Radio Advertising Issues - Essay Example

Nowadays, as a result of the vigorous popularization of the Internet, some mass media have become less efficient in terms of advertising placement. However, such mass media as radio persists in offering an extremely wide range of stations and genres for everyone and – therefore – addressing different segments of the audience. Moreover, due to the split “of national and local radio stations”, the advertisers have several options for reaching the target audience (Zharkova, 2005), which also makes radio a very flexible advertising medium (Ingram & Barber, 2006).

The modern mass media industry offers a great range of both local and national radio stations broadcasting music of different genres aimed at different ages, backgrounds and tastes. To add more, the majority of radio stations have duplications of their broadcasts on the Internet, so everyone can access the broadcasts regardless of geographical location. The range of the radio stations found for this essay is rather heterogeneous in genre. The Whale 99.1 FM is a radio station focusing on classic rock, as it is stated on the website and clearly understood from the repertoire.

WBGO 88.3 FM, the New York radio station stating its format as Jazz offers a variety of jazz compositions and related programs. 1033 The EDGE Rock Radio focuses – obviously – on rock format including both old and new songs. Country 106.5 WYRK Radio has mainly country format; 95.5 PLJ New York radio station offers a mixture of genres and musicians in its broadcasts; Pulse 87 NY located at 96.7 FM describes itself as a dance radio station and broadcasts a wide range of pop and dance music including numerous remixes. WQHT Hot 97 radio station features mainly hip-hop and R’n’B compositions.

WLTW 106.7 Lite FM and the majority of stations found on the Internet tend to state their format as mix or dance, which means that they feature a diverse variety of pop and dance mainstream songs without focusing on a single genre. Moreover, some of the mixed-format radio stations offer a description such as Top 40 radio stations, which, of course, means that the broadcasts consist of the songs holding leading positions in the charts at the current moment. Narrowing our advertising-related target group to college students, we will inevitably come to the conclusion that mix, pop and dance radio stations are the most efficient means for reaching college students. Such radio stations are usually top, as they don’t offer some peculiar music, instead broadcasting mainstream compositions, which are, first of all, intended for youth. As an advertising medium, pop and dance radio stations are likely to be the most efficient, as the majority of college students listen to them, i.e. the music broadcasted on these stations predetermines the average age and size of the target group for the advertising.

However, judging generally, one is likely to conclude that – for college and university audiences, radio as an advertising medium is relatively inefficient in comparison to the Internet. Therefore, when placing an advertisement on the radio, one should take into account the frequency of listening and probably use an additional advertising medium. On the other hand, the advertiser should take the product or service he/she promotes into account when placing the ad. For instance, advertisements telling about upcoming rock concerts should be placed not on the mainstream mix and dance radio stations, but on specialized rock stations like the Whale, because the target group, i.e. students who listen to rock music, are unlikely to listen to the former ones.