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Radio World

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BIAs Expert Forecaster Mark Fratrik to Retire

Posted: 02 Jun 2022 01:34 PM PDT https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/people-news/bias-expert-forecaster-mark-fratrik-to-retire

Mark Fratrik

Mark Fratrik, a longtime face of BIA Advisory Services whose forecasts and commentaries on broadcast business trends are quoted widely, will retire
from the company at the end of June.

Nicole Ovadia, vice president, forecasting & analysis, will lead its
forecast team.

Fratrik is senior vice president and chief economist of the firm, which he joined 21 years ago. “He will continue as a strategic advisor and analyst
to the company, offering continuity for the firm’s forecasting, insights
and analytics services,” it said in its announcement.

Fratrik began working in local media research and analysis in the 1980s. He worked for five years at the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of
Economics, and subsequently was a vice president/economist for the National Association of Broadcasters.
Nicole Ovadia

“When I look at the accomplishments of BIA over Mark’s 21-year tenure at BIA, there’s a direct correlation between our success and Mark’s dedication and expertise,” said CEO and founder Tom Buono.

Ovadia, who joined BIA this spring, is a former director of the New York
State Broadcasters Association. She was with Emmis Communications for 14
years with its corporate Strategy Group and as a vice president for the company’s New York stations. She received her undergraduate degree from Wharton and has an MBA from MIT Sloan.

The post BIAs Expert Forecaster Mark Fratrik to Retire appeared first on
Radio World.


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Frank McCoy Will Retire From Salem

Posted: 02 Jun 2022 08:01 AM PDT https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/people-news/frank-mccoy-will-retire-from-salem


Frank McCoy will retire this fall from his role as chief engineer for the
Salem Media properties in Chicago, legendary directional AM stations WIND
and WYLL. He has worked there since 2010, overseeing the technical assets
of three transmitter sites and a studio complex. The company is looking for
his successor.

McCoy has worked in the past for ABC, Gannett, Skywave Inc., Capstar Broadcasting Partners and American Media Services before he went to Salem.
He also is the managing member for an LLC that owns several FM translators. 

We checked in with Frank.

Radio World: Why are you leaving?

Frank McCoy: Hey, I’ll be 71 in September. I always viewed this as my retirement job. Now actual retirement might become my retirement job — but
I doubt it … always something new to dig into.

RW: When will you leave and what arrangements are in place for a successor?

McCoy: A successor is being sought now. The Salem Media website has
application details. I am slated to leave Nov. 1.

RW: What will you do next?

McCoy: Watch this space …
“I am the geek on the right. From 1975,” writes Frank McCoy. “Who needs another corporate portrait? Update: I bought another unicycle a couple
years ago (not like this one with a chain and crazy tall) and can barely
ride it. Some things do not improve with age, balance among them.”

RW: Tell me about your earlier career.

McCoy: I started in TV back in the 1970s and moved to a television
production house as a director cameraman. That house became the Harpo
Studios but after I’d left. 

Spent 10 years in commercial real estate sales and acquired a decent
portfolio of real estate in the go-go 1980s. 

I cannot overemphasize how much formal sales training benefitted every
other thing I have done since. You engineers who struggle with relating to
your GM? Sign up for a Tom Hopkins or Zig Zigler seminar today.

On a kind of a whim I took a job as group engineer for a radio
consolidating outfit based in Austin, Texas, which later became Capstar —
now the largest embedded subgroup in iHeart, but then a crazy idea that I
was able to put on a whiteboard but had only a vague idea how to make real: cross-market voicetracking.

Cross-market and consolidated voicetracking was the eventual result, along with centralized distribution and control of playlists and other elements
of managing a far-flung bunch of barely-rated markets.

After that, I worked at designing and implementing FM move-ins to major
markets [at American Media Services, 2000–2009]. That was a bonanza while
it lasted. 

Engineering (to derive solutions) and sales (to convince other licensee participants) were a part of that. So the intersection of both skills
worked to make those deals possible.

RW: What has been the most satisfying and most challenging parts of your
job since you joined Salem?

McCoy: That I have been allowed to design, prototype and implement many original strategies and systems. Some have ended up being described in
Radio World, as you know. Plus I got to work with some really great radio people. I’m not just saying that. Top to bottom, Salem is full of good broadcast operators.

RW: Anything else we should know?

McCoy: I’m still looking for translators that might be for sale but the low-hanging fruit has been picked, I’m afraid. 

