You could say that the dozens of children gathered in the atrium lobby of the Glendale Galleria on a recent Friday morning were all ears.
Each of the kids had been given Mouseketeer caps, and they were listening attentively to the Radio Disney disc jockeys who were in town from Dallas and Orlando to participate in the final leg of the fledgling network’s seven-city World Tour. Mickey and Minnie also were on hand, along with a handful of casually dressed broadcast executives.
Judging from the high-decibel response whenever one of the deejays asked the kids a question, the network’s niche message was being heard loud and clear by at least half of its intended audience. The other half– the parents–were in attendance as well, although they were quite a bit less vocal.
Since expanding its operation beyond four test markets last August, Radio Disney–with the demise of Radio AAHS, the only national radio network aimed directly at young children–has grown to 32 stations in 30 markets, including Southern California’s 50,000-watt giant, KDIS-AM.
Chicago’s much less powerful WTAQ, which broadcasts at 1300 AM, and WTAU, at 1500 AM, came on board last month after entering into a purchase agreement with Disney-owned ABC Radio Networks.
In an industry that has become increasingly segmented according to demographic targets, Radio Disney would seem to be slicing the audience pie into very thin wedges. There may be plenty of 2- to 12-year-old kids out there, but most of them tend to be in school during the day.
According to research gathered by Radio Disney, however, 64 percent of all children ages 6-11 listen to music on the radio for one hour or more each day, and 73 percent of them own their own listening devices. While 60 percent of kids ages 5-9 have a radio in their room and 49 percent of them use a portable or Walkman, most youngsters surveyed listen to the radio while in the car with a parent.
The message being delivered to potential advertisers is that kids 12 and under spend or influence the spending of $500 billion annually.
“I don’t think there are a lot of advertisers that really understand the importance of children’s marketing today,” said Leslie Rocketir, sales manager for KDIS.
“There really hasn’t been a successful radio station for kids. So, in order for us to bring advertisers to Radio Disney–as opposed to Nickelodeon or a TV station for kids–we first have to explain why it’s important to market to children and what our philosophy is.”
Because Radio Disney affiliates aren’t driven by ratings–the pre-teen demographic isn’t measured by Arbitron–sales representatives have to convince advertisers in other ways.
Each week, for example, the Dallas-based network supplies its stations with a breakdown of calls made by listeners to a special 800 number and visits to an Internet site. While the kids think they’re merely connecting with the disc jockeys or participating in contests, in fact, they’re providing crucial demographic information to Radio Disney.
“We’re getting about 60,000 calls a day now, from the 30-some markets that we’re in,” said Scott McCarthy, the network’s vice president and general manager. “When we’re doing a promotion that clicks, phone-call volume really increases, as do the Web site visits. But, ratings-wise, it’s a broader stroke.”
In only three weeks of operation, and absent a full-scale promotion campaign, young listeners to Chicago’s 4,500-watt WTAQ-AM have been responding to the tune of 10,000 calls a week, according to the station’s general manager and president, Zemira Jones.
“Another way to turn advertisers into believers is do a remote appearance,” said Rocketir. “We’ll go out to a store for three hours–with a Radio Disney van, a sound system and four `worker bees’–and we’ll have anywhere between 500 and 1,000 kids showing up with their parents.”
Almost all of the programming on Radio Disney stations is provided by the network, which soon will have studios in Dallas and at both DisneyWorld and Disneyland. Local correspondents provide reports from affiliate cities, while regular reports are provided by ABC News and ESPN.
“We play around 15 songs an hour, but, at certain times of the day, we might do a storytime and mix in a lot of features, like news and geography challenges,” said McCarthy. “There’s a maximum of 10 1/2 minutes an hour of commercials.”
Most popular, according to several of the mothers at the Galleria, are the call-in segments, during which kids from around the country chat with the deejays and offer their opinions on a variety of topics.
The network and affiliates split the time reserved for advertising or public-service broadcasting.
Disney has always kept a protective eye on its corporate image and closely monitors the commercials and insert programming that run both nationally and on local stations.
“We want to make sure that when the Disney brand name is used, it’s used appropriately and in a high-quality way,” said McCarthy.
Much of the music and promotional material heard on Radio Disney comes from movies, videos and attractions associated with the studio.
While some detractors have described the service as a 24-hour Disney infomercial, the list of advertisers includes Columbia Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Nickelodeon and Mattel, as well as General Motors, McDonald’s, AT&T and Johnson & Johnson.
“There aren’t regulations on radio advertising, but there are on the television side, and we adhere to those,” said McCarthy. “We leave a gap between the maximum number of commercials we can have to make up for things, like if we mention or give away a product. We also give away a lot of non-Disney product, like Beanie Babies and Nintendos.”
Ron Rodrigues, editor of Radio & Records magazine, points out that it would be pretty difficult to produce an entertainment service for kids that didn’t feature a lot of Disney product.
“Sometimes it’s hard to separate the promotion from the entertainment, but who’s the No. 1 provider of children’s entertainment?” he said.
“The only FCC rule is that any product that’s mentioned by a sponsor’s name has to be identified as a commercial. But, it sounds like they’re pretty careful.”
While many of the commercials and all of the promotions and contest giveaways are aimed at kids, a great deal of the advertising is targeted to adults within earshot of the radio.
“General Motors, for example, is a major sponsor of ours, promoting the Chevy Venture mini-van, obviously going after the mom,” McCarthy said. “Then, we might have a cereal company going right after the kids, and someone like McDonald’s, which is trying to get a family that’s already in their car to stop into one of their restaurants.”
Adds Rocketir, “If it’s a message aimed toward the kids, we’ll typically have a 30-second commercial that’s very hyped up. It will usually have a kid talking to a kid, or a teenager talking to a kid.
“If it’s a commercial geared toward parents, it’s usually 60 seconds. We have a division of broadcast standards that actually looks at every script that goes through. We’re very careful what we put on the air, because parents trust the Disney brand.”
Right now, all the Radio Disney affiliates are AM stations, although that could change as the network expands.
“There are a lot of AM stations out there that are not the No. 1 news-talk or sports station, and they’re looking for something new,” said McCarthy. “Secondarily, the AM-FM fidelity difference is not a big deal with kids. One of the big reasons for the test was to make sure that wasn’t going to become an issue.
“Most kids aren’t listening on $500 receivers. They’re listening on clock radios and Walkmans, and don’t notice the fidelity difference.”
