Recently, I heard someone who controls a very sizable media budget declare: “Radio is a dead medium!” He has moved all his ad dollars to other avenues…Radio gets $0. Period.

Is Radio dead?

Since leaving my management position in Radio a number of years ago, I must confess my Radio listening has declined dramatically. From listening almost constantly, I now listen to Radio…not at all. This was initially shocking to me — someone who was steeped in the magic of Radio since I was a pre-teen now moving into the ranks of a non-listener.

Inquiring of friends who are not in the industry elicits much the same response: little to no listening to Radio. Has Radio lost much of its audience? Could be.

What I know for certain is Radio people don’t use the medium the way “average” listeners do. And that could be the reason a growing number of people have abandoned Radio.

Don’t get me wrong. I still love Radio. It’s just that Radio is no longer the center of my life. I’ve become “normal”, and that could be the key.

It would be ideal if everyone working in Radio was able to take a year off. Get away from the day-to-day grind and start listening like a “regular” listener. I suspect the revelation would be profound. And the result could be a re-invigoration of Radio that would boost the medium far into the new century.

I ask again: is Radio dead?

The problem with being dead is that you don’t know you are. I hope Radio is not in that situation. But ultimately it depends on the listeners. And if they’ve decided Radio is no longer vital to their everyday lives, the medium I’ve loved for over a half century is in real trouble.

Almost every advertiser I’ve known possessed little to no idea of how to measure the success of his ad investment. If you were to ask most advertisers how many responses are required to make their ad campaign profitable, the answer would most likely be: “A lot!”

Yet, there are a few analytically-minded retailers who think they have a good idea how many responses are needed to achieve their sales goals. Unfortunately, the number they come up with is usually off by at least an order of magnitude.

One car dealer we worked with described a successful ad campaign as pulling in “400 to 500 people” per week. When those numbers did not materialize, he determined the campaign a failure and chalked up the deficiency as being the fault of…you guessed it: Radio!

Yet a little work with the Return On Investment Calculator demonstrated that not only were his expectations too high, but the message he was conveying was not worthy of a response.

For the purposes of this post, we’ll say our car dealer was willing to spend $8,000 per week. He would like a 7% return on his investment — in other words, he would like enough sales to recover his $8,000 plus make an additional $560 to boot. His profit margin was 5% and his average sale for a new vehicle was $15,500. He also closed 1 out of every 5 prospects.

With all this information, and the cume of our small station (49,500 people per week), the calculator determined that only 55.2 people needed to respond to his message in order for him to close 11.05 of them. This would let him garner gross sales of $171,200 and recover all his investment plus make the extra $560. The 55.2 people worked out to be 0.111616 percent of the cume (slightly over a tenth of a percent).

So the station’s question to him was: “When our 49,500 listeners hear your message, will 56 of them find it compelling enough to respond?”

To his credit, the auto dealer recognized his message fell short of being compelling. We were able to work with him to devise a message the stood out, and actually exceeded the response he needed to hit his goal. After this, he became one of the best clients on our station.

The bottom line: it does not take thousands or even hundreds of listeners to respond to an advertiser’s message. It only requires a schedule sufficient to reach the cume and a message worthy of generating a response. The actual numbers needed might surprise even you.

My wife, partner, and friend of 40 years, Delena “Dee” Kelley, was laid to rest today.

We met 41 years ago — November 25, 1970 — and I have cherished every moment of our time together, even when we occasionally disagreed on topics large and small. When Delena was diagnosed with liver disease in early October, we had no idea of the severity of her affliction. By the end of October, both of us understood that her remaining time was short. She passed away Tuesday morning, November 22nd. And the world will never be quite the same without her.

For over 20 years, we worked side-by-side in a series of Radio stations, from small FM’s to multi-station markets. Thanks to Delena’s skill at organizing and training sales staffs, as well as creating exceptional promotions, our stations blossomed. Along the way, we worked with scores of very talented Radio people. Unfortunately, Delena did not get a chance to realize how profound was her influence on those she helped train. Many of those she mentored have gone on to successful careers both in and out of Radio. I consider their achievements to be the greatest tribute to Delena’s training and motivational skills.

One of those who benefited most from Delena’s guidance and instruction was our daughter, Carrie. She grew up in Radio, performing every job from board operator to top salesperson. Carrie went on to excel in sales for Clear Channel and CBS before leaving Radio for other pursuits. Both Carrie and I feel Delena’s loss deeply.

Delena’s name will not appear on the pages of Radio Ink, be noted by the media “movers and shakers”, or be listed in the Radio Hall of Fame. But her legacy will live on in those whom she trained, and with her husband who will carry her in his heart for the remainder of his days.

Goodbye, Delena. I love you so.