Roy Dackerman Marketing

09/16/2025

09/06/2025

May I Have Your Attention?

Radio’s Edge in the Attention Economy

The conversation around music consumption often circles back to numbers: streaming revenue, monthly active users, and playlists created. But in today’s crowded media landscape, the real measure of success isn’t just how many people tap play—it’s how long they stay engaged. Welcome to the attention economy, where holding audience focus is more valuable than ever.

This is where radio still has the edge. While streaming services boast personalization and choice, those very features often fracture attention. Listeners jump between playlists, skip tracks, or abandon a platform altogether when overwhelmed by options. Streaming is built for moments, not longevity and can be fatiguing. Radio, on the other hand, delivers continuous, frictionless listening that keeps ears tuned in longer and with fewer interruptions.

Numerous studies underscore this point: AM/FM radio still commands more daily time spent with music than any single streaming platform. Among listeners aged 13+, 32% of all music listening time goes to radio, compared with 28% for streaming services. Even younger demographics, often portrayed as “streaming-only,” split their listening more evenly than expected.

Why? Because radio demands less of its audience’s attention to deliver value. Turn it on, and the music, personalities, and local information flow without a single search bar or playlist decision. It’s not just background sound—it’s consistent companionship. Radio thrives by blending music with human connection: on-air talent who provide context, morning shows that set routines, and a curated flow that eliminates choice fatigue.

In the attention economy, this matters. Advertisers don’t just want to know where audiences are—they want to know where they’re staying. A 30-second ad on radio reaches listeners in an environment where attention is more sustained, with fewer opportunities to skip, scroll, or click away. By contrast, streaming users often split focus between multiple apps, or leave the platform altogether when an ad interrupts their playlist.

Streaming may dominate headlines for revenue growth, but radio dominates attention density. It wins not by offering infinite choice, but by reducing friction, building trust, and keeping listeners engaged far beyond a single song.

In a marketplace where attention is the most valuable currency, radio isn’t just surviving—it’s thriving.

08/24/2025

Classic rock awaits—step into a world where legendary sounds and unforgettable stories come alive. Immerse yourself in the magic of timeless music and visit us today at thedackman.com.

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08/21/2025

The New Watercooler: How Streaming Algorithms Are Fragmenting Audio Consumption and Cultural Moments

Can Radio Still Matter in a Fractured Landscape?

There was a time when the radio dial united us. Morning shows were the soundtrack of commutes, drive-time DJs broke the hits, and when a new song debuted, entire cities heard it at the same time. Radio was more than a medium — it was a shared cultural stage. If someone mentioned a chart-topping track at work, chances were everyone else had heard it too.

Fast forward to 2025, and that collective experience has splintered. Streaming algorithms, designed to personalize, now deliver a highly individualized feed of songs, podcasts, and playlists. The upside? Consumers get content that fits their unique tastes. The downside? Cultural moments in audio have become increasingly fragmented.
From Mass to Micro

Traditional radio operated as a mass medium. Playlists were limited, rotation was tight, and discovery was communal. That made radio powerful — it created the “watercooler effect” where audiences connected over the same songs, shows, and events.

Streaming, however, has shifted us to a micro-discovery economy. Algorithms learn not only what you like, but when and how you listen. One listener’s “must-hear” release might never cross another’s feed. It’s personalization on steroids — but it also erodes the common ground that made audio such a cultural glue.

It’s tempting to say radio has missed its moment — that the algorithm-driven world has left broadcast behind. But that would be too simple. The reality is that radio still holds two distinct advantages that streaming platforms haven’t cracked: local trust and real-time connection.

When breaking news hits, when a storm is approaching, or when a community gathers around a high school game, radio is often the first place people turn. That sense of immediacy — of being live together — is something no playlist can replicate. In fact, in an era of hyper-personalization, people may crave shared experiences even more.

Radio also benefits from the human factor. Algorithms are efficient at serving what you already like, but they’re not great at creating serendipity. An air talent dropping an unexpected track, or a host taking a live caller, still delivers a sense of discovery that feels personal yet communal at the same time.

