As the radio industry struggles to find its place in a new media world (with all of the buzz centered on the digital universe), do the radio industry leaders "get it?" After spending much of this week at the NAB Show, I believe that a few do and many don't. The radio business is just not going to be like it was . . . ever again. So if you are struggling to understand what is really going on with our listener communities (and our advertisers), here are a few quick, easy, and cheap suggestions. Try them, and at least you will be able to converse with the black tee-shirt crowd.
Kids simply do not have the same passion for radio and TV that we, the Boomers, had when we were growing up. My focus group (daughters ages 16, 19, and 22) gets their music from multiple sources. And they live via texting, Facebook and iTunes. They are tired of hearing the same dull crap on the radio.
So here is your investment to teach the old dog a few new tricks:
1) Buy an iPhone. Cost: $300
2) Sign up a Twitter account http://www.twitter.com/. Cost: FREE
Search a subject (try your home town or "Radio") and follow some people.
3) Start a Facebook page. http://www.Facebook.com. Cost: FREE
4) Read "What Would Google Do?" http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=what+would+google+do.
Cost: $17.81
5) Set up a My Yahoo or Alltop page http://www.yahoo.com/ http://www.alltop.com/ with relevant news and blogs. Cost: FREE
6) Seek out and listen to your programming people and make a few local sales calls while you're at it. Cost: FREE
7) Start thinking about how to program your station(s) to get your listening communities truly involved. Cost: PRICELESS
Those are my thoughts . . . what are yours?
George
Media Services Group
Showing posts with label digital media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label digital media. Show all posts
Friday, April 24, 2009
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Re-inventing radio
Radio has been a resilient medium for many years. Attacks have come from TV, eight track tape players, CB radio, cassette tapes, CD's, and now iPods and the Internet. In the past, the medium has always bounced back by re-inventing itself. Will the industry do it this time?
I maintain that re-invention is critical in two completely different areas: 1) Financial and 2) Defining the business that we are really in. We will deal with the Financial side in a separate blog post soon. Today, I want to talk about the business that we are in.
Radio broadcasters need to embrace the idea of operating as digital businesses that just happen to own radio stations. The stations can drive traffic (quite effectively) to the digital offerings. Those include streaming (including streaming to smart phones), web sites, blogs, social networking sites (like Facebook), and podcasts. The problem for most of us is that we just don't "get" all of the digital offerings. But it is time to start thinking about not our audiences, but our communities. And to recognize the fact that our communities are best reached online.
So where do you start. As someone on the very upper end of the 25-54 demo, embracing these new opportunities did not come naturally. But let me share some resources for you as a starting point. If you read these books and follow the related websites, you will be off to a very good start:
- What Would Google Do?
Jeff Jarvis
Related website:
- The Long Tail
Chris Anderson
Related website:
- Grown Up Digital
- groundswell
Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff
Related website:
- Making Waves: Radio on the Verge
Mark Ramsey
Related website:
And the last of your homework, but certainly not the least, is to join Facebook, sign up for Twitter, and check out a few blogs. If we are going to re-invent, we have to understand why and how.
Those are my thoughts. What are yours?
George
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