Paul, just a quick update to the recent story “Kamping With Andy.”
Since we last spoke, the KZE Kamper has taken off like a rocket ship. I’ve spent the last 13 weekends recording shows, and now the bookings are bleeding into the weeknights. It’s growing so fast that we are going to need a second vehicle.
The summer shows have exponentially grown WKZE’s listener numbers and audience engagement. Just pointing out that while all the radio people sit back and complain about the decline of relevance of radio, I think we found something here that not only keeps radio relevant but can actually help it grow.
The key is getting the artists excited. Once they find out you can capture the show, they tell the venue to give you the advertising. The venue loves it because it helps with the ticket sales. The fans love it because it gives them a new way to hear their favorite artists and “alternative” versions of the songs. That’s what Gen-Z wants. It’s cool and unique.
Here’s where the relevance piece comes in.
Unlike podcasting or streaming, FM can serve a scaled audience with no theoretical receive limitation. There’s no cost to listen.
So WKZE is providing the market with a free way to engage with local music going back to radio basics. And when you throw in the street tram and marketing it becomes visible.
It’s returning listeners to the dial … and the listeners are younger.
We did an event last week with a band whose core audience was 18–28. They made it a “listening event” on social, which got the younger crowd to tune in. I’ve been getting emails all week “I never listened to the radio before, but now I can’t stop listening because I’m hearing all this cool new music and you’re playing all my favorite local bands.”
I’ve also been shooting video at every show, which has been juicing the digital and social numbers.
I’m not saying we’ve cracked the code, but we’re getting close to it.
Revenue is coming in from:
The artist
The promoter
The venue
The advertiser
The digital SEO
And…
The visual sponsors. I’ve got two company logos on the trailer right now with a third one coming in. They’re paying for signage, since the truck HAS to be next to the stage for the event. So it’s in all the social media posts with photos taken by fans. So now the station has a fan club.
Pretty cool right?
All that to say… I don’t want to hear anyone say “radio is dead” when we clearly have discovered a new way to grow a new audience and demo down, using the same basic FM fundamentals that have worked for 70 years.
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