[Read Frank McCoy’s articles on cybersecurity, “Old Ideas for a New Threat Environment,” and on “A DIY Mail Transfer Agent.”]

The post Frank McCoy Will Retire From Salem appeared first on Radio World.


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Ferncast Launches New Class of Audio Codec Servers

Posted: 02 Jun 2022 07:27 AM PDT https://www.radioworld.com/tech-and-gear/products/ferncast-launches-new-class-of-audio-codec-servers



Ferncast has launched a new class of Audio Codec Servers (ACS) based on its audio software solution aixtream.

The class combines the 24/7 aixstream Compact software with traditional hardware boxes, according to a press release by Ferncast. This creates a solution which is far more powerful and versatile than conventional audio codecs, multiplexers, studio transmitter link equipment and similar audio processing and transmission devices.

Detlef Wiese, CEO of Ferncast, said, Now we can serve the market with
hardware devices for different live applications. We call the software
running on those platforms aixtream Compact while the modular software
aixtream will stay for those who want to configure their own systems.”

48 ACS products with six form factors are now available — slim, slim redundant, redundant, silent, mini and slim silent. Each product is
designed for up to eight fields of application, including OTT online
streaming, SIP communication, Studio Transmitter Links, Audio on Demand and
DVB multiplexing. Plus, DAB conversion, loudness and transcoding.


The six different ACS form factors (photo via Ferncast)



Users can combine these on the same system if desired, said Ferncast. They
can also choose the number of programs they want to be supported such as
two, five, 10, 20, 50 or even 100.

[Check Out More Products at Radio World’s Products Section]


The post Ferncast Launches New Class of Audio Codec Servers appeared first
on Radio World.


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Radio in the Age of Playlists

Posted: 01 Jun 2022 12:21 PM PDT https://www.radioworld.com/columns-and-views/guest-commentaries/radio-in-the-age-of-playlists


Radio World’s “Guest Commentaries” section provides a platform for industry
thought leaders and other readers to share their perspective on radio news, technological trends and more. If you’d like to contribute a commentary, or reply to an already published piece, send a submission to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The author of this story is the general manager at WFMU. This is part of a series by the NFCB, whose commentaries appear regularly on Radio World.

A few years ago I had just finished my three hour music show on WFMU when a listener email arrived in my inbox. “Great show Ken! You should post all
the music to a Spotify playlist!”

Thanks for the helpful hint, I thought to myself. I just did a three hour
music show, and maintained a real-time, illustrated, interactive playlist
as I did it. My station apps and website all showed every song as I played
it — individually as well as in context of the entire show. Why would I
want to devote the time to create a second, lesser copy of the exact same thing? While I pondered this question, that same listener was already hard
at work creating exactly what he had suggested, a Spotify playlist of my
entire show, minus all my annoying, aimless DJ blather. 

What I didn’t understand at the time was that, for many listeners under the age of 50, playlists are the new radio. These listeners use playlists to
share their favorites with each other, and to discover new songs and
artists. Online playlists are the current incarnation of the mixtapes of
old, but with the community-building capabilities of social media. 

Yet, most radio stations, if they offer playlists at all, have not risen to
the challenge of offering the types of playlists that younger listeners
have come to expect. “Hyperpop,” a recent buzzworthy electronic genre, gained prominence and record industry attention not through radio airplay
but through these online playlists. 

The problem here might be that the word “playlist” has deep roots in the radio industry.

Radio, of course, has used the word “playlist” for many decades, but its meaning was and remains practically the opposite of what the word means to
the youth of today. Radio playlists usually meant relatively small lists of songs which are pre-approved for airplay by market researchers or program directors. Conversely, today’s generation of playlist users are absolutely unrestricted, and they use that freedom to make friends, enjoy old music
and discover the new.

The different meanings of the word can create a clash of cultures.

A few weeks ago, I was listening to a demo tape from a prospective, new DJ. After the first song ended, the mix went to complete silence. I made a note
to mention this issue to them. But after the second song, I heard another
gap of dead air, and so on for the entire 90 minute demo. I realized that
what I was listening to was not a radio show per se, but a Spotify playlist absent a crossfade feature, with occasional breaks for the DJ’s
scintillating personality. But there were no crossfades, no ramps, no
mixing whatsoever. When I spoke to my prospective host, I complimented
their musical choices but I had to offer a remedial course on what radio is
and was. This person had been raised on playlists, not on radio, so my description of the craft was a new revelation for them. 

