One of the fun aspects of writing for Radio Survivor as we enter a new decade is that our efforts have become more idiosyncratic. When we first started the site in 2009, I think we sort of envisioned it as a radio news site, but one with a decidedly non-commercial focus. An early motto offered by Matthew Lasar, “not the voice of the industry,” illustrates this emphasis on community and college radio, alongside the quirkier and independent commercial operations.
As the last decade wore on, the newsiness of Radio Survivor declined. Speaking only for myself, I can say that the daily or weekly grind of keeping up on stories for the sake of writing about them got old. On the one hand, it was exciting to document the roll out of the largest expansion of community radio in history every week from December 2013 to July 2016, but few other topics were quite as alluring for me to dedicate such weekly time and attention. Instead, I gradually chose to follow my muse, writing from the spark of inspiration (or obsession) rather than obligation.
It also became apparent that appealing to a more mass audience was difficult, and only occasionally successful. For me, it made sense to settle in to the idea that Radio Survivor the website and podcast is for a relatively select group of radio lovers. That bunch includes broadcasters, producers and listeners, but really nobody whose job depends on what we cover and write about. As we say on the podcast, it’s for “the love of radio and sound,” and I think it’s love that we’ve really doubled-down on over time.
On the newsy side, Jennifer Waits’ weekly College Radio Watch reviews – Radio Survivor’s only remaining regular news feature – certainly qualify as a labor of love.
So, it’s interesting to take a look back at our most popular posts of the decade, all of which received between 29 times and 614 times the traffic of the average Radio Survivor post. It’s an instructive exercise because these posts represent a fascinating overlap area in the Venn diagram of what is popular or important in the culture at large, and what is of intense interest to folks who love radio and audio.
The Enduring Popularity of “Alice’s Restaurant” and the Super Bowl
This seems particularly true for a full half of the raw top 10. Three are posts from Jennifer’s annual Thanksgiving rundown of stations playing “Alice’s Restaurant.” This shows that tens of thousands of people are still into this holiday tradition. It also provides an example in inadvertent search engine optimization, where having a reliable post every year – that people click on – puts you at the top of search results.
Two of the top 10 are installments in my annual “how to listen to the Super Bowl” posts. As I freely admit, I don’t really care about the NFL or about the Super Bowl. But it’s a steadfast American cultural event that cuts across media. So I’m always curious to see what’s available to people who can’t view it on television, no matter where they are in the world. Obviously, tens of thousands of readers agree, or at least find the guide useful.
Incidentally, the Super Bowl posts rank pretty well in search results, too – coming in at number three – but not as well as the “Alice’s Restaurant” posts, which come in at number one and two.
The Strategy of Holding on for 10 Years
If we combine these “Alice’s Restaurant” and Super Bowl posts into just one entry each, the rest of the top 10 also highlights this coincidence of the popular zeitgeist and our deep radio nerdery. I’ll come clean that one reason for writing my yearly “Super Bowl on the radio” posts is because they bring in traffic. However, because Radio Survivor has been ad-free for about two-thirds of the decade, clicks themselves don’t add up to a payday. And while it’s nice to be popular, that’s not really my point either. Rather, I hope that some tiny percentage of these readers are radio nerds who come back.
It’s not entirely clear this strategy works. Overall, as we begin 2020 our monthly pageviews are about 25% greater compared this time in 2010. But this number fluctuates, and at times has been as much as almost double that figure from a decade ago.
That said, as a relatively niche, untrendy and not-clickbaity blog, holding on and even growing during this time is an actual accomplishment. Anecdotally, I’d say the group of devoted radio lovers reading and engaging with us has grown to a larger portion of the overall audience, judging from feedback we get from social media, email and old fashioned interpersonal networks. I like to think we’ve helped coalescence a community of Radio Survivors.
Nevertheless, looking at the rest of our most popular posts of the decade we gain insights about what a broader population of internet denizens thinks is attractive, intriguing or simply just useful about radio in the 2010s.
People Are Looking for Guidance
In at second most popular is a post from 2015, “In Search of High Fidelity Internet Radio.” For a while, this one’s popularity was a little puzzling, because it’s a very techie subject, and because I tend to think the topic of high fidelity itself is very niche. Yet, the explosion in headphone listening has won over a new generation of listeners who care about sound quality in the last ten years.
Also, if we see a tiny trend here, posts that are resource guides seem to have an outsized draw, and this one includes a list of better quality streaming stations. However, it’s a list that I haven’t reviewed or updated in a long time. Maybe that goes on the 2020 to-do list.
