(Radio) Waves​ of Change - The Future of Radio in 5 Challenges and 5 Solutions
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(Radio) Waves of Change - The Future of Radio in 5 Challenges and 5 Solutions

“If the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is near.” - Jack Welch

Like all media and many businesses radio is experiencing huge disruption. However, radio has been more resilient than other media such as press and even traditional TV.

Many people in the industry will say that radio is surviving digital disruption. They quote research studies claiming large listenership coming from in-car listening and how radio is a great companion and focus groups still say radio is important in their life.

Like most businesses grappling with digital disruption, there are several forces colliding to create a tidal wave of disruption for radio. As with most digital disruption, the problem is not technology adoption but human adaptation.

As John Maynard Keynes tells us “The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones”.

However, let’s deal with the technology forces first.

1. Artificial Intelligence

Ai will have a huge effect on our roles in the future.

For some of us Ai will initially help us be more productive in our roles and execute those roles more efficiently. However, the reality is that Ai and automation will replace a lot of our roles. That goes beyond professional drivers, many roles will be utterly disrupted and be made what I call human redundant.

Think of the role of marketing in a digital age, for an evolution of that role see a previous Thursday Thought here. A machine can make marketing optimisation decisions better than any human. Once all decision-making data is available via common interoperable data called APIs (Application program interfaces), machine-to-machine (M2M) operations will soar.

When this happens, Ai will be able to define the optimum time to advertise and to whom. Initially it will need human guidance, but eventually will become smarter than us and make better decisions than us 24/7/365, no sleep, no bank holidays, no Christmas. (This is a future Thursday Thought so let’s not go too far down that rabbit hole for now).

2. Self-Driving/Autonomous Vehicles

A subset of Ai is self-driving/autonomous cars (or as a previous guest of The Innovation Show and Ai expert Calum Chace calls such vehicles “autos”). Let us take a moment to think about the indirect impact of “autos” for the radio industry.

Most people (drivers) listen to the radio while in the car, but this is because you cannot (should not) engage any other media while driving. You cannot currently watch video while driving, nor should you. However, what happens when you can watch or read or sleep or practice an instrument? What happens radio then? In fact, with a shift in the world towards an increasingly “ownerless” or “access” society what happens when people don’t see the value in owning a car at all? No car, no radio, no 90% in-car listening.

3. An On-Demand Society

There is an undeniable desire to access content on our own terms, when and where it suits us. Once we got a taste of that, it became the norm. Despite the meteoric rise of on-demand media powered by Netflix, YouTube and Spotify (to name but a few), traditional radio is still deathly slow to invest in a robust digital ecosystem. Very few radio groups or stations have invested wholeheartedly in their digital efforts.

I know some of you reading will grumble that declining ad spend on radio means less money to invest, but the reality is (small local radio stations aside) that the wrong things are being prioritised.

4. The Human (Elephant) in the Room

The people who got most companies to where they are today are not (necessarily) the people required to guide companies to where they need to be tomorrow. Some hard, but urgent decisions need to be made. Some people are no longer fit for the media world of today and they need to be humanely relieved of their redundant roles. There will be a desire by short-sighted (often short-term incentivised) leadership to bank these savings, but these funds need to be invested in a new digital ecosystem.

New roles need to be filled, people need to be given the opportunity to be trained, but oftentimes digital is a mindset and not a skill that can be transferred nor learned. Other times unfortunately many people have simply stopped learning and are coasting towards retirement, they are quite happy to let the boat hit the iceberg because they will be off the boat before then. Even worse again, these same people are blocking the progression or growth of those itching to evolve the medium for the better.

A second human element is the fact that younger generations do not listen to the radio and many never will. This is not a choice by them, many simply have never been exposed to a radio. Many will have a tablet in the back seat or Mum or Dad's phone, but ideally a book :). The radio is like the kitchen table, it is a great shame that many families do not even have a table or perhaps use it, it is reflective of the way society has evolved to a "personalised" world.

5. A Trialogue not a Monologue

This week we are joined by Media Consultant and pioneer of digital radio solutions Fred Jacobs. Fred recalls that the only way to contact a station used to be by handwritten letter. That may seem laughable today, but some decision makers in radio still behave as if that is still the way. Some still treat radio as a monologue and see themselves as gatekeepers of radio instead of collaborators and co-creators.

The rise of digital and in particular social media has meant that the monologue manner in which radio has traditionally worked is no longer valid. We live in the world of the Prosumer where the consumer wants to be involved as a quasi-producer of content.

Social media means the funnel is now reversed. Radio is no longer a megaphone it is a three-way open microphone. This provides radio with a huge opportunity where social media can now be an input and not just an output for radio. Social media and forums are underused media to detect what an audience is actually thinking about, talking about and indeed might to talk about. Beyond that, it can also inform what artists they want to hear and what content they would like discussed.

Radio needs to listen to the audience, not through focus groups, not through surveys, but by socially listening, by measuring behaviour, not declarations and by using the plethora of tools to measure content consumption.

Radio needs to evolve beyond a monologue, where radio communicates with the audience. It also needs to see beyond a dialogue, where the audience gets to have their say. It needs to become an interaction where the audience raises a topic of interest with each other and then the conversation takes place. This conversation is radio-to-audience, audience-to-audience and audience-to-radio. This is the trialogue.

