Should radio be redefined in the digital age?
What is radio? I asked around my family and friends to find out how they perceive radio. Did I get replies like "music", "entertainment" or perhaps "companionship"? No, I did not. Most of the answers circled around a "box" at the office. With this in mind, there is no wonder I keep hearing comments like "radio is dead" or "does anyone really listen to radio these days?" among my friends and family. Sadly, I often here these comments from people working in the radio industry as well. What? Really? From people in the industry as well? Yes, that is sadly true. And I hear it a lot. To be fair, there are many passionate radio advocates as well, and I think they are in majority. Nonetheless, to me the attitude towards radio demonstrates a lack of confidence and perhaps a misconception of the underlying meanings of the word "radio"? (radio versus radio-set).
Back to my friends and family, when I probe into the matter of the word "radio", I actually get answers more inclined towards describing the actual benefit of radio; "music" and "entertainment". Good! And, as a long time radio- and media researcher, I can confirm this with numbers as well. The absolute strongest benefit of radio, when you probe into it, is "companionship". And when asked to elaborate on this, you will find the underlying values "music", "entertainment" and also "news".
So, if these really are the drivers, why is radio sometimes regarded as out of fashion? My answer to this is that there is a problem with the word "radio" in itself. In many cases it connotes into the "box" mentioned in the beginning of this post, instead of into the underlying meanings, with "companionship" in the lead.
I think that everybody in the radio industry has to embrace the fact that they are in the audio business and not in the radio business. With this in mind, we can attack the problem of decreasing FM listening and the diminishing number of radio-sets in the household (Infinite Dial 2016) with a more joyful attitude. Why? Because the perceived consumption of audio, as opposed to radio listening, is actually increasing! In a report from Activate in November 2016 (www.activate.com) we can see that daily audio consumption increased with 27 minutes between 2011 and 2014. And it is projected to grow with another 36 minutes until 2017! Wow, It is great to be in the audio business (see earlier post https://tinyurl.com/hjfbftj). But how can audio consumption grow when the attention is on the portable screen in your pocket? Well, the simple answer is that "capturing attention is not a zero sum game" (Activate). Many activities are multi tasked. Radio, or audio, is one of them!
So, with this big potential in the audio consumption, radio is in a really good place. Radio all over the world produces countless of hours of audio entertainment every day. Radio has the talent and decades of experience to produce first class audio content. I think people in the radio industry needs to define themselves as audio producers rather than radio producers. And perhaps, the word "radio" needs to be redefined? I do not advocate that we should cease to use the word "radio", because it is a really powerful word. But we should think about how the word is positioned in the minds of audio consumers and find a way of using its strength in a time of digital transformation. Radio is about "companionship" not about distribution. And the need for companionship is just as strong today in the digital age, as it has ever been since the dawn of storytelling and music, long before Neolithic times.
What do you think? How is "radio" perceived to you?
Ulf Tjerneld