If we use that resource-guide frame, I think that explains a full 70% of the top 10. This includes a 2010 piece on, “Make Your Own Radio Kits and DIY Projects,” one from 2012 that explains “There’s still jazz on Chicago radio, despite the death of Smooth 87.7,” and a 2017 entry from Jennifer’s yearly examination of Princeton Review’s “Best College Radio Station” list.
News with a Curiously Long Shelf Life
At number four is one of only two straightforward radio news stories, “FCC Fines iHeart $1 Million for Airing Fake Emergency Alert Tone during Bobby Bones Show.” Though published nearly five years ago, this post saw many spikes in traffic in 2019. While Bobby Bones is a popular radio and American Idol personality, it’s a mystery to me what drove all this recent attention.
The other news story – at number 10 – is, “Apple Kills Off Its First and Only FM Radio” from 2017, reporting the cancellation of the iPod Nano, the only Apple device to ever have a radio receiver built in. Most of its hits came when the news was hot, though at least a hundred people or so read it every month in 2019.
CDs and a Question
The least radio-centric post is also the only one in the top 10 that was written in 2019, “10 Reasons Why CDs Are Still Awesome (Especially for Radio).” Like most of these pieces, it saw a spike of traffic around the time it was published, which quickly fell off. But then it’s been picking up steam since March, going up in traffic ever since. I’m not sure why this is happening, though I get the sense that it taps into a rising interest in CDs and physical media in general, as streaming music has become less novel and more everyday.
Finally, last in this haphazard review, but not least, is the fifth most popular post of the decade, “Can your radio receiver access 87.7 FM?” Now, content that is titled with a question often does well in search results because many people literally type in questions to Google. If we search for exactly this question, our post is the first result. Matthew’s inquiry taps into a long running vein at Radio Survivor, following the creation and evolution of channel 6 low-power TV stations that effectively broadcast as radio stations owing to the fact you can hear their audio at the far left end of the FM dial.
One such station that once played smooth jazz for Chicago, was the jumping off point for the number seven most popular post on jazz stations in that city. Yet, none of the posts specifically about these stations ranks in the top 50. Perhaps there are more questions than answers?
The Numbers Don’t Lie, but What Do They Say?
It’s always a humbling experience to look at your web stats, which provide at least one score on how many people took in what you created. But, as I’ve said on the podcast many times, I think the modern internet distorts our perception of reach and audience. A post that reaches 140 people may seem like a failure compared to a major tech blog or an Instagram post that got 3000 likes. Yet, if you filled a room with all those people for a talk, performance or meeting, you’d probably feel like a great success.
The Passionate Niche Is Alright by Me
The paradox of the internet is that while a significant percentage of all humanity can find your stuff, that doesn’t mean they all are interested or will see it. Then again, the spirit of the radio (inclusive of podcasting and internet radio) we love and champion here is the kind that reaches maybe only dozens at a time, late at night on a frequency on the far-left-end of the dial, maybe broadcasting to a town with fewer residents than the number of people attending Coachella. At Radio Survivor we celebrate the passionate niche. We are the passionate niche.
And every once in a while – maybe even a few times a year – a group that would fill the United Center for a Bulls game stops by to check us out. A few stragglers come by again, but for most this is just a little morsel in one day’s enormous internet diet.
But along the way a community forms around this shared love for radio and sound. If this enterprise were a newsletter or magazine this core audience would outpace most academic journals, and many magazines you might find at your local indie bookstore.
I’m not arguing that size is so important or that it’s an indicator of merit. No, I’m just grateful to everyone who has read this far, and continues to spend a little time and attention with Radio Survivor, whether it’s once a week, once a month or once a year. Thanks for benefit of your attention, and I hope I’ll be writing another review like this in 2030.
Here are the Top 10 most popular Radio Survivor posts of 2010 – 2019:
(With “Alice’s Restaurant” and Super Bowl posts conflated.)
- How To Listen to Super Bowl LII on the Radio this Sunday – Jan. 2018
- Digital Watch: In Search of High Fidelity Internet Radio – March 2015
- Alice’s Restaurant Maintains Spot on Thanksgiving Radio Dial in 2018 – Nov. 2018
- FCC Fines iHeart 1 Million for Airing Fake Emergency Alert Tone during Bobby Bones Show – May 2015
- Make Your Own Radio and DIY Projects – Sept. 2010
- There’s Still Jazz on Chicago Radio despite the Death of Smooth 87.7 – May 2012
- Can Your Radio Receiver Access 87.7 FM? – March 2015
- Princeton Review’s Best College Radio Station List Released – Aug. 2017
- 10 Reasons Why CDs are Still Awesome (Especially for Radio)– Jan. 2019
- Apple Kills Off First FM Radio – Aug. 2017
