For screen teens, the computer is the centre of their entertainment universe. If they’re not surfing the Web, they might be downloading their own personal music combinations. Or e-mailing friends. Or gaming.

So with the role of the computer as entertainment centre growing in teens’ lives, where does that leave that other, wireless box in their rooms – the radio? Given all the entertainment options teens have, is radio still a viable medium?

It depends on who you ask, but all signs show that while teens are still listening to the radio, the rate is declining and its future uncertain.

In October, Statistics Canada noted that of all those surveyed, teens listened to the radio the least – about half as much as adults do – with the most notable difference occurring on weekdays. During that time period, the average hours per week of radio listening for teens was only 4.7 hours, compared to an adult tune-in of 16.1 (weekdays 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.).

But even when you look at total listening – weekdays and weekends – teens listen to a lot less radio than grown-ups. According to the census, Canadian teens listened an average of 10.1 hours per week in fall 2001, while adults 18 to 64 weighed in with about 20.5 hours during the same period.

Perhaps even more worrying, StatsCan numbers show that teen radio listening has been slowly eroding for over 10 years: back in the fall of 1991, teen weekly listening averaged some 12.4 hours, compared to today’s 10.1.

‘We’ve seen a decline in teen listening over the past three years,’ confirms Kathy Shapka, VP media director for PJDDB in Edmonton. ‘It went from 12.7 hours total weekly to 11.7 hours, so about an hour less than they normally would.’

Shapka says that part of the reason is that teens simply have numerous other ways to access music. ‘Those are definitely eating into the total hours tuned.’

But while media directors agree that overall listening is slightly down, the radio stations defend themselves vigorously. Julie Adam, program director at teen-friendly top-40/urban KISS 92.5 in Toronto, says that in the past year, the station has actually increased listenership by 1.17% – or 10,000 listeners – bringing up KISS’s audience to approximately 875,000 in total.

So what’s happening? Well, for one, stations like KISS have managed to alter their music mix to include urban music, the latest teen musical flavour.

‘The big trend is urban stations, and you see that format coming up everywhere,’ says Lorraine Lupson, broadcast buyer for Toronto-based Starcom Worldwide. ‘And there’s also ‘CHR-ban’ – a mix of [Contemporary Hit Radio] and urban. It was a popular format in the States and it was introduced here, and it’s now more than just a radio format. It’s also about lifestyle and what you wear.’

So if teen listening is down, but radio stations are altering their mix to maintain – and perhaps gain more teen attention – what does this mean for buyers? Is radio a write-off? Not at all, many say – it’s a wait-and-see situation. With new urban and teen oriented stations launching, the niching of radio is developing fast, and its success will help predict the future teen radio habits.

‘For advertisers, it depends on how effective the new stations coming into the major markets are going to be,’ says Shapka. ‘Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary all now have hip hop stations. They’re very segmented and focused on the audience they can deliver. That’s basically the way you have to start talking to teens. If the stations are successful in what they’re doing, then radio will maintain where it’s at. But if it can’t deliver what teens want, then they’ll go somewhere else.’

That somewhere else includes Web radio streaming, where teens can tune into global radio broadcasts to find the exact music they’re after. And while that’s an option for teens if they can’t get the music they crave at home, it’s also got a built-in flaw: It lacks the local community content and the interaction teens like to have with the radio medium, a strength that Canadian stations can surely exploit.

‘For radio to flourish, they have to play up the things they offer that online radio doesn’t, such as localness and the relationships with the personalities,’ says Michele Erskine, managing partner at YouthCulture Group in Toronto.

To play up that locality, traditional stations are putting more effort into their Web sites by not only tying them in to promotions and ad buys, but some, like Toronto’s EDGE 102.1, are also Web streaming their broadcasts. By doing so, the stations not only capture the screen-happy generation another way, but reach out to non-local listeners looking for different music.

So how will teen radio habits evolve in the future? Well, as youth consultancies say, they aren’t about to disappear. As they grow into adulthood, teens will likely listen to music in their cars or at work, upping those weekday hours.

‘Maybe 10 years from now, we’re going to have a generation that listens to the radio when people conventionally do,’ says Max Valiquette, president of Toronto-based Youthography. ‘But it might be in different ways. They’ll still listen at work, but it might be on their computer. In the car, people still want radio, but it might be satellite radio. At the same time though, they’ll still want some programming from local radio.’

That’s because while recordable CDs and MP3 players will continue to offer teens the chance to personalize their music, what they’re not doing is two important things: offering the interactivity radio has (which is of particular interest to girls since they’re the ones calling in requests and answering promotional calls, according to Valiquette), and setting the musical trends in the first place. As the experts point out: teens will always look to radio stations just to see what everyone else is listening to.

‘I would love to see radio flourish with teens and I think it can,’ says Youth Culture’s Erskine. ‘It’s a matter of thinking global and acting local, and the kids are in with that. The challenge then is for radio to be the conduit for them, so they have to be aware of what’s going on globally – but offer the access to that music and events locally.’