By Robby Bridges
Robby Bridges
Happy New Year! As we barrel toward the third decade of the 21st century, radio continues to be vital, vibrant and versatile. Successful older brands (yes, radio is an “old media”) needs to continue to assert itself and live in the digital space. There it needs to do what it does best: create compelling content. Podcasts, streaming, social media and phones? None of these things are threats to what radio does for its listeners or its advertisers. They simply threaten to erode TSL, but not a heck of a lot more than record albums, TV, magazines, 8-tracks and CB radios did 40 years ago.
Maybe the towers will go away in time, but our general operating strategy of engaging content from air talent to music to sports to news won’t change. Radio station brands will evolve into the digital space, but they shouldn’t try to BE their competitors. Radio’s competitors are trying to be like it, we should evolve wisely and tempered. If we do so, we remain in our current supreme position on the audio consumption mountain we are now.
Concurrently, as the world becomes ever more connected and “on demand,” it super-serves niches: what I want, what you want, right now. Radio ought to embrace both its ability to capture critical mass audience AND niche. Wide audiences want to hear hits, want familiar, want to be captured by content quickly and CHR/Country/AC will continue to do that. There is an opportunity to super-serve some niche audiences and to both discover new loyal cume/revenue streams and/or to facilitate ones we somehow decided as an industry were impossible to reach.
For example, 55+ audiences have the most disposable income and will soon need the most health care. Ages 12-24 consume more current music than any other demo, they also have highly persuadable consumer habits and generally have yet to have built brand loyalty. I’d suggest a lot of satellite/streaming service success has come from offering what the terrestrial dial has decided it can’t offer because it’s too hard to sell (at least in the larger metros where more dollars are at stake). Is it harder to sell a niche audience? Harder to target NTR or clients? You bet it is, but we must.
Lastly, we as a business need to invest in our infrastructure (much like the country as a whole does). If we don’t have a new station vehicle/table/supplies when we are out in the community, how are we presenting ourselves? As second-rate. If we are asking advertisers to promote themselves and yet we don’t mass market ourselves, why would they choose to advertise with us? If our technology/facilities are out of date, how can we possibly compete with newer mediums? Perception IS reality. If we aren’t investing in people (on-air talent, digital pros, sellers, managers, traffic directors), how can we move forward? People, infrastructure, strategic planning, out-of-the-box thinking…we need more of it in this New Year. I’m confident we can and we will meet the challenge as an industry!
Robby Bridges is Operations Manager for Townsquare Media’s Portsmouth, NH cluster.
