Trust America’s Digital Goddess
I am here for YOU.
– Kim KOMANDO
Aging in Place
Kim Komando is a tour de force, every Sunday evening I try to tune into 101.1 KXL (Portland OR) at 4pm. Her warm and now familiar voice invites you to listen to the latest tech news, scams to be aware of, and all things technology affecting (potentially-eventually) your life.
About Kim
From her Wikipedia page:
Kimberly Ann Komando (born 1967) is the host of two daily radio shows and one weekend radio show about consumer technology. On her weekly call-in show, she provides advice about technology gadgets, websites, smartphone apps, and internet security.
The Kim Komando Show is broadcast and syndicated on over 435 radio stations in the United States and two stations in Ontario, Canada, to an estimated 6.5+ million listeners. Her Consumer Tech Update and Digital Life Hack airs on more than 390 stations seven days a week. Her radio shows are also heard internationally on the Armed Forces Radio Network, covering 177 countries. She hosts podcasts served to over 300,000 listeners per week. The Kim Komando Television Show premiered globally on Bloomberg TV on January 5, 2019. Kim Komando also hosts a weekly radio show on SiriusXM’s Business Channel 130 called Tech Insights.
Komando refers to herself on her web page as “America’s Digital Goddess”. As of May 2018, her website, Komando.com, serves 2.7 million unique visitors each month and she sends 500 million newsletters per year to subscribers.
Komando and her husband own Phoenix-based WestStar TalkRadio Network, which distributes the Komando radio program.
Komando has appeared on CNN, CBS, MSNBC, ABC, BBC, and Fox News, and her syndicated columns appear in USA Today and other newspapers. She has been a columnist for USA Today since February 2002. She won the Gracie Award from the Alliance for Women in Media for Outstanding Program Host in 2007[1] and in April 2016 was the keynote speaker at the NAB Show Radio Luncheon to an audience of industry leaders. In January 2017, she was appointed to Forbes Magazine Tech Council. On October 9, 2019, she presented a keynote speech about cybersecurity at the John Glenn NASA Research Center in Cleveland that was broadcast to all 60,000 NASA employees. In 2020, she was nominated to the National Radio Hall of Fame. In 2021, Kim was nominated again, and this time inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame.
That’s an impressive Curriculum Vitae (resume) and she pulls it off every week darn near flawlessly with grace and humor.
The main reason I’m writing about her is TRUST. And this is a big one, especially when dealing with older individuals who didn’t grow up digitally and have had to Learn. UnLearn. ReLearn. Over-and-over, and will until the lights go out. This gets more challenging for older adults who leave jobs and formal educational settings–and is why her show is so essential to this demographic.
After listening to several shows, themes began to appear (for me):
- High trust factor and integrity
- Cutting edge information yet accessible to most listeners
- Relatable, useable, practical, and valuable
- Deals with her promotions for listeners
- Introductions to new innovations
- Safety focused
- Problem-solving emphasis
- Ok, a bad joke thrown in here and there…
Kim comes across as someone who cares, in fact it’s palpable. She takes calls and goes to the ends of the earth to solve her audience’s challenges. And so often the callers are older adults. This is so good to hear as the older generation is falsely assumed to be luddites with little interest in or use of emerging technologies; nothing could be farther from the truth!
The Opportunity
Technology for the aging population is BIG business–how BIG? try $2 Trillion BIG!
So, these are products and services that use artificial intelligence, information technologies, digital advances to improve the quality of life of older adults. And at the conference, the age tech market was estimated to be around $1 trillion, and it’s on its way to $2 trillion.
– marketplace.org
Boomers are doing aging differently and pushing back on ageism in every sector of life–including technology. Kim Komando is an ally in that endeavor. With trust and integrity, she will keep this demographic (some 70 million plus) relevant and engaged for years to come.
Kim always asks for her listeners to just tell one person about her show…I’m following through on that request here.
Find a station near you: komando.com
Now I have a request Kim, can you do more material on aging in place Tech?
I’ll be listening…
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U.S. News & World Report Aging in Place With Assistive Tech Survey 2023
My favorite part of her show is when she interviews successful entrepreneurs like Graham Cochrane for example.