[Read More Guest Commentaries Here]

At WFMU, we began adding online playlists to our digital offerings in 1999, simply to answer in real-time the most common question we received from listeners: “what was the name of that song?” Over the years, we’ve continued adding to our playlist feature, making them illustrated with
album covers or other art. Plus, hyperlinks to the bands personal pages.
Today we have more than 20,000 listeners with registered accounts which
allow them to comment on, or otherwise enrich, our real-time playlists anonymously.  You can see it in action 24/7 at wfmu.org, if you click on “playlist & comments,” or via the WFMU apps.
A screengrab of WFMUs real-time, online playlist and chat.

Perhaps the biggest challenge we’ve faced with this approach has been the moderation which is needed to prevent bad online behavior, and to keep the playlist/chat community a positive, helpful place… you know, instead of a cesspool, like chats and comments in most other forms of social media. It’s been a lot of work and coding and experimenting, but it’s been well worth
it. Many of our youngest listeners and donors are attracted to WFMU
initially not because of our radio programming, but because of our online playlist chat community.  

But the people who hang out on our playlists and chat all day are not representative of the typical radio listener. These people are a subset of
our P1 listeners, a focus group, a peanut gallery, a fan community,
depending on which of our DJs you discuss it with. The playlist and the
chat may not represent the totality of our radio audience, or the full
craft of radio, but it provides radio with the real-time community and interaction that younger listeners now demand.

The post Radio in the Age of Playlists appeared first on Radio World.


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Embrace the Merger of Enterprise and Broadcast

Posted: 01 Jun 2022 09:20 AM PDT https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/news-makers/embrace-the-merger-of-enterprise-and-broadcast


A new Radio World ebook explores trends and concepts in remote audio contribution; read it here. Among the technologists who commented in
response to our questions is Bill Jackson, principal studio engineer for Educational Media Foundation.

Radio World: What are your organization’s primary forms of “remote contribution” and how do you accomplish them? 

Bill Jackson: Show broadcast; recorded interviews; live event broadcast;
and voice track.

RW: How has the pandemic changed the way your organization views the role
and management of remote audio contribution?

Jackson: The past two years have made our transition from a normalcy bias (“this is how we’ve always done it”) to a proactive mode (“what opportunities do we have”) to accomplish programming goals.

RW: Are there one or more particular products that play a key role in your remote audio workflows? 

Jackson: The Telos Systems iPort HD; Tieline codecs; and a proof of concept involving a product I cant discuss. It is a “codec”-based system.

RW: Can you name a product or feature that you wish manufacturers of remote audio gear would add or make more widely available?

Jackson: Virtualized products — existing products that we can stick in the virtual environment. We see great efficiency in this process. Bare metal is needed at the far end. Hosting as much as I can in the data center brings
great value.
Bill Jackson of Educational Media Foundation configures an Axia Quasar
console at its facility in Franklin, Tenn.

RW: We hear a great deal about the virtualization of the broadcast air
chain. What are the implications of this evolution on how remote audio contribution is handled?

Jackson: Oh, it’s more than just the “air chain.” A process to virtualize EVERYTHING in a talent-friendly way is the focus. 

Our goal is to send a finished product, from any location out of a virtual stack to one, or any combination, of our signals and streaming segments.
This is a long-term project that is underway and yields great results in
the different subsections of the project. At some point when each
subsection is ready, we’ll put the whole thing together and test it fully.

We have challenges — none that can’t be overcome.

RW: What key questions or concepts should a manager be thinking about in purchasing gear for remote audio contribution?

Jackson: I don’t think it is so much of a technical question or concept. It’s a question of stepping out of our comfort zone and re-architecting how we accomplish goals. 

What has been successful for us for the past 100 years will not be
successful for us in the future. We need to think out of the box and
embrace the MERGING of enterprise principles and broadcast principles. We
MUST change this fixed mindset that it has to be our way. Likewise,
enterprise will need to adjust their mindset from “That is not how it
should be done.” We have a great working relationship with our enterprise team. It takes time to foster that relationship and develop trust between
the departments. It CAN and MUST be done. 

I’m not saying the path is going free of bumps. There will be plenty. Especially over security. Understand each side’s objectives and craft a
plan, together, to operate properly and be secure. 

The post Embrace the Merger of Enterprise and Broadcast appeared first on
Radio World.


