Words Flying Through The Air
When you quote ‘listen to the radio’ unquote…it no longer means what it used to.
You may be listening to this segment on the original, terrestrial, over-the-ar radio on AM 1540. But you might be listening to our terrestrial, over the air signal some other way…such as via an app on your smartphone (we’d prefer you use the free KXEL app for higher quality, but you might be using a third party app, like TuneIn). To those of us of a certain age, listening on the smartphone is like the old days of carrying a transistor radio in our pocket.
You might be listening on the web stream, using your computer. Or perhaps you asked Alexa to “open 1540 KXEL”, and just like your old tabletop radio, there’s the sound, presented by a woman with a distinctive voice who responds to your commands.
Many of you listen on your terms, by going to our podcast and downloading it or playing it from there.
And research shows…regardless of how you’re listening…you’re not alone.
I like calling what we do “spoken word radio”, because we sometimes have news, sometimes have talk…but it’s all spoken word, as opposed to music. And according to new data compiled by Edison Research, the audience share for spoken word radio has gone up by 30 percent in the past six years. More people listen to music…but that share has eroded over the past half decade, in favor of spoken word.
And before you think this is an example of the population getting older…the bigger demographic jump in listening came from those under age 35…a huge 83 percent increase in audience share in that age group.
So let me be sure to thank you for listening to this segment, and everything else you listen to on KXEL. We always thought you were in good company…and now it’s larger company, as well.
