For years now two distinct camps have been forming within the radio industry, those who don’t embrace digital and those who are digital first. Stations who aren’t embracing digital often look like they’re broadcasting in 1990, a dated website (or none at all), on-air talent who don’t post to the website or the station’s social feeds, no podcasting and no video content. The digital first groups do a good job with all of those things where they have talent, but many of them have cut so deep that there’s no one left to do that on the local level. Which is a mistake, to earn digital revenue we need digital content and without personalities there’s no one with a connection to the community to create that content. In the next phase of radio, I predict that most successful groups will land somewhere in the middle and create a healthier balance of terrestrial and digital. Here’s a few thoughts on how we can accomplish that.

Strategically bring back staff focused on self-sufficient employees who are capable and willing to multi-task and do a little bit of everything within the building. There isn’t a lot of room left for specialists in radio at the local level, nor is there any room for people who consistently say the phrase ‘that’s not my job’. The current, and certainly the next, phase of radio is an all-hands-on-deck, everybody pitch-in where and when they can phase. Look for people who display a clear passion and love for radio, hire them, compensate them a livable wage, incentivize over-performance and give them the tools necessary to succeed.

Luckily, with the advancements in AI, there are now countless affordable tools that can help our staffs seem much bigger than they are. AI can help write bits and commercials, edit audio and video, create and schedule social posts, identify likely advertisers to target and so much more. Instead of using AI to replace our employees, radio will likely ultimately land on pairing these new tools with a handful of employees willing to embrace them.

Give our personalities a little more room to be personalities. Tight and bright mode served its purpose of getting talent out of the way of music, but it also coached most of the personality out of radio talent. We need to give our personalities the freedom to inject their unique personalities back into their shows and also teach them how to do long-form for podcasting. Getting back to regularly airchecking talent is the fastest and most effective way of doing that. It’s also a great way to reinforce digital responsibilities and work with talent on how to pre-promote and extend the life of their content on digital platforms.

Tailor our brands, content and advertising to work better on all available devices so we can continue to surround our listeners throughout the day. We’re just a few years away from some drastic changes in car dashes, and even windows, which will open up new challenges and new opportunities for radio. Smartphones will also continue to improve our ability to connect, engage, interact and solicit creative content from our listeners. Plus, in the future most radio stations will have a much smaller footprint for their studios and offices and supplement that with a network of home studios, remote studios and even studios at key advertiser locations.

We also can’t be more than a few years away from a big breakthrough in audience measurement. Nielsen (and Eastlan in some markets) is the system we’ve got for now and I still encourage all my clients in rated markets who can afford it to subscribe. But, we all know it’s an outdated system using antiquated technology, a very-outdated diary recall system in non-ppm markets and too small of a sample base. We’re overdue for a better, more accurate way to do audience measurement. Someone will create a better mousetrap soon and it will likely utilize smart phones. Until then, I also encourage everyone to use some strategic programming features and promotions to create their own audience estimates.

As I’ve been saying for years, radio isn’t dying, it’s changing. But radio groups who refuse to change with it will absolutely die and we’re already seeing that take place. Right now, everyone is in survival mode and the challenge with survival mode is it leads us to almost exclusively make short term decisions. Eventually, radio as an industry will take a breath, get a good night’s sleep, then innovate, evolve and survive just like we’ve successfully done for over a hundred years now.

What do you think? What will the next phase of radio look like? Comment below or email me at Andy@RadioStationConsultant.com.  

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