Inside Music MediaJerry Del Colliano

This is bad news for radio if you can get over the notion that Millennials do not like to listen to radio even when they do.

Think about it.

Cars are expensive ($30,000 on average).

And that’s without fuel.

And insurance.

And that’s for a generation (80 million strong and coming of age now) that has been screwed by corporate America – yes, companies like Clear Channel and Cumulus among many others.

Now, the payback.

Broadcasters don’t know jack about Millennials – nor do they appear to care.  To them, radio is a monopoly game of buying and selling, debt and refinancing debt.  It’s not about offering an innovative product.

For innovation, they look to Netflix (full disclosure:  I own Netflix and Google stock).

There are many misconceptions about Millennials most of which had better get straightened out fast.

Truth is, they are civic-minded.

They don’t see color or sexual preference.

They don’t much like bragging.  Instead they favor authenticity.

Oops, radio’s already in trouble.

Listen to a radio station and hear all the bragging.  Not cool.

They love outrageous personalities but they want them to have talent.

But it’s not all roses for Gen Y.

Millennials who use social media such as Facebook tend to be unhappier than those who do not.  It may be a Facebook thing – bragging about yourself as most do on Facebook affects their social community.  It’s a growing problem.

They don’t listen to songs all the way through – something I want to discuss some more because, well – radio programming is built under the assumption that listeners at least are going to stick around for a song they like and then tune out for commercials or tune away when they hear a song they don’t like.

It’s no longer true.

This is major and all radio can do is talk about music sweeps.

Heck, young listeners don’t stay around for even one song.

Ask a Millennial.  Better yet, observe them.

I’ve got some solutions for this one so we should kick them around together.

Back to not liking to drive cars.

There goes your vaunted digital dashboard.

Gen Y likes public transit – it’s cheap and they can text and search online at will.

These are only problems if they are not understood.

Otherwise, I consider them opportunities I intend to discuss in Philly at my next Media Solutions Conference.

Discover Jerry’s 2014 Media Conference