Radio and things like it have become popular topics of late. There’s podcasting, studies indicating declines in traditional radio listenership, and here in Canada the CRTC’s subscription radio hearings. I personally find all of this very interesting. I’ve always liked radio, but these days I very rarely tune into broadcast radio. I think that’s because the broadcasters in my area either don’t air stuff I want to hear, or they don’t air it when I have time to listen.
How any of the traditional radio companies will respond to all these things depends on how they see the business they are in. This is the point of recent no nonsense tip posted on the Radio Marketing Nexus blog recently. Mark Ramsay asks the question “what business is radio in?” A question he answers it in a very thought provoking way.
Ramsay states that radio stations aren’t actually in the “radio” business, but instead are in one of two related businesses: audio entertainment or audio information. Based on that premise he concludes that “local” isn’t nearly as important as some broadcasters think it is. He makes an especially good case for this with “audio entertainement” stations (music, sports-talk, talk, or personality). With audio information (news, sports, traffic, weather) there is still value in the local connection, but that’s starting to be eroded by the Internet.
It would seem that the real advantages of radio are that its ubiquitous (or nearly so), and it has warmth (the human voice). But, I think the point is that radio shouldn’t be focused on “stations” or radio. On the audio entertainment side, he suggests that radio should operate more like network television: national shows that recruit big talent. This makes some sense because right now at least radio is still in the position that network TV used to be in, before specialty cable stations really took off. Regarding, audio information he says, “I believe Information personalities are as important as information content and that fact further reduces the advantage of being ‘local’.”
There’s some other points and details, but I really just wanted to post about this to give myself an opportunity to think it through. I’ve heard the local, local, local mantra a lot, and it’s challenging to think that maybe its not as important as I’ve been told. Generally, I think the kernel here applies to most businesses. A successful business is defined in terms of its relationship to the rest of the world, rather than the details of its operation. On the Taking Care of Business (TLC) TV show they always talk about “selling ideas”.
This entry was written by the proprietor, posted on 19 December 2004 at 4:30 pm.
The Business of Radio
Radio and things like it have become popular topics of late. There’s podcasting, studies indicating declines in traditional radio listenership, and here in Canada the CRTC’s subscription radio hearings. I personally find all of this very interesting. I’ve always liked radio, but these days I very rarely tune into broadcast radio. I think that’s because the broadcasters in my area either don’t air stuff I want to hear, or they don’t air it when I have time to listen.
How any of the traditional radio companies will respond to all these things depends on how they see the business they are in. This is the point of recent no nonsense tip posted on the Radio Marketing Nexus blog recently. Mark Ramsay asks the question “what business is radio in?” A question he answers it in a very thought provoking way.
Ramsay states that radio stations aren’t actually in the “radio” business, but instead are in one of two related businesses: audio entertainment or audio information. Based on that premise he concludes that “local” isn’t nearly as important as some broadcasters think it is. He makes an especially good case for this with “audio entertainement” stations (music, sports-talk, talk, or personality). With audio information (news, sports, traffic, weather) there is still value in the local connection, but that’s starting to be eroded by the Internet.
It would seem that the real advantages of radio are that its ubiquitous (or nearly so), and it has warmth (the human voice). But, I think the point is that radio shouldn’t be focused on “stations” or radio. On the audio entertainment side, he suggests that radio should operate more like network television: national shows that recruit big talent. This makes some sense because right now at least radio is still in the position that network TV used to be in, before specialty cable stations really took off. Regarding, audio information he says, “I believe Information personalities are as important as information content and that fact further reduces the advantage of being ‘local’.”
There’s some other points and details, but I really just wanted to post about this to give myself an opportunity to think it through. I’ve heard the local, local, local mantra a lot, and it’s challenging to think that maybe its not as important as I’ve been told. Generally, I think the kernel here applies to most businesses. A successful business is defined in terms of its relationship to the rest of the world, rather than the details of its operation. On the Taking Care of Business (TLC) TV show they always talk about “selling ideas”.
This entry was written by the proprietor, posted on 19 December 2004 at 4:30 pm.
Filed under Commentary Unbound and tagged broadcasting.
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