2NDARY RADIO

Not long ago, listening to the simpler audio stream of broadcast radio was a single-task activity for most people. The radio reached into homes and grabbed listeners by the lapel. It could dominate their time and attention—for a few decades. “A child might sit,” Robinson and Godbey recall sentimentally, “staring through the window at the darkening trees, hearing only the Lone Ranger’s voice and the hooves of horses in the canyon.” Now it is rare for a person to listen to the radio and do nothing else. Programmers structure radio’s content with the knowledge that they can count on only a portion of the listener’s attention, and only for intermittent intervals. And rarely with full attention. Much of the radio audience at any given moment has its senses locked up in a more demanding activity— probably driving. Or showering, or cooking, or jogging. Radio has become a secondary task in a multitasking world.