To Save Face, Radio Limits Commenting

The issue needs to be addressed by a source outside of the radio industry, because anyone - or any business - inside of it will be painted as a heretic and dismissed. So let's take a look at radio's aversion to hearing commentary within radio trade publications.

"This fact is truth, online: One million is small when speaking of commercial downloads..."

AllAccess.com is the only major publication allowing unfettered comments. The rest have some form of censorship to pass through, or they simply don't allow comments. The two largest publications present a limiting comment policy: Inside Radio doesn't allow comment at its web site, and Radio Ink has a "sometimes-we-will, sometimes-we-won't; depends on the story" rule.

There's also the "let's limit the charactors" hurdle that hinders a message at Radio Ink, especially when one is trying to provide data to support a comment.

What follows comes from frustration of seeing, again, a report on how NextRadio appears to grow. Though Inside Radio gives approximately 275 words to its NextRadio article, it lets no one update the slant given to this report.

Over at Radio Ink it's a different problem, the root of this discussion. Its censorhip rules won't allow insightful comment because it limits the characters for response; I could not properly respond to "ONE MILLION DOWNLOADS FOR NEXTRADIO."

To put "...downloaded over one million times" in perspective, multiply it by these percentages. From Digital Trends: "16 percent of people will try out an app more than twice"; "...80 to 90 percent of all downloaded apps are used once and then eventually deleted."

To bring this weak potential into better focus, take the product of your multiple and divide it by the number of stations within the NextRadio app. How many people are using it any given quarter hour?

This fact is truth, online: One million is small when speaking of commercial downloads, especially when the download is prompted by thousands of on-air mentions.

And here's where this exaggeration-speak is damaging. It dampens radio execs' incentive to chase more desirable consumer/advertiser tech needs.

In our tech savvy world, when starting this late in the game, there are few low cost options. One chip in one carrier's small selection of cell phones is not the answer, especially given that radio is paying for this privilege.

There are dozens of items you can do that would allow radio into a tech-driven world, but the industry needs to have dramatic change to accommodate it. Wait until the new dashboard is mainstream and it will be too late.

Radio is best suited to analytics and data base building. Energy should be placed there instead of in hoping consumers use an FM chip on their phones.

Touting 1 million downloads have occurred only sounds big to people who don't realize that online it's small. An example of persons in this group are those who only read radio trade publications.








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