Radio Trying to Fire Its Way Out of Mess
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Sad to say, have you seen the latest trend in radio industry trade publications? Each appears to be jumping on the "we're going to help" bandwagon by offering free listings to people who have just received their pink slips. I did a quick check of one industry trade; between September 5 and November 10, 127 names were listed by folks who responded to this "listing" offer. All are ex-radio employees who have been downsized (or any one of a dozen other euphemisms now used in radio when losing a job to the budget man).
What's curious is that these listings are played as if there are jobs in radio waiting to be filled.
Though helped by the flailing economy, this implosion of radio has been forecast for years. The writing has been on the wall and echoed to you by everyone except the radio industry trades, which only began reporting it recently because there's very little other news within radio to report. That some radio CEOs still call it a "perception problem" is crazy! Radio stocks are going for a quarter, and the per-hour pay isn't much higher than that.
The radio industry has entered the age of new media all wrong.
At issue is a multi-pronged problem:
1) Holding on to radio's existing audience as it discovers the efficacy of new media (in distributing entertainment and information)
2) Understanding how to better use new media, relative to understanding audience movement through analytics
3) Creating over-the-air programming that resonates within the broadcast footprint
4) Creating online audio that serves a world audience while talking a local tongue
5) Being more aware of a station web site's user interface and navigability
5) Reinventing how radio communicates its advertiser's message to the audience of its programs
6) Quantifying exposure of (and inefficiencies within) ad campaigns to improve response
We're seeing a hint of change from the radio industry. Ideas proposed years ago are beginning to be adapted. Though they represent only a very small portion of all that needs to be done, here are three concepts to share with you.
TopekaRadioAdvertising.com. I'm not going to drool over this Cumulus initiative because there is a lot missing, but this web site does start to satisfy the desire for an online self-education by potential radio advertisers.
Recently launched RadioAds.com is an attempt at connecting radio advertisers to the internet. Here is a slightly involved process that lets local radio advertisers take advantage of the internet and display details that an audio ad cannot carry. Its strong suit is an ability to search by city/category. It is a basic service that adds to the power of radio for advertisers.
My favorite find is ToastedRav.com, a site created by Bonneville Radio's St. Louis cluster. It takes the essence of the web, in a local and community-information format, and serves up a plate of digestable content. Though the web site is a little crowded, this is the best example of radio using the web in a non-traditional form.
Notice that to pull off each of the above requires a combination of skills from radio and the internet. To deal with any of the prongs in radio's main problem, a person needs the ability to understand both traditional radio and new media. (New media skills must be associated with creating a web page, conveying online information, and the analytics and metrics of how the public uses the internet).
It's sad to see so many people losing their jobs due to the myopic vision of radio industry leaders. It hurts to see people lose their jobs because they don't command the skills needed to survive in media today. This brings us to one last thought to ponder. How much do you know about new media? How aware are you of how different it is reaching out to the public today, now that it can be done as you are doing at this moment - reading, or watching, or listing online?
An even more dismal 4th quarter is being predicted for the radio industry, so we've not seen the last of the job loss.
Don't wait for radio industry leaders to save you. Start spending time digging deeper into how online and on-air mesh, through all of the subsets we didn't mention today (analytics and metrics, online audio/streaming, how communcating is different on the internet).
These are exciting times for the well-informed. Unfortunately most of those in the unemployment line didn't start solving this problem years ago, and getting back into "the business" isn't going to be as easy as it was a generation ago. The only radio industry jobs needing to be filled are those requiring a set of skills other than talking through a microphone or selling over the phone.
Are you prepared? Hopefully so, because radio is trying to fire its way out of this mess.
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