Case Study $($Radio Programming$)$

You are program director of an FM station with an oldies format in a medium market in the Southwest.

The station adopted the format $15$ years ago and has faced no format competition.

The total audience numbers have remained fairly consistent. Regularly, you place among the top ten stations in the $20-$station market among persons aged $12+.$

However, your audience has been aging. And that is having a negative impact on your appeal to ad agencies, whose primary demo is persons aged $25$ to $54.$

That demo dropped from $71$ percent of your audience in $1998$ to $68$ per$-$ cent in $2001.$ Today, it is down to just $60$ percent and will continue to fall. Simultaneously, your aged $55+$ audience is increasing. It has gone from $21$ percent in $1998$ to $32$ percent and will keep on growing.

General manager Dan Smith has called you to a meeting. General sales manager Mary Reece also will attend. Dan is reacting to an inquiry from your group$$s regional manager, who is concerned about the decline in agency buys on the station. Mary has a similar concern. The goal of the meeting is to develop a plan of action.

Dan has concluded that there are three options: $(1)$ change the format to appeal to a younger demo already targeted by one or more stations in the market; $(2)$ adjust the current format to try to retain current listeners and attract new listeners from a younger demo; $(3)$ try to sell your older demos to agencies.