Traditional radio needs a future with Gen-Z

Gen Z craves authenticity, interactivity, and diversity. Let’s break the mold and create radio that resonates with their dynamic spirit

It you’re a station owner & these ideas interest you, let’s talk.

Interactive Storytelling Sessions:

Host fictional audio dramas, mysteries, or sci-fi adventures. Invite listeners to participate by solving puzzles, making choices, or even voicing characters.

Imagine a weekly show called “Quantum Quests” where listeners embark on interdimensional adventures, solving riddles to unlock the next episode.

Music Remix Challenges:

Collaborate with emerging & artists popular with this life group and challenge them to remix popular songs. Feature these fresh tracks during prime time.

Create a segment called “Remix Roulette,” where listeners vote on which elements (e.g., tempo, instruments) to remix in real-time.

Soundscapes for Virtual Reality:

Leverage binaural audio to transport listeners to fantastical realms. Imagine a show called “Ethereal Expeditions” where each episode explores a different VR landscape.

From enchanted forests to cyberpunk cities, these immersive soundscapes would be perfect for Gen Z’s tech-savvy minds.

Retro Futurism Hour:

Blend nostalgia with futuristic vibes. Play synthwave, vaporwave, and chiptune tracks while discussing retro tech, '80s movies, and neon aesthetics.

Host a segment called “Back to the Future-Past” where listeners share their favorite vintage gadgets.

Crowdsourced Playlists:

Let listeners curate playlists based on themes like “Sunday Morning Chill” or “Midnight Moods.” Use social media polls to decide which tracks make the cut.

The show could be called “Playlist Party,” and each week, a listener’s playlist becomes the soundtrack for an entire hour.

Audio Escape Rooms:

Collaborate with escape room designers to create audio-only puzzles. Listeners solve clues, crack codes, and unravel mysteries.

Tune in to “Enigma Escapes” and immerse yourself in mind-bending challenges.

Live Sound Collages:

Host a late-night show where you mix live sounds from the city—traffic, rain, laughter—with ambient music. It’s like an audio snapshot of urban life.

Call it “Urban Canvas” and encourage listeners to submit their own field recordings.

Random Acts of Creativity:

Surprise listeners with unexpected moments: quirky interviews with street performers, or live beatboxing battles.

“Serendipity Sessions” could be a spontaneous show that pops up when you least expect it.

Eco-Conscious Radio:

Gen Z cares about the planet. Feature eco-friendly tips, interviews with environmental activists, and stories of sustainable innovations.

“Green Waves” could be the go-to show for conscious living.

Collaborative Podcasts:

Invite listeners to participate. Each episode evolves based on their input.

“The Co-Creators’ Chronicles” blurs the line between audience and storyteller

Last but not least: our air personalities:

Name: Zaria (or a name with a unique and modern vibe)

Voice: Warm, friendly, and conversational. Think less authoritative radio host and more like your favorite funny meme account come to life.

On-Air Style:

• Authentic and relatable: Zaria speaks Gen-Z fluently. She references internet slang, memes, and current events with ease.

• Passionate about music: Zaria is genuinely excited about new music, especially up-and-coming artists and indie genres popular with Gen-Z. She weaves interesting facts and behind-the-scenes info about the music into her setlists.

• Socially conscious: Zaria isn't afraid to tackle social issues relevant to Gen-Z, like climate change, mental health, and social justice. She does this with a light touch, often incorporating humor or listener interaction.

• Interactive: Zaria encourages listener participation through social media polls, on-air challenges, and creating a sense of community among listeners.

• Self-deprecating humor: Zaria isn't afraid to poke fun at herself and relatable Gen-Z experiences (like online dating fails or the struggle to adult).

Examples of on-air segments:

• "Meme of the Moment": Zaria breaks down a popular meme, explaining its origin and cultural significance.

• "Listener Life Hacks": Listeners call in with their best tips for navigating life as a Gen-Z'er, from budgeting to studying.

• "Genre Mashup": Zaria mixes unexpected genres together, creating a playlist that reflects Gen-Z's eclectic taste.

• "Local Spotlight": Zaria interviews up-and-coming local Gen-Z artists, entrepreneurs, or social media creators.

Overall, Zaria feels like a friend, someone who "gets it" and provides a fun, informative, and relatable space for Gen-Z listeners.

