Over the holidays I was watching CNN in the background and they did one of those Top 10 Biggest Stories of 2024 segments. I know that kind of content is just end of the year filler, but they reeled me in when they put the Trump vs Biden debate that caused Biden to drop out at number 4. However, when they got to number one, I was surprised to see that I completely agreed with their ranking. The top story according to this traditional media outlet was the outsized impact of individual influencers and podcasters in 2024 and they cut to clips of Trump on with Rogan and Theo Von, then Kamala Harris on Call Her Daddy. This reminded me of something I said on one of our Radio Influencers podcast episodes (# 37), how I never thought after a presidential election we’d say ‘if she’d only gone on Rogan’s podcast maybe she would’ve won.’ Obviously, I was exaggerating but I have no doubt that we witnessed the official rise of individual media last year, so let’s look at a couple reasons why that’s happened and what it means for the radio industry.

According to a Gallup poll ahead of the election in October of 2024, only 54% of Democrats, 27% of independents and 12% of Republicans said they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media. That’s a 16 point drop for Democrats and a 2 point drop for Republicans over the same poll in October of 2022. When Sarah Longwell from The Bulwark spoke specifically with people who voted for Biden in 2020 but then voted for Trump in 2024 after seeing him on Joe Rogan’s podcast, they all made similar statements about how real, authentic and down to earth Trump sounded in that casual setting as compared to a formal, sit-down interview with a professional news organization. Part of the reason these individual creators have garnered such trust from their fans and followers is their willingness to be raw, real and very personal. Because many of them are comedians, and comedians tend to believe no subject is off limits, they say whatever they’re thinking and share the good, bad and the ugly about their own lives. Like, Theo Von sharing how he’s a recovering drug addict and even telling Trump what it’s like to do cocaine, which made for an interesting and viral soundbite. This is similar to something virtually all digital creators have figured out, especially social influencers. The fact that fans can see their houses, know their pets, family members, friends, and more, creates an incredibly strong bond that makes them feel like they’re part of the creator’s inner circle. Of course, often times, they’re only letting fans see what they want them to see.

So, how should radio respond to this rise in individual media? Here’s a couple things we can do:

• Partner with local influencers and local creators in our markets, have them on our shows, go on theirs, and directly partner with them when it makes sense.
• Put a nail in the coffin of the formal broadcaster delivery and opt for a more conversational delivery, even on terrestrial. This has been happening for a while now anyways in morning radio, with personalities who sound more like real people rising to the top.
• Cater our content for each individual platform. Podcasts pushed to all podcasting platforms as audio and to YouTube (and the station website) as video are meant to be more casual, more intimate, relaxed, and longer form than radio. These platforms also lend themselves to being a little edgier than most radio talent are comfortable being after years of coaching that out of them. Although, it’s important to point out that there are a few nuanced things that talent should avoid saying on each platform to keep the algorithms happy, especially in the first couple minutes of a show. But, that can always be edited in post.
• We should also use our training and ability to go live on the radio as an advantage by going live more often on social and YouTube to do interactive shows and segments where we’re reacting in real time to the audience.
• Steal some of the tricks digital content creators use to get their content seen and heard. Like I always say, they’ve been stealing from us for years, it’s time we returned the favor. We should let them do some of the legwork for us and watch what works for some of the top creators and emulate that, then personalize and localize it to add our own spin. The main trick that stands out to me, is letting fans see more of our personal lives and our day to day by being prepared to capture content anywhere and everywhere. Radio Groups would be smart to encourage and compensate talent for this kind of content creation and use their structure to help monetize it for everyone involved. 
• Ironically, this rise in individual media is happening at a time when radio has downsized to such a point that many stations are essentially individually run. If those individuals are willing to become self-sufficient content creators and embrace a ‘surround the listener by being on all the platforms they are on’ approach, then we could use this as an opportunity to become that trusted source again in each of our local markets. 

What do you think? Have we seen the rise of individual media and how else should radio react to it?