Join us as Sean Ross, the renowned writer and editor behind "Ross on Radio," explores the radio industry’s path to thriving in 2025.

Just in time for his annual Intriguing Stations column, discover how standout radio brands are redefining success with creative formats and localized engagement, from bilingual classics in Miami to innovative listener promotions worldwide.

Sean also dives into the resurgence of mass-appeal formats like Top 40 and Country, strategies for fostering deeper community connections, and the role of AI in production and content creation.

Sean shares actionable insights for broadcasters to extend in-car listening, leverage video content, and reimagine the audience experience. With practical advice and global examples, this episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to stay ahead in the ever-evolving radio landscape. Tune in to gain new perspectives on what it takes to thrive in 2025 and beyond.

Sean's INTRIGUING observations and concepts you'll want to discuss with your team!

• The resurgence of mass-appeal formats like Top 40 and Country.
• Creative ways stations are fostering deeper local connections.
• Strategies for balancing traditional audio strengths with the rise of video and streaming platforms.
• The impact of AI on radio production and content creation.
• Spotlighting standout stations making waves in 2024 and 2025.

One Minute Martinizing - Timing (read here)

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My first advice to people is still to get the primary usage right. Turn those nine minutes in the car into 20 minutes, 30 minutes. Make the listeners sit in the car.

Until you're done with that the driveway moment. Right.

Brand with On Demand rebooting radio with a different take on all radio can be.

I think we've spent a lot of time trying to teach a robot to say, text the national keyboard and we would be better off spending that time with our staffs, even if it's just to get better voice tracking from the person who's voice tracking seven stations a day and not getting any coaching and sending something generic.

Now your guides through the mediamorphosis, David Martin and author of the book Brand with media branding coach Kipper Magee.

Well, this time we're excited to welcome a true legendary forecaster who specializes in radio and music trends.

He's the voice behind the very popular Ross on Radio column, a must read for anyone who loves radio, works in radio, has ever even been been in radio, or even complained about what's on the radio. Sean Ross is back to share his take on everything from niche formats to AI. Spoiler alert. It's not coming for your job yet.

And of course, we'll dive into what radio has to do to stay alive in 25. Bramwood on demand is proud to welcome back the writer and editor of Ross on Radio, which you can find on Radio insight, Sean Ross. Hey, Sean.

Hey, Sean. Welcome.

Thank you.

Gentlemen, the year can officially start now.

Yes, that we're having this conversation and.

Yeah, it's been a gratifying year. The biggest formats are big box formats.

Like classic hits like mainstream AC. It was gratifying to see Top 40 have better music and start to make a comeback.

It's gratifying to see country finally, the numbers for country stations finally catch up.

Oh, yeah.

With the excitement about current country music, I think going forward, a lot of formats that got split over the last couple of decades probably have a better chance if they converge again. Adult contemporary and hot, ac active and alternative.

You know, in a lot of places there seems to be an opportunity for one station that plays current rock as.

Opposed to two formats each with a.

Two and a half share. And if you look at a station like the point in St. Louis or the alternative station in Pittsburgh, the X that can Cover both franchises.

That's where you see current based rock radio doing well. And yeah, sometimes what's niche and what's mass appeal blends together.

The biggest, most copied radio station of the last year is magic93.9 in Miami, which is English language classic hits and Spanish language jocks. That seems very niche. But in, in Miami it's massive and it's being copied all over the country. And New York just got a station98.7 emesis station.

Yup.

Now exitos98.7 doing some version of that.

Well, Sean, you've highlighted a renewed focus on local content. What strategies are working for stations trying to foster deeper connections in their communities?

I think you foster a connection break by break. I still don't hear a lot of jock breaks that give me any kind of sense of place when we want to mention local geography.

Now a lot of stations are doing it with a sweeper.

Yeah.

Because there is not somebody to say it's 50 in Toledo, 52 in Detroit and 51 in CKLW.

Right.

And in a week like this with Los Angeles or last fall with Asheville that we're reminded that radio is the emergency information franchise.

But what if we were that every day?

What if we were the local information franchise? Every.

Yes.

Not Facebook, not social media.

And to your point, in places like LA right now, a lot of people can't get to anything that needs an Internet because they just don't have it. And radio in LA is becoming their life support system because at least they can plug into that with batteries and still get the information.

And I asked this after Asheville and I'll ask it again. How do we take back that franchise in happier times?

And on that point you've also noted that listener interaction seems more critical than it ever has, especially now that we're trying to fight against streams and satellites and really even voice track stations.

What are some of the most innovative ways that you've seen stations now engaging their audiences not just in disaster times, but really in those happier times you're talking about?

I don't think it has to be creative necessarily. And again, it's break by break in Canada. In the uk, topics are generally a part of every hour.

And some of them are trifling, some of them are still favorite cookie or.

You know, should pineapple be a pizza topping? So some of it again is just.

Getting listener voices back on the air, getting listener names and businesses back on the air.

But some of it's bringing back showmanship and local promotions. One of my favorite promotions, it's A couple of years old now is a woman named Lauren Hunter who.

Who was at the alternative station in Edmonton where Nathan Fillion, the TV actor, is from. And she got city hall to rename itself for the day as the Nathan Fillion Civilian Pavilion.

