Dear Radio Executive:

Here are Bridge Ratings we measure listeners - not listening. If you've browsed around our web site you've seen these words. The meat of their meaning, however, is not so simple to differentiate though the import of why I mention them will become clear soon enough.

We've always measured listeners rather than listening because the former is a much more reliable indicator of behavior than the latter. To measure weekly audience quantitatively in its simplest form along with a more accurate measurement of favoriteness gives our clients a measurement they can sink their teeth into; there's not as much guess work.

And along with the quantitative results we deliver, Bridge Ratings has looked beyond the audience size issue to determine the "why's" and the results have been very eye-opening.

In particular as part of our vastly popular study "How to Make Music Radio More Appealing to the Next Generation", we learned how to get the radio industry back on track. What we learned from a group of 12-24 year olds will greatly enhance our stations' appeal to this age group, but it can also provide valuable insight to all demographically targeted radio - terrestrial, satellite and Internet.

The key to one of the study's revelations is what has become known as radio's "obliviousness factor". In other words, radio's condition of being uniformed about its true capabilities.

Our study revealed that despite the MP3 players and the Internet radio choices, traditional radio has many silver bullets:

• Its pervasiveness
• Its free-ness
• Its familiarity of use

What we learn from the youth we interviewed is that they want terrestrial radio and they seem to believe that its potential to serve them what they want is not too far a leap from where it is today.

Regardless of the generation, matters of the future of entertainment, technology, fashion as well as many other consumables are dictated by the younger consumers and this feeling of frustration they feel toward traditional radio is slowly advancing to older age groups. It happens with all sorts of mass audience products and it's happening to broadcast radio.

The term "iPod fatigue" was borne of this study and it enlightened many in attendance at the study's presentation. Broadcasters present that day in November 2005 began to understand that people are inherently lazy - and what this 12-24 year old group was telling us was, yes, they love their iPods for what they offer, but after 3, 6, 9 months over 67% of those questioned began to want someone else to pick the music for them. The process of downloading from iTunes and then downloading again to their iPods became tiring.

• What songs to choose
• How often to update
• Which songs to delete
• What's hot - what's not

These all became motivation to find other sources for this information. Their first choice as a potential destination for this information: radio at 72%. Not TV - not MTV. The Internet scored well, too with 61%, as a destination this age group goes to in order to assimilate all of the potential music to be heard. But since they generally do not get it from traditional radio, 72% responded "the Internet" when asked where do you go to hear new music". The clear message here is that they expect traditional radio to deliver on the new music promise, but they aren't getting it.

2006 has the potential to be another great step toward traditional radio's image rebuilding. This will require senior level radio executives to realize the power of their industry lies in management specialists who should be given the authority to do what they do best - research the stations' life group(s) and enact their findings on signals that have the potential to re-attract listeners. While HD radio may be of interest, it will take years before critical mass is reached. Even then, will some other technology like Motorola's 435 channel music cell phone displace HD as the next hot thing?

Fortunately, radio can recover quickly from its bout with "obliviousness". The prescription is knowledge, courage and faith in the consumer whom Bridge Ratings understands is rooting for terrestrial radio to get it right. They are rooting for us because we are:

1. Everywhere they are
2. Free
3. Easy to understand and use
4. Their filter system for vast quantities of programming options

Bridge Ratings will continue this year to peel away layers that heretofore have led to radio's general ignorance about what the audience wants. We'll be waiting to see the industry's reaction.

Your feedback is vital to our company's on-going success. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Dave Van Dyke

President