ONLINE STREAMING: It Shouldn't be a Task to Listen
ONLINE STREAMING: It Shouldn’t be a Task to Listen
As I continue to look for a full time programming job in radio, one question I’m surprised I’m NOT being asked during interviews, is about streaming and online listening. Especially since more and more people are listening to our radio stations via their smart speakers and smart phones.
A couple of months ago while on my, You Need to Hire Mav3rick Tour, I was in Reno and had the chance to visit with my friend Lisa. She’s one of those girls from SoCal who just couldn’t afford living in California any longer, so she bailed to Nevada. But she loves her hometown radio stations in San Diego, so she listens to them via Google smart speakers throughout her home and connects to her dashboard car radio. And during a drive up to Tahoe, I witnessed her frustration with the online listening due to recurring issues. And we experience quite a few. We were listening to one of her favorite stations. But every time the signal would drop (even for a second or two), the station would buffer, play a commercial, then back to the music. This would repeat itself often.
The problem? The opening sponsorship before the station’s actual audio streaming. This will also occur when you switch from cell service to wifi, or visa versa, or if the wifi itself has an issue. It’s worst when listening to the app on your smart phone with a :30 second video roll, THEN the :15 sponsored ad, THEN finally the station’s streaming.
After switching to another station, we experienced a break from their over-the-air commercials to their online spots. A sloppy segue can result in cutting off the jock’s break or station promo. By the way, if your station promos are scheduled by traffic with the commercials, those promos are never heard online.
I know we want to make extra revenue with streaming, so get your I.T. person to tighten it up.
Also, monitor the ads being played. Earlier this year while listening to a Sacramento radio station, I heard only two :15 second PSAs in their 7 minute stopset! This went on for days! Yes, I eventually left a message with them.
Because many stations stream their audio from the ‘program’ feed instead of the ‘on air monitor’, the audio is raw with no compression, so the volume will vary. That can also cause an issue when the jock’s voice over powers the song they are talking over. Imaging can be too loud and even over modulated.
My friend Lisa had Amazon’s Echo Dot, but bought the Google Home, and found it was much easier to use. I’ll have to do video soon about Google vs Alexa, but in short, make sure your radio stations are on either TuneIn or iHeart. Or work with Google and Amazon to have your companies personal app accessible on their smart speakers (and any other future devices like the new smart displays). Check your logo, station name, and streaming link. Be sure the info is correct. If not, contact TuneIn, iHeart, Google, and Amazon. You’ll want to make it easy for your listeners to simply call out your station with no steps to get there. For an example: Google can find 97.1 AMP Radio in LA by simply saying, “Hey Google, listen to 97.1 AMP Radio.” With Amazon, you have to ask Alexa to go through a series of steps to find AMP Radio. Otherwise, Alexa will just send you to either K97.1 (Memphis) or 97X (Tampa Bay).
Skills in the Alexa app don’t always help. The listener has to make sure the verbiage is exact word for word instructed. If you say, “Alexa listen to TRI 102.5” (Ft. Collins, Colorado), you’re gonna get 102.5 WDVE (Detroit).
HAVE I LOST YOU YET? TOO MANY DETAILS? NOW IMAGINE HOW YOUR LISTENERS FEEL! YOU’RE LISTENERS ARE NOT GOING TO GO THROUGH ALL THIS HASSLE AND ALL THOSE STEPS JUST TO LISTEN TO YOUR STATION.
It should be as easy as simply saying, “Hey Google, listen to 1077 The Beat” (Bend, Oregon). Which by the way, Alexa can’t find 1077 The Beat. The very name of the radio station can’t be found. It’ll go to Z 107.7 (St. Louis).
By the way, a few months ago, it was reported that Google assisted smart speakers out sell Amazon’s Alexa devices. So when it comes to promoting your online listening…Don’t. Ignore. Google.
In short, work your tail off so my friend Lisa…your listeners…don’t get frustrated trying to listen to or find their favorite radio stations. It’s a new age of radio listening. We need to make sure we are on top of it.
Broadcast Media Professional, Copywriter and Client Services
6 年Awesome work. I agree. I've found that listening to purely streaming stations (ones without a terrestrial counterpart) tend to be the easiest and best to listen to. Stations like Jeffro Radio in Chicago, and the newly recreated KNX-FM in Los Angeles have zero or near zero commercials, although that worries me too. Jeffro has been going on for years, but it always makes me think "Who is supporting this, and how long until they run out of money and stop doing this for the fun of it?" Some others only play a spot or two every 20 minutes, but annoyingly, it's the same two spots every time (you can only stand so much of Flo from Geico or Progressive, and Jack from Jack In the Box!).