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Dont Overlook the Benefits of OTA

Posted: 01 Jun 2022 08:30 AM PDT https://www.radioworld.com/columns-and-views/guest-commentaries/dont-overlook-the-benefits-of-ota


Radio World’s “Guest Commentaries” section provides a platform for industry
thought leaders and other readers to share their perspective on radio news, technological trends and more. If you’d like to contribute a commentary, or reply to an already published piece, send a submission to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The author is a retired broadcast engineer who has been involved with
advancing radio and television throughout his career, including for Qualcomm/MediaFLO, Harris, Nautel and ONEMedia LLC/Sinclair.

There are days when I feel like Ira Wilner, who wrote a piece here in reply
to my commentary about NextGen TV.

Why bother with OTA broadcast? That is the question, isn’t it? But then, several explanations come to mind.
Fred Baumgartner, Radio World guest contributor

OTA is free. It’s hard to beat free. Streaming delivery requires an ISP or wireless data payment. Subscription satellite is needed when one drives
through nowhere. Admittedly, many of us have connectivity in all the places
we want it for other reasons; thus, sometimes it is a “sunk cost” for listeners, but always an additional, buy-it-by-the-bit, per-listener CDN
cost for broadcasters.

OTA is low-friction. It’s hard to be smoother than navigating on-off/volume/tune. 

OTA doesn’t buffer. It does not (and should not on NextGen) require
searching with a browser. Done well, there isn’t even a “channel change” delay. 

Try surfing through the dial on IP. Try scanning for local stations when travelling. I like local. On Sunday nights, I could stream “The Big Broadcast,” WAMU’s longest-running program, which I became addicted to when I commuted east; but I dial up KCFR or KUNC here in Denver instead.
I am that lazy. I hate friction.

And if we don’t have an FCC license, just exactly what are we? Pause and contemplate what we’d be without a signal and those magic call letters.

[Read More Guest Commentaries Here]

Sure, like most SBE-certified engineers, I might be an RF guy, but I am confident there is abundant value in OTA … and it is worth expanding it to
NextGen Broadcast. Even pirates will risk arrest to have an OTA signal.

Our business is selling attention by creating content and delivering it. A
big piece of that delivery is wireless. Today’s content is IP. 5G (eMBMS)
and 3.0 are competing over who will deliver IP broadcast content. The
carriers have momentum with their Radio Access Networks. Broadcasters have momentum with content, sales departments and brand. 5G and 3.0 are designed
to work together. 3.0/UHF is considerably more effective, efficient and
thus more economical for one-to-many delivery to any reasonable numbers of listeners. NextGen is a migration. My simple prediction is that AM/FM
delivery becomes less popular, and streaming and NextGen broadcast delivery will become more popular for radio.

I think it’s a blessing that radio isn’t handcuffed to AM/FM. NextGen Broadcast and streaming distribution aren’t for everyone. For the rest of
us, we might want a relationship with the NextGen broadcast distribution consortiums, and we might want to invest some time and effort as an
industry or as entrepreneurs to develop the NextGen Radio experience and
tools.

The post Don’t Overlook the Benefits of OTA appeared first on Radio World.


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GatesAir Introduces Timing and Reference Generator

Posted: 01 Jun 2022 08:10 AM PDT https://www.radioworld.com/tech-and-gear/products/gatesair-introduces-timing-and-reference-generator


GatesAir has introduced a timing and signal reference solution for
broadcast and telecom uses.

It is intended for any transmission, networking or studio component that requires a timing source. The box can feed the timing source to 12
components.

“The new Maxiva GNSS-PTP is a standalone 1RU solution with a sophisticated switching algorithm that assures high-precision 10 MHz and 1 PPS reference signals to mission-critical components in the signal chain, including transmitters, networking and studio equipment,” the company stated.

Each device feeds up to a dozen 10 MHz and 1 PPS references in a technology infrastructure. “This substantially reduces equipment costs and
installation timelines while providing a single, yet highly redundant,
point of failure for engineers,” it said.


The design includes redundant AC power supplies with battery back-up and diverse timing sources including redundant GNSS receivers. 

Those receivers include OCXO temperature control to prevent frequency
changes, and support major global satellite constellations including GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and QZSS.

[Check Out More Products at Radio World’s Products Section]

Timing sources include a hardware-based PTP module and an external 10 MHz
and 1 PPS reference. Switching control logic ensures reliability and flexibility for selecting the highest priority source as a reference. 