That's great.

And it became an international news store.

So just putting some of that stunting back, I think makes a difference. Tim Bronsel of Point to Point Marketing is a good friend of the column.

He recently wrote an article which you can see on their website about the importance of customized station video in radio station marketing. Tim think thinks that a moderate video campaign is as effective as the old TV blitzes used to be. Although I'd like to see somebody do a TV blitz too.

Yeah. Well, I must say the BBC radio holds a clinic daily on how to involve listeners on their channels.

I mean, all you need to do is Tune In Radio 2 and every single hour there integrating listeners into the their music stations.

To that point, Radio 2 is why you hear topics even on capital and in Canada. Now radio in Edmonton, which was inspired by Radio 2 has influenced the whole country and you hear a lot more listener interaction.

Yeah. As we enter 25, how can radio adapt and thrive alongside streaming and digital platforms?

Sean, particularly with the rise of video podcasting and the challenges of maintaining audio's unique strengths in an increasingly visual world. What do you think of that?

Dan Mason, then president of CBS Radio, has been telling radio broadcasters to make their station, a TV station for 15 years.

We're having this conversation in early January and we don't know what the Future holds for TikTok, but there is certainly an opportunity for radio to pick up some of the listener video usage from Tik Tok. There is room for radio to extend what it does by creating more of their own video.

And that's not just, you know, that's not just wacky dance challenges. That's. Here are the new songs we've added this week. And turn me to the other point.

In terms of what radio can do to thrive overall and compete in an increasingly video world, my first advice to people is still to get the primary usage right. Turn those nine minutes in the car into 20 minutes, 30 minutes. Make the listeners sit in the car.

Until you're done with that break the driveway moment. Right.

You know, we need our driveway moments.

And again, the basics.

Talk about their town, introduce a great new song, play something they haven't heard in a while, make them smile, make them look at the radio and chuckle.

Yep. Don't forget the main channel.

Right.

And you know, and don't play a stop set that's longer than the average listening you occasion.

Okay, good point. Blasphemous as it may seem, that is a very solid point. Also something you don't hear in other countries, I might add.

You know, if you listen to Capital FM, every British radio station is pretty much stopped between 56 and O2. 4 minutes of spots, 2 minutes of news when I do monitors of UK stations and it's not that much more music.

But the commercials are better still, they're being broadcast on a viable digital tier instead of making people go to satellite radio for niche formats if somebody wants one and they're still marketed and you go to London and you still hear radio and the Uber most of the time.

Yeah, you do. Yeah, you do.

So, Sean, the 800 ton automated gorilla AI is kind of all up in production, content creation in some places, even voicing so now like it's going to solve everything.

But really, are stations onto something legit here or is this just another tech hustle that's going to leave everyone kind of baffled and eventually bummed out? What's going to happen with AI, Sean?

I think the best uses of it are for the back end. I think we've spent a lot of time over the last two years trying to teach a robot to say text the national keyword.

And you know, we would be better off spending that time with our staffs.

Even if it's just to get better voice tracking from the person who's voice tracking seven stations a day and not getting any coaching and sending you something generic. Why not put the effort into that person? Why not put the effort into into the high school radio person who still comes by your station?

Hear, hear. Yes, we're with the writer and editor of Ross on Radio, which you can find at Radio Insight.

Know someone we should interview or a topic we ought to cover? Well, let us know. Email your suggestions to show@brandwithondemand.com or reach out on Social Brand with Plus on Instagram, Facebook and X.

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Yeah, we have a lot going on, multiple stations and formats. We really need to bundle them all. Yeah, that's. That sounds really good.

Who are you talking to?

Yeah, I'd like that. It's Dave from Music Master.

Dave from Music Master at two in the morning? Who is this?

I told you, it's Dave from Music Master.

Dave from Music Master, huh? What are you wearing?

Huh?

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Intriguing stations is the big issue every year.

A lot of the stations that I could write about this year are the stations I wrote about last year because a lot of them are still influential or successful like Bilingual AC in Miami.

Or the adult R and B stations.

In Tampa and Orlando. Know had a great year last year and they're still among our biggest success stories.

So I think there'll be something about.

The resurgence of top 40.

I think they'll be something about which.

Country stations are the biggest part of the format comeback.

And you know, we will obviously talk about Asheville because you know, that was.

Clearly the, the, you know, for the wrong reasons. The most riveting radio of the year.

All right, I think you've crushed it again, Sean. Yeah. Our thanks to writer and editor of Ross on Radio, which you can find on Radio Insight, Sean Ross.

We have links to Sean's Ross on Radio columns and more all in the show notes. Just scroll, scroll down on your phone.

We would like to thank our executive producer Cindy Huber for getting all things together and our associate producer Hannah B. Who helps with booking and coming up next.

Right now you're listening to Kipper McGee and Dave Martin on Brand with I'm Valerie Geller inviting you to join the next edition if you're interested in becoming becoming a more powerful communicator, a more powerful storyteller and acing it in the brave new world of digital media. I hope you'll join us brand with next edition.

That's a wrap, Kipper. It's all about timing. We'll talk about it one minute. Martinizing find it in the show notes@brandwithondemand.com I'm Dave Martin.

And I'm Kipper McGee. May all your brand with be wide.