Posted by Dead Wax Records on January 19, 2010 at 11:42:03:
Chicago radio station shifts as technology moves
Frank Kryzak
Issue date: 1/18/10
"I listen to the radio two times a month, if that," says Megan McPherson, a 19 year old student at Elgin Community College.
The decline of radio listeners, especially young people, is only in the traditional meaning of physically listening to a radio in a car or on a radio.
"I don't listen to the radio in my car because the radio provides no control for me to listen to what I want," she explained.
Technology is growing more rapidly than it ever has before. The internet and other new technology provide media companies with opportunities to not just survive, but to potentially grow. A perfect example of this is the radio station 93XRT - "Chicago's finest rock" for 37 years. What has made stations like XRT so versatile throughout the ever-changing technological landscape covered in Ipods and MP3s?
XRT's ratings were higher this year than they have been in quite some time. For one thing, XRT is not exclusively found on the radio dial - it has its own website.
XRT's website provides a plethora of exclusive web content for interactive entertainment. This content is made only available on the website and thus provides an incentive to go to the website.
"I don't listen to the radio ever because I have CDs, my iPod, and records. But their [XRT's] website is phenomenal. It's a great place to find new music and watch cool things about bands I like," says Kyle Wise, a 20 year old student at UIC.
There are backstage interviews from Lollapalooza and other festivals in Chicago, downloadable artwork for one's computer desktop, videos of artist's in-studio
performances, webcasts of full concerts, interviews with various XRT DJs, photo galleries, music streams, calendar of upcoming concerts, concert goers blog, and
podcasts; that is only the homepage. There is also a feature called "Xrt Xtended Airplay History", which allows listeners to view every song that XRT has played over the previous 72 hours. It is paying off for the station too, because the station is gaining younger listeners.
"We actually just had this Passion Pit show and that was the youngest crowd we've ever had. A lot of it was web based and everyone knows that's the way of the
future, people want as much information about bands from us as possible and backstage interviews and things," explains Tim Liston, the promotions coordinator for XRT.
In addition to the main website is a 93XRT Concertgoers Blog at www.concertgoersblog.com where members from the audience can give their feedback directly to the station and to other concert goers.
"You know, everybody's saying newspapers are dying and radios are dying, but I don't believe that at all. You look at our ratings and they're the highest they've been in a while and a lot of that has to do with promotions. We're always out meeting new people, getting new listeners. Like for that Passion Pit show, we got 2,300 people to sign up for it and maybe 1,000 are new listeners, and that was from just one show. I think that promotion has a lot to do with the success of XRT," said Liston.
As earlier stated, the station sponsors several concerts throughout the year. The station coordinates these concerts and makes efforts to bring in the crowd for these events: "Yeah, how that works is a band's manager will tell us when they're coming to town and ask if we want to sponsor it. So then we promote it on-air once it gets closer to show time, we make sure everything's set at the venue; make sure all the managers at the venue are prepared. We contact our winners, get our listeners there, and make sure everything runs as smooth as possible," Liston explained.
Radio stations like XRT have increased the number of methods they employ to engage with their listeners. Tim Liston is an example of a new generation of people that help radio stations shift to earn and accommodate their listeners' interest. One can listen to XRT Radio both in their car and live on the internet at www.wxrt.com.