listeners away from Spotify, Pandora and other services?

In part, it depends on the station’s market position and the audience its advertisers want.

The younger listeners radio can claim spend considerably less time consuming radio than do their older counterparts, which tilts share numbers even further throughout the day.

What you find is that the older audience is more stable. They’re more consistent radio listeners,” Bryant said. “Younger people are much more likely to test new alternatives.”

But Mike Killabrew, senior vice president of programming for iHeartMedia’s Indianapolis station cluster, said there’s another reason the gray-bearded stations are doing so well.

“All the stations we’re seeing at the top of the ratings in this market play very familiar music,” Killabrew said. “And WIBC drives content on a local level. With those [top five] stations, you know what you’re going to get—local content, original on-air personalities, news you can use and great songs.”

All is not lost for stations seeking younger listeners.

WZPL-FM 99.5 and WNOU-FM 100.9—both top-40 stations that cater to younger listeners—are among the market leaders in cumulative audience, which represents the total number of listeners that tune in at least once a week, according to Nielsen.

But because those listeners spend less time listening to radio—so are not getting counted as many times as older listeners in the share numbers—the stations rank lower in percentage of listeners tuning in.