Just like the classic battle between sales and programming, since it came along digital has been pitted against terrestrial. Which is why it seems like some radio groups went all in on digital while others went the exact opposite way and put no emphasis on digital at all. But, there’s no reason for the two to be at odds because they complement each other incredibly well. Plus, there are multiple ways digital can actually help improve terrestrial by helping fine tune the on-air product.
The biggest challenge when we’re trying to create compelling on-air content every day on the radio is identifying the topics our local audience cares about to help us narrow down our prep and decide what we’re going to talk about. Then of course, coming up with our own angle on those topics. With digital we can see real time stats on exactly what topics, and angles, are connecting with our audience every day broken down by location. When we do this, we’ll quickly see patterns emerge. When we post about these handful of things it drives a lot of traffic or conversely these things never get any traction. Recognizing those patterns will better inform our content selection. There’s a reason why successful sports talk and news talk stations seemingly talk about the same things over and over again. They’ve identified those as hot topics their audience is very interested in and have a lot of their own opinions on that they’re itching to share.
AI tools are another major way digital can improve the on-air product. In recent years AI has become a game changer for content creators on all platforms. Specifically for radio, it can help us improve every phase of the process. We can use an AI show prep service like Radio Content Pro to suggest things for us to talk about that are more likely to work with our local audience and write teases and hooks for us. We can use AI powered cameras, like Osbots, to record us in high quality video every time we talk on the air. When we turn off the mic we can use AI like ChatGPT to transcribe our break, rewrite it as a text to video prompt which we feed into an AI video generator like Google VEO 3. Then we’ll have film quality video to pair with our in-studio video, and audio, when we share a highlight of the break on social media driving traffic to our station website to see the full break. Not to mention, using AI services like Captions.AI, Capcut, Quso.AI or Opus Clip to pull reels from our full shows. Generally, we get a minimum of 15 reels out of 30 minutes worth of content (all 30 to 60 seconds).
The main point is, digital isn’t the enemy of terrestrial and it’s never been an either-or proposition. The best creators are excelling at both and leaving everyone who chooses to only focus on one in their rearview mirror. The sooner we can get more radio talent thinking this way the better it will be for the overall health of our industry.
What do you think? How have you use digital to help fine tune terrestrial? Comment below or email me at Andy@RadioStationConsultant.com.
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