“Support for the Precision Time Protocol v2 (PTP) adds further reliability and flexibility for customers,” the company continued. “Available as a modular option, users can prioritize PTP as a facility’s primary source, or configure PTP as a backup to one of the GNSS receivers.”

The PTP module can function as a master or slave and, same as the unit’s
GNSS receivers, provide reliable timing and frequency reference to 12
external devices.

An integrated web interface allows users to select frequency bands for each GNSS system and configure timing source selection in automatic and manual modes. The interface offers visual aids such as tracking maps and tables, satellite status and signal quality. 

The post GatesAir Introduces Timing and Reference Generator appeared first
on Radio World.


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A Shocking Discovery (Its Not the Mouse)

Posted: 01 Jun 2022 06:56 AM PDT https://www.radioworld.com/columns-and-views/workbench/a-shocking-discovery-its-not-the-mouse


Frank Hertel was called to a customer’s site because a 10 kW FM transmitter had failed and would not restart. 

After powering everything down, Frank looked in the back. The photo shows
the upper right high-voltage (HV) interlock, just inside the door opening. 

This type of interlock is known as a “guillotine,” because when the back door is opened, the sliding fiber rod is supposed to slide back and its attached metal plate drops across the two “acorn nuts,” shorting the high-voltage supply to ground.

The idea is that by shorting the HV supply, if the door is opened while the transmitter is on the air, or if there is any stored energy in the HV
filter capacitors, the energy will be shunted to ground, thus preventing someone from a dangerous or deadly electric shock. It permits working
safely inside the transmitter.  

The picture shows what Frank discovered. The dead mouse in the center of
the assembly was bad, but that’s not what made Frank angry or why we share the photo.


You will see two black zip or cable ties, wrapped around the fiber rod,
near the vertical part of the angle bracket. The two black things at left
are ends of the cable ties that were not cut off; they were left attached
and hanging. 

To be sure, the dead mouse is what initially shorted out the supply and
caused the transmitter to fail. But, Frank writes, defeating the HV
interlock with those cable ties is inexcusable and could have led to
another catastrophe had he not inspected closely.

Certainly, there are times when temporarily defeating the high-voltage protection guillotine might be necessary, such as when you are in the
process of troubleshooting high-voltage circuitry when a choke is arcing to ground, or a wire is arcing. But the transmitter should never be left with
this important safety feature defeated.

The next guy working on the transmitter may not know that this has been defeated and could get nailed by residual high voltage in the filter capacitors. High-power transmitter manufacturers include bleeder resistors
in their designs, which work as a backup to the HV interlock, by slowly bleeding off any residual charge. But bleeder resistors can burn open,
meaning there is no path to ground for this charge (except you!).

Opening a cabinet and finding such an obvious and ill-considered situation
will make any experienced consulting tech cringe (and in Frank’s case get angry) — and then start looking for the next sloppy and dangerous modification. 

Frank’s discovery is a reminder for engineers repairing transmitters to inspect safety equipment carefully. Document what you find and show the
station owner or manager. It demonstrates your conscientiousness and
safety, and it may help justify your hourly rate. What station owner wants
an OSHA investigation and possible lawsuit?  

A brighter note

I don’t imagine Frank was thinking of high-voltage electrocution when he
was in sixth grade and purchased a crystal radio set from Castrup’s Radio Supply for $1.50. 

About a week later, he bought a Raytheon CK722 Germanium transistor for $2. When added to the crystal set, it was possible to drive a speaker through a 50C5 speaker transformer and listen to a station at low volume. 

See the accompanying 1950s schematic for the Germanium radio using the
Superex Vari-Loopstick. “What a great time to grow up,” Frank writes. “The
1950s were great!”


Exterior-Line-Return

Rod Hogg is a retired broadcast engineer in Scott City, Kan. He read our discussions about the wiring of XLR connectors. 

Over 50 years ago when he got into broadcasting, Rod learned that “XLR” connectors were to be wired as (Pin-1) X = eXterior, (Pin 2) L = Line and
(Pin 3) R = Return. Regardless of the colors of wire used, the “XLR” is easy to remember. 

Of course, Ron adds, this only works with three-conductor connectors. These days, the “XLR” can have up to seven connections. Ron doesn’t have a “diddy” to remember that pinout yet.

Workbench submissions are encouraged and qualify for SBE recertification credit. Email johnpbisset@gmail.com.  

The post A Shocking Discovery (It’s Not the Mouse) appeared first on Radio World.


