Radio Industry Needs to Make Change, Not Wait for It
There’s a difference between making change and waiting for change. You decide what the radio industry has been doing over the past 10 years.
If your goal is to see a headline announcing change, you’ll come up empty-handed when you take a quick online sweep through this morning’s radio trade publications. Use this link to look at this morning’s headlines from five radio industry trades – alphabetized to hide which publication produced each headline. There are 75 headlines featured. Yet, not one announces a “change,” new programming tactic, or any reason for a public morphing through technology to turn to a radio station. That’s a change we need to see, fast.
As technology marches forward, radio leaders cut back on staffing and creative programming, even though there are multiple opportunities to alter the use of radio airwaves. Here are some examples of how change could show its face in radio:
* Create a series of short vignettes explaining the new health care reform – using a non-biased view. This is a top-of-mind topic for everyone.
* Feature one local band on, say, one day of each week.
* In a regular morning show routine, lead the public to a web site that helps a core audience through these tough times.
* Develop a new form of commercial that doesn’t come in a pod, and is not :15, :30, or :60 in length. (Don’t Blink. It doesn’t count anymore.)
* List, on a station web site, all organizations in a market that are attractive to a P1 listener.
* Give disc jockeys the choice of which songs to play back.
* Have a Listening Party where station execs listen to the audience. (NPR is active here. Why not a commercial group?)
* Open a small business workshop that explains the nuances of advertising in today’s expanded media marketplace.
* Host a weekly band exhibition, where three local bands display their music at a station-backed event or nightclub.
* Offer an ad-testing system tied to an online response, giving advertisers reason to believe radio wants to help improve ROI.
These ten examples were listed in a little over two minutes. What if serious thought were given to try and create change within the radio industry? How many more might we be able to add to the list?
In the past few weeks we have seen some items falling under the category of change, each offered by one station in one market. Baltimore’s 92Q and HipCricket are helping that city pull off a PEACE Plan, and a few news items are listed at the Clear Channel “Press Room” page under the banner of “LocalSpirit” (a concept CC, CEO John Hogan dismissed in 2006).
Change is happening, rapidly, everywhere except in the radio industry. If leaders are looking at options for the future, this should be the first one to address.
By Ken Dardis
www.audiographics.com
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