Embracing the Frenemies, Embracing the Forces, Embracing Evolution

While the future of traditional radio is rocky and we are going to see huge disruption, consolidation and redundancies there are some immediate actions required. Head-in-the-sand responses citing research reports will be akin to the Dutch boy finger in the dam. Yes, some will stick their head in the sand until they make it to retirement and then leave it as someone else's problem. These are global warming managers, it won't impact them in their lifetime, so they do nothing. It is necessary to work around them where possible.

Some brief suggestions are below.

1. Radio needs to embrace all digital touch points with the same urgency it does the studio and the broadcast tower. Larger media/radio groups should have in-house developers or acquire app and web development capabilities where possible.

Radio needs to be a destination, not just found on social media, it needs to focus on exclusive, excellent and authentic content and excel at digital distribution.

There has an will be a series of evolutions, which need to be embraced today and prepared for in the future:

Entertainment Empowerment - User-generated content, peer-to-peer communications, reviews, recommendations, virals and prosumerism. Most radio groups do some sheep dip initiatives, but nothing lasting nor meaningful.

The next evolution is the immersive, contextual web. In this evolution, Radio could thrive. Imagine using VR to engage with your audience in a virtual studio with your presenters pressing the virtual flesh via avatars. This web provides some opportunity as virtual spaces will mean new advertising opportunities, social commerce, influencer opportunities and so much more.

Mark Zuckerberg sees the future of social as a virtual reality "immersive" future. Social immersion via VR needs to be thought about now so radio is ready when the time comes.

2. Radio needs to embrace loyalty programmes and/or audience engagement methodologies and capture first-party behavioural data.

Why?

If you can track the context in which an audience member (previously known as a listener) consumes your station content, then you can enhance the experience.

If you know your user(s) and you know their content consumption patterns, then you can use push messaging when required. If a certain user listens to a show at a certain time every day and then misses a few shows, wouldn't it be considerate of the station to send the on-demand audio after the original point of broadcast?

Having a fit-for-purpose ecosystem allows all kind of possibilities.

3. Radio needs to "lose time"

Programming schedules no longer exist as they used to. Content should be searchable, snackable, superfast and social. Think of your content as atomised, as Lego bricks that need to be accessible and interchangeable so the user can find your content wherever they are, whenever they desire. Radio needs to exist beyond the broadcast moment.

4. Radio needs to "Press the Flesh"

The more the World goes digital, virtual and automated, the more opportunity will exist for media and brands who act human. This is the benefit of events, concerts and other such activities. These activities will produce non-traditional revenue (NTR), but the real benefit is to interact with their audience.

5. Radio needs to think beyond being radio.

Once the world went digital the walls between different media dissolved. Press was/is being replaced by the web. Press can be radio, radio can be press, a blogger can be a video star, a comedian can have a larger "radio"/audio audience than a radio station. The lines are not only blurred, there are no longer any lines.

The audience will see these lines less and less, hence the rise in podcasting, in live streaming and blogging. Facebook is laying competitive landmines all over the ecosystem. Many traditional media are embracing Facebook a little too much, where they will soon be replaced by the frenemy. Radio needs to be more flexible and fluid than ever before and needs to adopt a mindset of constant evolution and experimentation.

I am honoured to be a Keynote speaker at Radiodays Europe 2017 in Amsterdam on Monday 20th March, where I will be talking about the topics outlined above. If you are there give me a shout.

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"On The Innovation Show this week, I talk to Fred Jacobs, President and Founder of Jacobs Media. We have an honest no holding backchat about radio, the blockers to its future and indeed some ways it can survive in an uncertain future.

We also talk to Rory O’Farrell about his startup Melosity. Melosity is the easiest way for musicians to collaborate online. Rory is ably supported and mentored by Fred Karlsson, founder of Donedeal.

We get an insight into the product and Fred’s mentorship.

As always the show is available on the following platforms:

You can subscribe on iTunes here.

Website is here.

TuneIn is here.

Soundcloud is below.


Gloria Hernandez

Owner at The House of Marketin

6y

Saturn radio

Like
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Ehren Schlue

Leadership | Strategy | Operational Excellence

7y

Great stuff, Aidan. Personalization, automation, and customization are key pillars for the success for any “traditional” media source looking to transform for the future. To survive the digital disruption/transformation and growing global footprint for a more complex customer base, companies must evolve and meet customers where they want to be met to become and stay relevant. The struggle to humanize a “traditional” communication channel like radio to become a “can’t live without” dynamic product offering (multi-layered user moderated and controlled) is bearing down on many media industries. Companies are struggling to make their perceived value relevant to their evolving customer base because they have been successful for so long in their traditional format. The longer the industry waits to change, the harder it will be to get out from under the blanket of inaction – slowly watching a once powerful industry fade away into the sunset.

Michelle Spillane

Managing Director Marketing- Paddy Power

7y

Great piece Aidan

Walter Hegarty

Account Manager EU, KLH Audio at TBM Solution

7y

Good article Aidan as soon as your station is no longer distinguishable from "Siri/Cortana/Alexa play me some music" it is doomed. Siri knows who you are, what age you are, what you've listened to before. It's tracking what your peers are listening to in real time and will update what it plays you based on that, radio doesn't stand a chance. Except, of course, it does but only if it works harder to entertain it's audience. Better presenters that hold attention will help, as will better music selection, if you're playing Top 20 Alexa can do that in her sleep. All backed up by additional content and interaction to build station loyalty. That'll help until the algo-rhythms finally get you.

Jesus, Aidan...maybe rock my world a little less before lunch. Fantastic, surgically pinpointed article. Again.

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