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WideOrbit Introduces Automated Addressable Ad Replacement

Posted: 01 Jun 2022 05:00 AM PDT https://www.radioworld.com/tech-and-gear/products/wideorbit-introduces-automated-addressable-ad-replacement



WideOrbit has announced the latest release of WO Traffic, the company’s broadcast media ad sales and commercial operations platform used by both TV
and radio broadcasters.

The update introduces an addressable ad replacement solution that automates
the replacement of broadcast spots on live streams and enables a single playlist to be sent to both over the air automation and streaming ad
servers. As a result, broadcast spots on the live stream can either achieve extended reach or be replaced with addressable ads, said WideOrbit.

In the press release making the announcement, WideOrbit Chief Product
Officer Will Offeman said, “Over 80% of our customers today are streaming their over-the-air content and addressable ad replacement will make it
easier for them to take full advantage of revenue opportunities on the
stream.

The wording of the press release made clear that TV is a big focus for the addressable ads feature; however, company officials said the majority of
the new WO Traffic features are also relevant to radio broadcasters, including the addressable ad replacement solution. Other features that may benefit radio broadcasters include:

Placer enhancements, including a new Advanced Length Pack option that
allows Placer to rearrange a break to provide for more options in placing
spots
An option to exclude agency commission and/or taxes on individual lines
The Material Instruction Set Report, a new application area for compiling
and analyzing instructions sets across material bundles, advertisers and properties
And the Inventory Analysis Report, a multi-property, analytical inventory summary tool


WO Traffic v22.0 is now available for general release. Learn more on
WideOrbits website.

[Check Out More Products at Radio World’s Products Section]


The post WideOrbit Introduces Automated Addressable Ad Replacement appeared first on Radio World.


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Hey Pay Attention to This!

Posted: 01 Jun 2022 02:00 AM PDT https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/programming-and-sales/hey-pay-attention-to-this


There’s a buzzword gaining traction in the advertising world, and your hip clients are probably already asking your salespeople for perspective. 

Spoiler Alert: Radio does well in providing results for… Attentiveness. Simply put, agencies are asking: Are consumers paying attention to ads? And
how much does this vary by platform?

Familiar concept

There’s an interesting research analysis piece recently released by Cumulus Media / Westwood One Audio Active Group, headlined: “New advertiser and consumer studies on media attentiveness and ad skipping.” I advise catching the highlight video expertly narrated by radio research guru Pierre
Bouvard, chief insights officer for Cumulus. At YouTube, search “media attentiveness.”

As background: I admit being cynical about the developing cottage industry
that tends to present “attentiveness” as something new to be measured and solved. Google launched their attention research in 2015 with a study in Australia to explore attention and ad effectiveness. Many others have since appeared. 

In fact, questions concerning attentiveness probably go back to at least
1704, when ads started appearing in newspapers. The person spending money
has always wanted to know if anyone is paying attention. I once proved this point during a live remote at a car dealer by giving away $5 bills to the
first 20 people who stopped by. You should’ve have seen the crowd and the owner’s expression! 

How important is attentiveness to advertisers and agencies? Bouvard cites a study conducted by Advertiser Perceptions of 300 agencies. It indicates
that two-thirds of those respondents feel attentiveness is important to
measure when deciding media investments. They also rank platforms in terms
of what they feel consumers concentrate on: Social media posting 62%,
Podcasts 60%; Checking news 61% , Watching shows 58%, Checking weather 54%, Watching short video 52%, Checking social media 52%, Listening to music
37%, Listening to AM-FM radio 30%, Ad-supported Spotify 30%, AM-FM
streaming 28% and Ad supported Pandora 25%. (The study doesn’t mention
audio on Apple, YouTube or Amazon.)
From the PDF “rwm-promo Media-Attentiveness-and-Ad-Skipping-Report_WWO.”

From the IAB consumer study: Similar results as above, with one extremely glaring difference: Social media has some of the lowest scores regarding attentiveness. 

To reiterate: Advertisers believe consumers concentrate most on social
media, podcasts, news, TV shows, and weather, but in reality news, weather
and podcasts have the strongest consumer concentration, while social media ranks last.

A Maru/Matchbox study concentrating more on consumer audio indicates that attentiveness to podcasting and AM-FM radio is the audio winner over
Spotify and Pandora. Regarding ad skipping, this study shows that skipping happens the most with digital ads — pop-ups, banner ads, social media and online video. 

The ads consumers skip the least? Traditional media: AM-FM, podcasts and
print. Maybe because they can’t for the most part? 


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