I don’t get what all the fuss is about. Or maybe I do. See, lots of folks seem very disturbed by the fact that they’re doing the same old thing in new and different ways. Sort of like when you get a new TV and the remote is different. You’re doing the same old thing but in a different way.
“Get to the point, bozo.” Right. Radio’s the point today, the oldest of our broadcast media. It’s changing more than the others. But it’s still the same.
I’ll start with a disclosure – I have had radio broadcasters as clients and, more importantly, I have a number of them as friends and family. I was having a chat with a client at a particularly challenging time in his business and asked him what made him hopeful. His answer, in short, was the scarcity of licenses and that when the economy came around at least new stations wouldn’t have popped up.
Being the sensitive guy that I am, I proceeded to boot up Slacker on my Blackberry and break his heart. No license required, it’s personal, I can skip ads, and it’s mostly the same music. And unless you’re out of cellular and/or WiFi range, it’s available without regard to geographic limitations, unlike his station.
I’m sure you’ve used Pandora or Last.fm or any of the other services. It’s the same old thing – radio – but not. It doesn’t have to be free – you can pay to have ads removed, you can choose different music without “changing the station” (meaning you’re still on Pandora even if you change memes). Clearly things have evolved but one still recognizes it as “radio”.
My question is why hasn’t traditional broadcast radio figured out how to capture what’s evolved? Pure streaming isn’t going to do it. 42% of US Internet users have been on Pandora in the last year and time spent listening to radio by young folks is half of what it was 10 years ago. Good time to ask a question. What else that’s different enhances what’s still the same?
And isn’t that really the challenge for your business too?
Consult Keith 