So, is it too late? Not if radio leans into its unique strengths. The next era of audio may not look like the one that came before, but the ability to create cultural connection is still up for grabs. If radio wants to stay in the game, it must stop competing on algorithms and instead double down on what made it powerful in the first place: bringing people together.

05/28/2025

The latest entry from the Cumulus Media | Westwood One Audio Active Group blog lays out a few facts as to why adding AM/FM radio to a media mix is

05/08/2025

Every client is grappling with marketing challenges and opportunities that they have not yet conceptualized as advertising campaigns. But to get access to the people who work on those projects

04/18/2024

Another nugget of data culled from the soon-to-be-released results of Techsurvey 2024 – a record number of core radio listeners are showing fatigue with fees for audio and video content.

04/14/2024

THEDACKMAN.COM

Roy Dackerman "The Dackman"  has an extensive on air radio broadcast resume spanning from the markets of Boston, DC, New York and Honolulu!  

03/14/2024

New Study: AM/FM Radio Advertising Generates Significant Sales And Profit Growth Reports Peter Field, Godfather Of Marketing Effectiveness

Peter Field’s latest blockbuster study released in the U.K. is called The Long and the Short of It – 10 Years On: Radio’s Enduring Role in Effectiveness. This consequential new study lays out hard evidence for how AM/FM radio drives significant lifts in market share, pricing power, sales, profits, and ROI.

Peter Field, along with his writing partner Les Binet, have been dubbed the “godfathers of marketing effectiveness” due to the major marketing studies and books that the duo has published over the last 15 years and their impact on the industry.

Binet and Field have written the most famous and useful books on marketing effectiveness.

Their most popular publication was 2013’s The Long and the Short of It. It revealed two different marketing strategies: converting existing demand/sales activation and creating future demand/brand building.

Converting existing demand is very short term. Creating future demand is long term. Binet and Field reveal that the combined use of the two strategies is the secret to growing advertiser sales and profits.

Here are Peter Field’s just released key findings on AM/FM radio’s effectiveness:

AM/FM radio boosts mental availability (the propensity of a brand to be noticed and thought of in buying situations) by +13%

In their book 66 Ways To Screw It Up: How Not to Plan, Les Binet and Sarah Carter explain:

“The single most important factor driving brand preference is ‘mental availability’: how well known a brand is, and how easily it comes to mind. Brands with low mental availability tend to struggle, rejected in favour of more familiar rivals. Or not considered in the first place. Brands with high mental availability don’t have to push so hard to sell, so tend to have higher market shares and better margins.”

Field’s research found that marketers that used AM/FM radio had +13% greater mental availability than brands that did not use AM/FM radio.

Media plans with AM/FM radio have +28% greater market share than brands that do not use AM/FM radio

From 2000 to 2022, brands using AM/FM radio had a +28% greater market share (32%) compared to brands not using AM/FM radio (25%).

Advertisers using AM/FM radio have +42% greater profit than brands that do not use AM/FM radio

24% of advertisers who do not use radio reported very large profit growth. 42% of marketers who advertising on AM/FM Radio reported very large profit increases. Those that use radio are 42% more likely to report large profit increases!

Brands using AM/FM radio experience +23% greater return on marketing spend

Compared to brands who don’t use AM/FM radio, AM/FM radio advertisers experience +23% greater return on advertising spend (ROI).

This new study makes a decisive business case for AM/FM radio advertising.

Key takeaways:

In one of the most significant studies ever conducted on the sales effect of AM/FM radio, Peter Field, one of the “godfathers of marketing effectiveness,” reveals major differences in business outcomes for marketers who utilize AM/FM radio versus those who don’t:

+13% greater mental availability, the propensity of a brand to be noticed and thought of in buying situations
+28% larger market share
+42% increased profits, with AM/FM radio’s impact on profit growing
+23% greater return on advertising spend