By DANIEL FINNEGAN

STAFF  WRITER

Sande made her live performance debut in the US last year at WFUV

While hosting a party at the South by Southwest Interactive conference, NPR officially started their new campaign, which aims to connect with younger audiences, entitled Generation Listen. While the packed launch party was successful in spreading word of the campaign, in large part thanks to SXSW’s young and energetic fan-base, time will tell if it manages to capture a new generation of listeners, many of whom view radio as an outdated technology.

The campaign, which is being run by Danielle Deabler, the director of audience engagement and new ventures for NPR, is attempting to fix a well-known problem for  NPR. According to a study from 2009, the median age for an NPR news listener is 52, a stat that worries many NPR executives who question where their funding will come from in the future. However, with the same study revealing the median age for NPR’s website and podcasts to be around 36, Generation Listen is attempting to reach its youthful target audience through various social media platforms, as well as through special promotional events. Lee Hayden,  FCRH ’15, who is an employee of WFUV, Fordham’s NPR supported radio station, appreciates Generation Listen’s approach, saying “While I think it is definitely harder for NPR to reach a younger audience, since most kids do not listen to radio anymore, I do believe they are campaigning the right way, through their Facebook and Twitter pages.”

The emphasis placed on social media is extremely important to the goal of Generation Listen, which is seeking to create an online community among their target audience, a community that fosters intellectual conversation among young people, while also establishing a sense of loyalty to the cause of public broadcasting. When asked if he believes there is anything they should be marketing harder, Hayden said, “NPR should be pushing the fact that they provide lesser known bands and artists with an audience, something many young people would appreciate. While most radio stations tend to cater to those audiences who want to hear the top 40 hits, NPR can promote the fact that they provide an alternative to the overplayed music of this generation.”

With NPR Music’s SXSW set offering rave reviews, such as the proclamation by Time Magazine that NPR is “pretty much the top tastemaker at SXSW”, Generation Listen’s prospect of reaching its target audience seems hopeful. Between recently placing their app on Google Current, and with numerous promotions from popular actors and musicians, Generation Listen is set to succeed.