Radio CEOs Talk Advertising Slump, AI
The radio industry is experiencing a drop in advertising due to macroeconomic issues and uncertainty about future interest rates, said a panel of radio CEOs at the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters. Marketing budgets are among the first things…
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to be slashed when a company wants to cut costs, said iHeart Media CEO Robert Pittman. Radio groups need to “become more in tune with how people buy advertising now” and provide consumer data in the way digital companies do, he said. Any business that's affected by interest rates isn’t buying ads at the moment, said David Kantor, Urban One CEO-Radio Division and Reach Media. Perry Publishing and Broadcasting CEO Kevin Perry said increasing audience fragmentation and competition from other sources of audio content are exacerbating the problem. The advertising slump was the result of a “perfect storm” of circumstances, said Beasley Media CEO Caroline Beasley. When advertising budgets are limited due to “a teetering economy,” radio stations that serve minority populations have a harder time getting ad dollars, Perry said. Pittman said he believes the industry will see an improvement in Q4. Beasley, Pittman and Kantor said the radio industry should embrace AI. AI technology could eventually replace radio ad sellers and agency ad buyers, with customers using algorithms to calculate optimal ad buys, Kantor said. Companies that don’t use AI “will be left behind,” Beasley said. IHeart is unlikely to use AI to replace on-air talent but could use it to provide services that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive, such as translating podcasts into other languages, Pittman said. Perry, whose company is much smaller than the other three, said radio should instead embrace its connection to listeners and local businesses. “We’re in the people business,” he said.