Smart Speakers: Radio's Natural Ally

"Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything..."

In 2007 Steve Jobs walked on stage in Palo Alto California to deliver one of his most recognisable presentations. His trademark black turtle neck and blue denim were unremarkable, but the contents of his presentation were historic. Jobs announced that Apple would be launching three products: a touchscreen iPod, a mobile phone and an internet communications device. The twist was that these three products were neatly packaged in one device: the iPhone.

The iPhone was the first mass market smartphone and it, coupled with widespread mobile internet, led the way for a revolution in communications. None of this will be news to you. Smartphones however, have never been natural allies to traditional radio. iPhones have never had any FM radio tuner built in. In fact, the only Apple gadgets which included FM radios have since been discontinued. Smartphones have also always been multimedia devices with a greater emphasis on visuals. This has made them naturally a closer friend of television and visual media than of audio.

For a second, picture the home screen of a smartphone as a supermarket shelf stacked with products. A radio station application sits next to Netflix, which is positioned on the shelf above Facebook and to the left of TikTok. The consumer standing in the aisle and musing their choice is overwhelmed by a variety of choices of entertainment. In recent years radio has had to reframe its position in the competitive environment to being an entertainment provider. No longer is it a choice for the consumer between Y FM and Radio Z, it is a choice between Y FM and TikTok or between Radio Z and Netflix.

Enter the smart speaker: the first gadget since the MP3 player which is audio-only. To the radio industry, the beauty of the smart speaker is that the choice is limited for the consumer. It limits the consumer to choosing between music streaming, podcasts and live radio. This prospect should excite radio. Finally there is a piece of cool and popular technology which embraces audio. But I have yet to hear any real evidence of radio stations properly leveraging the technology.

The 'Listen Up Ireland 2021' Report from Red C and IAB found that 15% of those surveyed regularly used smart speakers and that over a third of the population claims to own one. In the recent UK RAJAR listenership figures, 20% of those surveyed stated they listened to radio every day on smart speaker.

These are positive signs, but it ought not be taken for granted that listeners will simply transition to listening to a radio station through a smart speaker. Here are a few things which I think Programme Directors must consider:

Positioning and Recall

When a listener gets into their car and turns on their FM or DAB radio they have a list of stations available to pick from. Smart speakers have no such list and work solely from the listener's commands. This difference from traditional radio cannot be overlooked.

A listener must correctly remember the name of your radio station. Recall is a high priority for Programme Directors for any diary-based listenership survey such as the JNLR. The obvious solutions through strong reinforcement of branding on air through imaging and presenter mentions. But in the context of smart speakers listeners should regularly be reminded of how to ask Alexa or Google to play the radio station. What if your radio station shares its name with something else. For example, a listener may want Alexa to play 'Kiss' the radio station, but it may play 'Kiss' the '70s rock band.

Programme Directors should also focus on using the features within smart speakers to make listening habitual. For example, it is possible for Alexa to create a 'routine', such as a daily alarm which wakes up the listener by playing a particular radio station. Radio listeners should be taught and encouraged to embrace these features, in order to make smart speaker listening more habitual.

Branding and Pronunciations

I recently asked Alexa to play a song by an artist named 'Ewan McVicar'. Alexa replied 'sorry, I can't help you with that'. Adapting the pronunciation slightly, I tried a few more times but with no success. If Alexa or Google Home cannot recognise the name of a radio station when listeners ask it to play the station, listeners won't bother asking for it. Radio consultant Keri Jones recently noted this in regard to stations with difficult-to-pronounce names, such as Soleil Radio. Further, it's important that the smart speaker can pronounce the radio station's frequency, too. Not too long ago I asked Google to play 'Spin 1038' (pronounced 'one-oh-three-eight') to which it responded saying "playing Spin ten thirty eight on Tunein". It is simple but important to get right.

Making Smart Speakers The Default

Over a third of the British public owns a smart speaker. It should be the aim of the radio industry to ensure that listeners are using the speaker to listen to radio content over music streaming services such as Spotify or independently produced podcasts.

Smart speakers ought to be name-dropped more regularly on live radio. This has the effect of nudging listeners to purchase one and perceive their smart speaker primarily as a radio-listening device. It could be as simple as encouraging presenters to inject smart speakers more often into the conversation. For instance, as someone might say 'I was watching something on television last night', a presenter should talk about the podcast or the radio station they were listening to on their Alexa. I am surprised by how little I have heard of radio stations running competitions to give away smart speakers. These are self-fulfilling exercises which both create a conversation on air about using smart speakers for radio listening and in turn drive listening to the station.

"Alexa, what does the future hold?"

It may be somewhat concerning that Apple, Google and Amazon have nearly the entire smart speaker market to themselves. There is a fear that anticompetitive measures might be taken by Big Tech to prioritise their own content over that of live radio, similar to the allegation levied against Google by competition regulators. A 2021 UK Government Report on Digital Radio and Audio emphasized the importance of keeping radio on a level playing field with its digital-only competitors. To some this could be seen as stifling innovation, but to radio it might be seen as a necessity for fair play.

Amazon is also promising to "disrupt radio" with its plan for 'Project Mic'. This will see individuals being able to broadcast their own live radio shows through an app (and presumably through smartspeakers) allowing listeners to interact with the presenter. It seems that they will recruit some big-name talent at first. Industry commentator Matt Deegan was skeptical about this concept, suggesting it may simply lead to 'bad radio'. Personally, I think it is something that radio should watch closely as it has the potential to leverage the fanbases of so-called 'online creators'. But why can't radio do that too? The technology might also open the path for smart speakers to be used to allow listeners to use smart speakers to interact with live radio, turning radio into a social medium, a dialogue, rather than a one-way means of communication it sometimes can be.

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Gavin Dowd is a radio and podcast presenter from Dublin, Ireland. Email: [email protected].