Radio referents as a strategy to build audience loyalty in Spanish generalist channels: no generational replacement?

Abstract

Radio has just celebrated its 100th anniversary in Spain at a crossroads: to maintain loyal listeners, an increasingly aging target, and to open its market to young audiences, whose media diet is based on the consumption of information and entertainment content through digital platforms. This duality forces it to redefine its business model, practically immobile in the programmatic offer, but constantly forced to adapt to the new opportunities offered by digital technology. This study focuses on the analysis of the effect on radio audiences caused by the main strategic movements of “star” presenters and broadcasters during the last decade (2014-2024). The results show that these journalistic references generally achieve the transfer of listeners to their programs, while the grids do not change or innovate in formats, causing the penetration rate of the medium among the younger generations to stagnate. The conclusions point to the fact that current Spanish radio continues to exploit the personalism of the hosts known to the public, without introducing new program formats or taking full advantage of the technological possibilities to capture new market niches. In the long term, the lack of internal transformation in the radio company at all levels could lead to a lack of generational change in the audiences and even in their professional staffs.