Out of the box & ready for prime time.

Shards of glass: Inside media's 12 splintering realities

Special kudos to today’s contributors:

• Jim VandeHei,

• Mike Allen

You can't understand November's election — or America itself — without reckoning with how our media attention has shattered into a bunch of misshapen pieces.

• Think of it as the shards of glass phenomenon. Not long ago, we all saw news and information through a few common windows — TV, newspapers, cable. Now we find it in scattered chunks that match our age, habits, politics and passions.

Why it matters: Traditional media, at least as a center of dominant power, is dead. Social media, as its replacement for news in the internet era, is declining in dominance.

What comes next: America is splintering into more than a dozen news bubbles based on ideology, wealth, jobs, age and location.

• This means where you get your news, the voices you trust, and even the topics and cultural figures you follow could be wholly different from the person sitting next to you.

• So instead of Red America and Blue America, we'll have a dozen or more Americas — and realities. This will make understanding public opinion, and finding common agreement, even more complex and elusive.

Disclaimer: No, this doesn't mean The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal or CNN are dead. It just means their influence will wane with most people in the other bubbles. Nor does it mean Facebook and Twitter will lose relevance. They simply will be influential in tighter bubbles.

To help get your head around this shift, we'll generalize in describing some of today's most powerful bubbles (which are of widely varying sizes). We talked to influencers left, right and center; media executives; political operatives; C-suite executives and more. What we found:

1. The Musk-eteers: This is a fast-growing, mostly male group who feed off Twitter, podcasts (especially "All-In" and Joe Rogan), and follow independent reporters, led by Bari Weiss, through social media or newsletters.

2. Instagrammers: This is mostly young to middle-aged women in college and the professional class. They're very engaged with this more visual form of journalism, and gravitate toward influential voices in the creator economy — including Jessica Yellin (New Not Noise), Betches News, Emily in Your Phone (former Democratic strategist Emily Amick) and Sharon Says So (Sharon McMahon, an educator who does history and civics explainers).

3. TikTok kids: This is where most kids get most of their information about the world and hot news topics. They scroll, fast and furious, through pictures and microbursts of information — and trust people most parents have never heard of. Think MrBeast, Addison Rae and Zach King.

4. New-age grandmas: Consumers of news on Facebook have been trending older. Yes, Facebook has deliberately deemphasized news over the past three years, emphasizing what Meta global affairs president Nick Clegg calls"babies, barbecues and bar mitzvahs." But a lot remains.

5. Right-wing grandpas: Senior citizens, especially men, still flock to Fox News — especially in prime time, and especially around popular personalities. They would have been big Rush Limbaugh fans back in the '90s.

6. MAGA mind melders: The new conservative news ecosystem would seem like a distant planet to anyone whose habits were formed pre-Trump. People like Charlie Kirk (massive because he's multiplatform), Jack Posobiec and Mike Cernovich are dominant voices. Then there are folks who are taken seriously only in Trumpworld (Laura Loomer, Alex Bruesewitz), but can really move the needle there. No one rivals Tucker Carlson with the base, even without his Fox News platform. Don Jr. is second, with his massive X, Facebook and Instagram engagement. "He's the meme lord of the right," a MAGA insider told us. Steve Bannon's WarRoom remains a juggernaut. Breitbart's Matt Boyle is a go-to newsbreaker on the right. Plus there's a potent crew of video clip guys.

7. Liberal warriors: Think of Rachel Maddowas patron saint of this bloc. Hence her sky-high ratings. This crowd feeds daily off The New York Times (especially opinion pieces) and prestige magazines (especially The Atlantic and The New Yorker). They once were addicted to Twitter but left, or lessened their dependency, after Musk turned it into X.

8. Elite power-consumers: This is the Axios base. These are mainly college-educated, ambitious professionals — we estimate 25 million-45 million nationally — who seek out news near-daily, partly for passion and partly for professional enhancement. This group is most likely to overlap with other bubbles and lap up "Morning Joe." These power-users are huge fans of newsletters, which in some respects mimic in shrunken form newspapers: a beginning and end, punctuated with pictures and visuals. LinkedIn is a hot, if still small, pipeline for content.

