Three Trends Impacting Radio

Randy Lane • April 4, 2022

TREND 1: AFTERNOON IS THE NEW MORNING

Talent has become radio’s greatest distinguisher against market competitors and in the expanding audio space. In less than a year, personality-driven afternoon shows are popping up all over North America.

Personality afternoon teams started back in the 80s with  Steve Dahl  and  Gary Meier  at WLS-FM Chicago. In the late 90s,  Ryan Seacrest  and  Lisa Foxx  made an impact in Los Angeles with their afternoon drive show at Star 98.7.

Today Los Angeles has two:  Booker & Stryker  Alt 98.7 and  Sluggo and Kevin  KLOS. New York : Maxwell & Crystal  Z100. Chicago:  McCabe & Jenny  WTMX (starting April 18), Philadelphia:  Bex & Buster  Q102, Seattle:  Julian on the Radio Star  101.5, and Calgary:  Marc & Millions  Jack 96.9.

There are established personality brands in the afternoon in Toronto  Daryn Jones  Kiss-FM, Minneapolis  Staci & Hutch  KS95, Vancouver  Tara Jean  Kiss-FM, and Cincinnati  Freddy Mac & Nat .

The afternoon cume is equal to or greater than mornings in most markets. These shows are increasing audience engagement, adding brand depth, and delivering more listeners to their radio stations.

TREND 2: ON-DEMAND CONTENT/PODCASTING

Radio is finally joining television and podcasting making content available 24/7. Many personality shows are posting their highlight clips, features/benchmarks, and full shows online.

In addition to audio, progressive brands like  The Bert Show  and  The KVJ Show  West Palm Beach post  video  clips of their content.

Many personalities expand their digital footprint with passion podcasts that range from topics like wrestling, moms, whiskey business, etc.  KVJ’s After the Show  podcast of original content gets over 700,000 downloads monthly!

TREND 3: VISUALIZE YOUR SHOW

The majority of time spent online is watching videos. Listeners today not only want to hear you, but they also want to see you.

At the least, most shows are creating a video presence through Facebook and Instagram Live. Taking advantage of multiple video platforms exposes your show to potential new radio listeners. Additionally, Video humanizes talent by allowing people to see you with your facial expressions and body language.

As a way to deepen your personality brand, we encourage talent to post videos of show activities and personal videos. Since the pandemic, streaming the entire show has become a growing trend. Most shows stream live content segments, and they use graphics (with teases and promotional information, etc.) during commercials and music.

Photo by Ilya Chunin on Unsplash

Share this article

Recent Posts

By Randy Lane • September 29, 2026
When I start coaching a show, talents often say:“Nobody calls anymore.” Or: “Listeners in this market don’t call radio shows.” My response is, “That’s interesting, because several of our shows get more calls than they need.” The difference isn’t necessarily the market. It’s often how the show invites people into the conversation.  Airing callers and text […]
By Randy Lane • September 21, 2026
Jerry Seinfeld wrote every episode of Seinfeld longhand, on a yellow legal pad, with a blue Bic pen. He still writes that way. He’s said the flashing cursor on a screen makes him anxious, like it’s asking, “So, whaddaya got?” Why Start With Pen and Paper?Writing by hand slows you down just enough for ideas to […]
By Randy Lane • September 15, 2026
In the era of loud, fast-talking announcer DJs, my radio mentor, Todd Wallace, asked my fellow DJs and me, “Would you talk to your neighbor over the back fence like a pukey DJ or just in natural conversation?” Of course we all said we’d talk to them conversationally. Todd concluded, “Talk to listeners on air like […]
Show More