You may not be familiar with the name Jubilee Media, but you’ve almost certainly seen one of the clips from their Surrounded series where one expert faces off against twenty people who have opposite beliefs. The company that started as a grassroots charity project has turned into a major digital media empire amassing billions of views and generating over 100 million in revenue. That’s due in large part to how they’ve tailored their content to work well on YouTube and social media. So, I believe there are a lot of things radio can learn from the example Jubilee sets. Here are my thoughts on a few.

During a recent interview Jubilee CEO Jason Y. Lee said something I wish every broadcaster would’ve heard. While talking about their success versus traditional broadcasters Lee said “YouTube strategy doesn’t mean just taking everything you’re doing for linear and putting in on YouTube.” Linear of course refers to content that audiences consume in a fixed, predetermined sequence on a strict schedule without the ability to pause, rewind or skip. Like traditional TV and radio broadcasts. The Jubilee CEO’s quote hit home for me because while I’m a big believer in radio capturing all the live content they’re already doing on video so they can turn it into digital content. I by no means think that’s the only digital content radio should create.

One of the big reasons radio and TV struggle to compete with digital first companies is because by nature digital first companies are creating content specifically built for digital platforms. As opposed to taking content made specifically for broadcast radio and TV and trying to make that fit on digital platforms. A better approach is for traditional broadcasters to also create some digital first content, let that feed into their linear shows as a way to push people back to that digital content. Which has the byproduct of simultaneously improving the quality of their traditional broadcast shows.

Interestingly, the format on Jubilee’s biggest show, Surrounded, is very similar to one radio used to use but has largely gotten away from. The one versus many approach. This was the basic strategy behind news and sports talk radio from it’s inception. Because we understood that radio at it’s best is not a one-way communication, it’s an interactive experience that engages and involves the listener. While some of that still certainly exists on talk stations, although I would argue not nearly enough, it’s almost completely disappeared from radio shows on music stations. That’s partly because we’ve trained listeners not to call by voicetracking so much and partly because it’s harder to get anyone to pick up a phone and actually call anyone anymore. On average we spend 4.5 hours a day on our phones but the majority of us spend less than 15 minutes of that actually talking on the phone. So, yes, it’s absolutely harder than it used to get people to call. But all the shows I’ve coached that have committed to working the phones were successful at getting and airing calls. Which massively improved the quality of their on-air content, brought out the best parts of their personalities and built loyalty with their audiences because they feel like they are a part of the show now.

What do you think of what Jubilee is doing and what other lessons do you think radio can learn from it? Comment below or email me at Andy@RadioStationConsultant.com.