Hacks has become one of my favorite shows in recent years. I think it’s insanely funny. If you aren’t watching, you should, especially if you’re in radio, because this past season featured a storyline about older talent and aging audiences that is worth considering.
In the show, Deborah (an aging comedian based on Joan Rivers) is up for a job hosting a late-night talk show. Initially, the network wants to hire a hot young actor, who is popular with people in their 20s and 30s. Deborah’s agent fights back, arguing that his client being in her 70s should be viewed as an asset, not a problem. After all, she’s a vibrant entertainer and people in their 70s are the ones watching late-night TV anyway. Wouldn’t that be a more attractive option rather than chasing an audience that is never going to sit down and watch the show anyway?
As I look at the BSM jobs page, I see openings all over the country. Houston, Pittsburgh, Nashville and Kansas City all need hosts. I know a lot of those programmers and I am sure they are going to try to make an impact. They are hoping to find someone who can be a centerpiece of their lineup for years to come, but who are they trying to satisfy with the hire?
I have harped on this a lot in recent weeks. Terrestrial media is not popular with young people. They come to watch games, but they are never going to organize their day around a station or network’s lineup the way people did in the 90s and early 2000s. It’s important to find ways to appeal to them, but it’s more important to serve the audience we still have.
These searches will go on for a bit and history tells us that some talented people are going to be passed over because they are on the wrong side of 40 or 50. It won’t be explicitly stated, but when they ask what they can do better the next time, the decision-makers will tell them that they need to be more social media savvy or more creative in the way they create content. History also tells us that even if these men and women work on those things, they will get the same result next time.
Why not take the lesson from Hacks to heart? Who is listening to sports radio? Shouldn’t we at least consider catering to their tastes when making these hires?
Radio isn’t alone. Media of all types are at a crossroads and trying to figure out what the right moves are. Not every company is acting like the big radio companies, but many are. That means you need to have a plan for tomorrow while not losing any ground today. It’s a very small needle to thread.
I used to work with a guy that was in his early 40s. He was so fed up with this kind of thinking from companies that he decided all that mattered was being entertaining. He was being paid for what he did on the radio, so he was going to focus on the radio show. Anything else was not worth his time.
His approach wasn’t right, but it also wasn’t entirely wrong. Talent rarely get bonuses from their social media engagement. The big 3 radio companies say all the right things, but if a host’s ratings are in the toilet, the number of followers or downloads he has will not save his job.
The audiences on various social media platforms are aging just like everyone else. People in their late 40s and 50s may not spend as long on these platforms as younger audiences do every day, but they are very much there. My 73-year-old mom has a TikTok account now! She isn’t looking for young creators or creators her age. She’s just looking for videos that excite her.
Entertainment matters more than anything else. It’s how we engage an audience and keep them coming back over and over, so if you get a demo from someone who makes you laugh and makes you think, why does their age matter?
Now, where my colleague had it wrong is that digital engagement is not meaningless. Cultivating a loyal audience online is the best chance a talent has to become a favorite of the station’s sales staff. If you’ve ever been to a BSM Summit, you’ve heard at least one national ad buyer talk about how appealing motivated audiences are when they are looking for endorsers.
The age of your audience is not solely determined by the age of the creator. If you want to find a new audience though, it’s important to find ways to put your content where new audiences are. Aging talent can win over younger fans if the content is good.
I’m not advocating for shutting out young people. I see the appeal of pairing someone like John Lopez with a twenty-something in Houston or finding a single, childless foil to Bob Fescoe to create balance and conflict in the morning in Kansas City. I just think it’s shortsighted to say that is the pond where you have to cast your line.
Great talent gets better with age. Their voice becomes clearer, and they didn’t come up in an era when being the subject of a tweet from Freezing Cold Takes is the worst thing in the world. They have cultivated their audience. If that audience is the one that still values radio and is likely to be influenced by what they hear, isn’t that more valuable than 20 or 50 thousand followers that may never actually see their content?
To me, that is the part that is so confusing about prioritizing talent that came of age in the social media era during your search. They can work so hard to win over fans who love sports and fans who just casually follow storylines and teams, but if algorithms change, it’s all for naught.
I wouldn’t want my talent’s single greatest strength to be in an area where they have no actual control. Aging talent is so often treated like a cartoon donkey. Companies dangle a carrot in front of them that they will never actually be able to get. Let’s knock that off and open searches up for real. It’s the only way to be sure a programmer is really finding the person who is going to make their brand better.
Demetri Ravanos is a columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. He is also the creator of The Sports Podcast Festival, and a previous host on the Chewing Clock and Media Noise podcasts. He occasionally fills in on stations across the Carolinas in addition to hosting Panthers and College Football podcasts. His radio resume includes stops at WAVH and WZEW in Mobile, AL, WBPT in Birmingham, AL and WBBB, WPTK and WDNC in Raleigh, NC.
You can find him on Twitter @DemetriRavanos or reach him by email at DemetriTheGreek@gmail.com.
