Radio talks about ratings and revenue growth like it’s a strategy. But it’s not. It’s measurement. It’s an outcome. And making it more difficult is trying to grow ratings and revenue with the same playbook.
- Add another Power to the hour
- Move stopsets
- Add a noon feature or morning benchmark
- Add a few crossover records
All good, but none are bunker busters. Growth is a great goal — but it can be unattainable if the definition is wrong or the tools are outdated.
We know this cliché. But radio competes with everything now. Most “growth strategies” still measure on radio’s home turf terms: ratings, PUMM (People Using Measured Media), budgets — all governed by Nielsen. So where is home turf growth actually supposed to come from?
Ratings? There are only 100 shares. Even iconic brands like WMMR and KROQ have ceilings. It’s mathematically impossible for them to grow forever.
Revenue? PUMM drives spot rates. PUMM has been declining for years. That’s not a programming problem; that’s a reality problem.
Budgets? Year-over-year growth targets still base on the old PUMM world. That old world isn’t fully coming back.
Nielsen? Even if they tweak QH thresholds again and PUMM bumps up, advertisers aren’t going to accept double the rate for the same product. That ship sailed.
The Vicious Circle Radio Keeps Running
It’s a vicious circle. Trying to grow, but the traditional metrics don’t bring a clear path. We can argue that any brand has potential to grow its audience and revenue, but the reality without massive changes is that, for the short term, growth shouldn’t mean “bigger.” Growth must mean “stickier”, that is what can grow the bottom line “bigger.”
Growth becomes: more loyalty, more frequency, more measurable results for advertisers, more reasons to choose your brand over everything else competing for attention. 2026 growth is about growing audience love, not audience size. And that love will spread to advertisers.
There are some bright spots. Digital revenue is rising. And while we know digital is the future, it’s still more like a weekend gig at Lyft. Helpful, but not enough to truly offset traditional declines.
So let’s revisit growth — not with fingers crossed that a rotation tweak or stopset dance move will lift a .1 to .2. Sure, always strive for that, but let’s approach growth with the “stickier” definition in mind.
Redefining Growth — Revenue and Ratings Edition
If traditional revenue based on PUMM or radio vs. radio isn’t likely to surpass historical highs, the real opportunity is end results. The stickier a brand is, the better the results will be. Radio can’t just be a static menu of ad slots, bland voicetrackers, or band features where the chef refuses to cook to order. Our new definition requires thinking like a business owner and customer, as well as a programmer.
Examples:
If your favorite specialty weekends or morning show benchmarks are unsold, maybe they’re not great menu items — or they didn’t deliver the first time around.
Stopsets are like the Cheesecake Factory menu, overwhelming and exhausting. No business wants their ad buried in the middle of an 8-minute, 15-unit barrage. Yet the industry continues to message-dump so it can dance better with Nielsen. Remember the vicious circle above? That’s not making anything stickier — it’s actually hurting the two most important things: audience and advertisers.
Like revenue, traditional local cume may never return to historical highs. So the strategy needs to focus on loyalty, the McDonald’s model. Ronald and Grimace have trended up the past few years not by finding new customers, but by getting the same customers to come back more often (and sometimes spend more).
Radio can do the same by:
- Listening to listeners
- Keeping it fresh
- Programming to people, not the blue book
- Killing “best practices” that can kill a better experience
- Being as present on social as on the air
None of this is radical. I could list a dozen other points.
Old-school blocking and tackling still matters. Home turf metrics still factor (for now). But real growth requires a reset in how we define and measure it. Stickier, not bigger.
Because the path out of the vast media and audio forest isn’t squeezing out an extra tenth or sneaking in an extra spot. And it’s not a home-turf war anymore.
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Keith Cunningham is a music industry and Rock/Alternative columnist for Barrett Media and the founder of Black Box Group, a modern-modeled creative & strategic consultancy built for brands that need strategies with teeth. He’s the former Master of Mayhem at 95.5 KLOS-FM in Los Angeles for over a decade, a nationwide consultant, and has been repeatedly voted one of America’s top Program Directors and strategic thinkers. Keith has built his career by taking multi-million-dollar brands from worst to first and leading Marconi & Gracie award winners along the way. A data nerd with a rock-and-roll heart, he is an advisory council member for St. Jude fundraising, a fantasy football champion, and lover of his daughters & dogs. Reach him at keithblackboxgroup@gmail.com or on LinkedIn or X.
