I trust everyone had a stellar Canada Day weekend and now for those of us who aren’t on vacation it’s back to the grind. I reminded myself while listening to the radio over the weekend that our stations are in the marketing business. Music, of course, is our main product, but we are also in the business of connecting advertisers with potential customers. Advertisers want the best possible return from their advertising investment. They want as many people as possible to hear their commercials. It used to be that so-called “prime time” could be defined; breakfast time for radio and suppertime/early evening for television. But that was when the marketing rulebook was written back in the mid-20th century. Back then nuclear families convened at regularly scheduled times. Today, things are different. Just take a peek at the lifestyle and schedule of an average family on a given day. Prime time is no longer a time of day but rather a frame of mind. It’s when you can make some time to tune in and your body and mind are relaxed to the point that you are open to receiving “the message”. For radio, that would probably mostly be when you are in your vehicle. For tv it’s hard to say because it’s so easy to record and watch at your convenience. Statistically around 90% of Canadians tune in to radio during the week. The highest listening hours are still early morning because we’ve been sleeping and want to find out information important to us as we start the day, not to mention upbeat music. However, after 9am there’s still a steady audience without too many peaks or valleys right through till 6pm. At risk of being pretentious, maybe we should dust off an old slogan used in the 1960’s by the top-rated Toronto radio station which went, “on this station, ALL time is prime!”.
That’s Coffeetalk. I’m Vic Dubois.