9. The financiers: This is the base of The Wall Street Journal, CNBC (especially "Squawk Box") and DealBook, the newsletter by New York Times and "Squawk" star Andrew Ross Sorkin. Lots of rich, white, older East Coast or big-city professionals live here.

10. Niche-ers: These are professionals who exploit the abundance of high-quality, in-the-weeds news about their job, industry or specific role. The internet is Nirvana for ones who know who to follow, what newsletters to get, and what specialty pubs to buy. This is often a subset of elites. Reddit is a hotbed. WhatsApp is also a shard/bubble: A huge number of people, especially immigrants and people with family and friends in other countries, get news and memes from WhatsApp groups — which can be a big conduit of misinformation.

11. Emerging majority: There are upwardly mobile, college-educated Latinos and Black Americans who no longer have Black or bilingual publications to read. They've turned their attention to trusted journalists in mainstream outlets such as NPR TV critic Eric Deggans and L.A. Times metro columnist Gustavo Arellano to make sense of the world. Also, they turn to Black and Latino influencers around tech (Marques Brownlee), financial planning (Yanely Espinal) and fashion (Black in Fashion Council).

12. Passive-ists. On most days, this might be the biggest group. It's people either too busy or too disinterested in news to hunt for it. They bump into it, often accidentally, as they chat or buy things — or scroll through fun stuff.

The bottom line: All the shards mean it's much more effort for you, the consumer, to find healthy news that doesn't waste your time or insult your intelligence. And much harder to make sense of the realities around you.

• Sara Fischer, Russell Contreras and Zachary Basu contributed reporting.

Call-out vs Music Streaming Research. Why are there Discrepancies?

Music Programmers Ponder the discrepancies between traditional “call-out” research and music streaming

Let’s delve into why these differences occur:

* Nature of Data Collection:

* Call-Out Research: In traditional call-out research, participants are asked to evaluate songs based on short clips or snippets. They provide feedback on whether they like or dislike the song, its catchiness, and other subjective aspects.

* Streaming Consumption Research: Streaming platforms collect data passively as users listen to full songs. This data includes play counts, skip rates, and user behavior over extended periods.

* Sampling Bias:

* Call-Out Research: Participants in call-out studies may not represent the entire listener population. Their preferences might not align with the broader audience.

* Streaming Consumption Research: Streaming data reflects actual behavior across diverse demographics, providing a more comprehensive view of what people actually listen to.

* Context and Intent:

* Call-Out Research: Participants evaluate songs in isolation, without considering real-world contexts (e.g., mood, activity, social setting).

* Streaming Consumption Research: Users stream music during various activities (commuting, working out, relaxing), which influences their choices. Streaming data captures this context.

* Sampling Duration:

* Call-Out Research: Participants hear short clips, often less than 30 seconds. Their preferences might change when listening to the full song.

* Streaming Consumption Research: Full-length song plays provide a more accurate representation of listener preferences.

* Recency Bias:

* Call-Out Research: Participants evaluate new songs, which may lead to a bias toward novelty.

* Streaming Consumption Research: Streaming data includes both new releases and older tracks, reflecting long-term popularity.

* Social Influence:

* Call-Out Research: Participants’ opinions may be influenced by perceived social norms or expectations.

* Streaming Consumption Research: Users choose songs independently, without external pressure.

* Algorithmic Recommendations:

* Streaming Consumption Research: Algorithms recommend songs based on user history, leading to personalized playlists. This influences consumption patterns.

* Call-Out Research: Doesn’t account for personalized recommendations.

* Radio Airplay and Repetition:

* Radio Stations: They often play songs repeatedly to maintain familiarity and audience retention. This practice can inflate airplay metrics.

* Streaming Services: User-driven choices determine play counts, reducing repetition bias.

* Monetary Incentives:

* Streaming Platforms: Artists earn royalties based on streams, incentivizing users to explore diverse content.

* Radio Stations: Airplay doesn’t directly impact artist earnings, so they may stick to safe, familiar songs.

* Industry Practices and Tradition:

* Radio: Legacy practices and programming traditions influence song selection.

* Streaming: Disrupts traditional models, allowing for greater diversity.

In summary, while call-out research provides valuable insights, streaming consumption data offers a more holistic view of music preferences. Radio stations, however, continue to balance tradition, audience expectations, and commercial interests when choosing songs for airplay12.