Month: March 2022

Singapore’s SPH Media station Money FM 89.3 and Temasek Polytechnic are launching a new Money Manager financial literacy series on March 28 covering a wide array of topics like debit vs credit cards, retirement planning and buying a first home.
Made for youths by youths, this first-of-its-kind collaboration for Money FM 89.3 features 19 podcast episodes produced by Temasek Polytechnic students.
Each 2-minute episode features an interview with a professional from a particular field to provide relevant information and advice to help youths and young working adults gain a better understanding of topics such as budgeting, inflation, insurance and investment.
The first two podcast episodes will debut on March 28 and subsequently programmed throughout the various timebelts during the week. Listeners can look forward to two new episodes every Monday.
Money FM 89.3 Programme Director, Loretta Lopez, said: “We understand that navigating your finances can be daunting early on and education plays a critical role in arming young students and adults with the tools they need to make informed decisions. The students have put a significant amount of effort into the production of this series and in addressing issues which they feel are relevant to their peers and young working adults.”
Tan Siew Kim, Director of Temasek Polytechnic’s School of Business said: “Temasek Polytechnic firmly believes in providing our students with a well-rounded educational experience that maximises both academic learning as well as personal enrichment and growth. Knowing that the students’ works have contributed to building a financially more inclusive and resilient community is indeed heartening.”  […]

Content from BPRIn 1974 a young Kodak engineer named Steven Sasson was assigned a seemingly low-stakes task: to see if there was any practical use for a recent invention capable of turning light into data. He built a device that could capture images and digitally display them on a screen, and eagerly presented it to his bosses.But Steven made a tactical blunder: He billed the new technology as “filmless photography”. That positioning clashed with the very raison d’être of his audience – executives whose careers depended on the sale and processing of film. The response from his board of directors was stunned silence.Why did he make such a deeply flawed pitch? Steven, in his own words, said he was carried away by his enthusiasm for his invention. He later said: “It never occurred to me that I was at odds with the fundamental mission of the company for the last 100 years……to sell film and process it.”In other words, the board wasn’t buying what he was selling.Anyone involved in sales knows that it’s easier to close the deal when the buyer has already identified a need for the product you are trying to sell.The same applies to programming a radio station.There’s no use being the station that is best known for playing country music in a market that has little or no appetite for that genre.Find out what the audience wants in terms of programming elements and music eras & genres BEFORE your next strategy and planning meeting. The things they REALLY want or love.Don’t rely on gut feel/comments from colleagues/friends.Rely on the listeners’ opinions.Once you know what they want, design the format to THEIR specifications…… not something that resembles what they want or your interpretation of what they want.Strategy is just one part of successful programming.The other is EXECUTION of that strategy.Once you have created the product, TELL the listeners about it.Be creative yet simple in your messages to ensure maximum cut through.SELL it to them……. because you know they WANT it!By David Kidd, BPR […]

At the recently concluded ABU Digital Broadcasting Symposium 2022, one of the sessions discussed Evolving Business Strategies for Broadcast and Media. It was moderated by Zhong Shi, Anchor, China Global Television Networks (CGTN) and included presentations by Joan Warner, Chief Executive Officer, Commercial Radio Australia, and Simon Keens, Sales and Business Development Manager, Ampegon.Warner’s presentation was titled Radio 2022 and Beyond: Meeting the Commercial Imperative.She began by discussing the current radio broadcasting scene in Austalia: “Most listening in Australia is still done using AM / FM and DAB+ broadcasts, but there is growth in listening online through mobile apps, smart speakers, in-car apps and aggregators. Streaming and podcast numbers are also up. However, we need to invest in broadcast as well as non-broadcast digital to keep our competitive advantage while developing capabilities across any other platform possible.”According to research, people like to hear entertainment and news about local areas delivered in local voices, which gives radio a strong advantage over digital platforms.“Live and local is one of radio’s superpowers. It connects local communities and provides a trusted, authentic and local safe haven for listeners and advertisers. It’s imperative that we continually communicate the power of broadcast radio and DAB+, not only to advertisers but to government and legislators,” she said.“Along with high quality sound DAB is cheaper and greener than AM and FM, but just as reliable and robust. DAB + provides a significant choice in content and builds incremental audiences and revenue growth for broadcasters. There are now over 350 DAB+ and AM/FM stations on the radio app – robust growth over ten years.”Giving an example of how DAB+ offers agility and flexibility a big positive for commercial broadcasters, she cited award winning Little Fox Digital Radio, which was created in four days only for children during the COVID pandemic. It remained on air for ten months and was listened to by thousands of Australian families.Speaking about how radio can continue to thrive in the connected car, she said that with car manufacturers looking to invest in developing their connected services in the car dashboard and possibly cut costs elsewhere, it’s likely that broadcast radio will come under pressure. There’s a real possibility that radio in the connected car may not be easily discoverable. She discussed a research commissioned by WorldDAB in partnership with Radioplayer and sponsored by the National Association of Broadcasters, Xperi and CRA. It will provide the radio industry with a robust and independent report addressing this strategic challenge. The survey asked global consumers how much they value radio in the car. Almost all in-car listeners say a broadcast radio tuner should be standard equipment in every car. Radio operators can’t be passive passengers during the journey towards the future of the car.Summing up, she said: “It’s imperative that we continue to invest in AM/FM radio and DAB+, in 2022 and beyond, while developing new digital capabilities. DAB+ and internet working together provides the foundation for a total radio experience. DAB+ builds audiences and generates revenue for broadcasters. Advertisers require detailed measurement and robust research which are a crucial investment now and moving forward.”Keens made a presentation titled DRM Energy Efficiency: Cutting the Cost of Broadcasting.He started by introducing the basic advantage of DRM: “DRM works in all frequency bands, able to have the same standard and same principles of operation across each form of broadcasting.”AM has a central frequency with a carrier wave which contains no information whatsoever but takes almost 66 percent of the electrical energy. This is what DRM tries to address. Also, AM in Analog mode has a grainy interference on the signal and while you can cover a large are, you need hundreds of KWs of power to do that. But with DRM, you can cover the same amount of area with just 40 KWs of power because you are getting rid of the carrier wave.“With analog, there is only one sound service, but with DRM you get one to three digital stereo services plus a multimedia stream. Looking at FM bands, you need less bandwidth and you can cover the same area with 10 percent of the power,” he said.Besides the Capital Expenses (CAPEX) in setting up an analogoue transmitter, the Operational Expenses are almost five times the CAPEX over its lifetime.DRM has also introduced and Energy Efficiency Calculator – a tool that allows one to calculate how much energy can be saved by switching transmitters from analogue to digital DRM operation. […]