Radio's Lost Generations

[radiofan]

From Radio & Records

By Jeffrey Yorke

LOS ANGELES ? Advertisers and ad agencies are missing the boat on a great source of cash flow: the baby boomers. Particularly people 56 and older, who are left out of ad buys because they are perceived as being stuck in their buying habits. But that's a big mistake, agreed all the panelists at the opening roundtable session at R&R Talk Radio Seminar 2007 in Los Angeles.

"Fifty-six and older are lonely, waiting to die, and no one is providing entertainment for us," cracked Joint Communications' John Parikhal, drawing laughter from the audience.

"Agencies are just as lost as anyone in radio" on that age category, added Mary Beth Garber of the Southern California Broadcasters Association. "But we are also new media, and we have to look at ourselves differently. We need to look at radio as a multidistribution system." She added that 40-to-60-year-olds spend more money, go to more movies and "do more things than any other demo."

When an audience member suggested that older listeners tend not to try new products but buy what they know, Parikhal quickly attempted to set the record straight.

"Older people are not set in their buying ways," he said. He pointed to boomers' love of buying computers, cars and gizmos, all the way down to getting different toothpastes for the newest whitening additive. He said the audience member's sentiment is "really unfair and biased and one that keeps radio stuck."

But there was also great concern about the youngest generation ? the generation plugged into iPods, MySpace and things other than radio. ABC's John McConnell asked, "How are you going to get our kids to come along for the ride?"