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Panel Points To Ways To Perk Up 'Stodgy' Radio
SAN JOSE -- March 11, 2008: "Revitalizing Stodgy Old Media" was the topic of a lively Tuesday-afternoon panel at Radio Ink's Convergence conference. Moderator Mercury Radio Research President Mark Ramsey began by asking the panelists, "What is a radio station in 2008? How do we think of it?"
Ramsey asked panelists what tools they'd recommend if they were looking to maximize the performance of a station starting from scratch. "I would start by looking at what's made radio great for the last 50 years," said Triton Media Group COO Mike Agovino. That includes, he said, personality, promotion services, advertising, and technology -- but technology with an eye to "driving engagement." He said, "As time goes on, that's really what advertisers are paying for."
Though radio, he said, is trying to compete with "antiquated tools" in its diary ratings, it must "look at how we can alter and improve the experience."
CELLit Hosted Video CEO Steven Poley said community will be key for radio. An audience, he said, that is committed and engaged, "has tremendous value."
Mass 2 One Media COO Tracy Johnson said radio can't compete with the Internet as a provider of either music or information and must now rely on personality and promotion. A station, he said, must dominate in one or the other in order to be successful -- and to do that, he said, it must extend its brand off the air.
But Cellecast CEO Andrew Deal said radio must be careful when stretching the brand. Online, he said, "You are essentially accessible from anywhere, and that can bring a disconnect." Radio must, he said, be careful to "protect what you have."
When Ramsey asked about dealing with obstacles from advertisers, Poley urged both accountability -- he said of radio, "You hide your Web statistics, almost like you're ashamed of your Web audience" -- and innovation. "If people offer you products," he said, "give them a chance. You may find that as your Web traffic goes up, your client becomes more interested."
Johnson agreed, saying he's never been told M2One has a bad product -- rather, he said, the problem is one of courage. "No one wants to step out and do something new," he said. "Unless we as an industry start investing in good ideas going forward, we're never going to catch up with where technology is taking us."
Ramsey got laughter and applause when he said, "How many people does a broadcast group have to fire in order to develop a digital strategy?" Agovino said he can't imagine working the way so many in the industry do today, being asked to do so much, and said vendors can do their part by making products simple to execute. Deal added, "Simplicity is the key. People just aren't going to adopt things that are too complicated."
Deal went on to say that new media people often "look at radio with scorn" and that he's tired of hearing that radio is in decline. "There really is a place for radio," he said, "and radio can shine."
But Gil Edwards, PD and Content Consultant for redlasso, said that at many stations, "staff is a real struggle." Webmasters, he said, may also be promotion directors who rarely have time to update the site. "We must invest in building online product," he said.
Poley urged radio to move away from "analysis paralysis" and do something now, even if it's just to fire up the Web staff. Radio can ask Web managers, he said, to double unique visitors in two months, saying, "They can do that, if you'll let them." That doesn't rule out a larger strategy, he said, but it can help get key Web people enthusiastic again.
Ramsey asked what panelists would do right now to leverage radio's strengths. Agovino said he'd "ask which employees I would retain if I had a goal of delivering 20 percent of my revenue through digital in the next five years."
He said "people are who mired in the protection of the status quo" are blocking radio's progress. But, he said, "There are plenty of good people out there who can do this."
In response to an audience question about the benefits of social networking, Johnson pointed out that no one is going to abandon MySpace or Facebook, but added, "You can do a lot of things with your existing personalities to extend the brand," including having personalities blog about events that may occur when they're off the air, then continue the conversation on the air the next day. He said, "You don't have to be limited anymore by what you can do in that 60-minute hour."
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