Month: May 2022

This morning’s most heavily attended session was all about radio in the car.So why are some car manufacturers downgrading radio in the car and what can the industry do to stop it?The Panel for this session wasMichael Hill-Founder and Managing Director of RadioplayerPhillipp Rabel, Head of Development Entertainment CARIAD, VW GroupDavid Holecek, Director of Digital Experience, Volvo Car GroupWhile all three agree that radio still has a place in the car, they differ somewhat on what that place ultimately is.Radioplayer research of over 6,000 drivers in six countries, recently found that

80% of people planning to buy a car are less likely to buy a car without a radio
89% rank broadcast radio as the most important audio feature in the car
90% believe that broadcast radio should be standard in every car
Car manufacturers are aware of this sentiment among drivers, and are therefore unlikely to remove radio completely from cars, assuring at least its short term survival.But what happens when the driver becomes a passenger in the fully autonomous vehicle.Both vehicle manufacturing representatives urged radio to prepare for this eventuality as, at the moment, this is venturing into the unknown.In the meantime they would both like to see the phasing out of AM radio which has had its own problems with interference in Hybrid and Electric cars causing manufacturers to spend money on shielding car tuners, an expense they would rather do without.From a worldwide aspect, they both agreed that the differing types of broadcasting, DAB+, AM/FM etc, make it difficult, though not impossible, to create a standard worldwide entertainment unit in vehicles.All the panellists agree that radio’s delivery into the car is likely to change in coming years and will probably be more IP orientated, but for the moment radios will mainly continue to get their programs from broadcast antenna.Radio stations are already using platforms like Radioplayer to get metadata into cars using an entertainment unit that can play programs on DAB, FM or streaming off the internet.These systems are now allowing stations to get real-time analytics data back from cars, not just the stream, but the AM/FM DAB and podcast listening habits of drivers.Google have moved into cars supplying an Android Automotive operating system where Google powers the dashboard.Michael Hill says he believes this move by Google is so important that his company has now invested quite a bit of money in building a reference radio for Android Automotive.After the workshop radioinfo’s Wayne Stamm, asked Michael about radio’s future in the car. […]

Shirish Kulkarni is a journalist, researcher and community organiser who has spent 25 years as a journalist throughout the UK and is now at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.At Radiodays Europe, he presented a workshop on what he calls the ‘Seven building blocks of reflective journalism’.He says journalism is currently in an existential crisis where peoples trust in their news services has been eroded, for example in the UK only 36% of people says they trust news all the time, while only 44% trust the news service they personally use.He says that a lot of the problems with current journalism is that it is built on habit, formulas and templates that are no longer relevant because they do not relate to the majority of people, and that people are now demanding news being provided by journalists that live in their area, and not in a metropolitan hub that is unconnected with their daily life.Stories need to engage young people because they are the audience of tomorrow, and Shirish says most journalists now have, importantly, forgotten how to tell a story as “…we are a species addicted to stories.”He says that the overall news focus on breaking or moving stories takes the focus away from some of the bigger stories, “…like climate change, that takes places gradually over time.” His building blocks for journalism are:Content: Is the information journalists provide what the citizens (not the journalists) need and want.

Context: Citizens want context and analysis, not just breaking or “moving” news.Agency: Citizens have power and agency and journalists need to provide ways for them to exercise thatTone :Journalists need to write in a way that is clear, accessible and not defined by the habits of the pastInclusion: They need not just to listen to different perspectives, but to HEAR and reflect themTransparency: They need to be clear about how we are reporting and acknowledge gapsOrientation: Journalism should help us understand the world, locate us in our environment and enable us to meaningfully interact with it., It should help us form views that are consistent with the needs and interests of ourselves and the community.Shirish says he sees the future to encompass citizen-focussed journalism built with community in mind and leveraging the power of AI and Natural language generation, and finished the workshop with three main points1.     Let’s connect with why we became journalists in the first place2.     Let’s Fixate on creating journalism as a service that meets our needs3.     Let’s move from being gatekeepers to being facilitatorsAfter the workshop he spoke with radioinfo’s Wayne Stamm, and had some good advice for young upcoming journalists. […]

“When you start interacting with smart speakers and you find out how convenient they are, you start thinking what else can it do and how can it make my life easier,” said Paul Cranwell from AdTonos in a RadioDays Europe session about growing digital revenue.Where is voice interaction going next and how will it influence advertising on radio and other media?Smart speakers will be an important part of interaction via audio, especially in the home. A UK survey showed that 20% of smart speakers are likely to buy via the smart speaker in the next month and that 60% of voice assistant users think it adds convenience to their lives.Voice is integral to cross platform purchasing, according to Cranwell. It is also becoming more important in cars and games.“Gaming is bringing interactive audio to life in its 3 billion people eco system.” Audiences for audio ads in games can hear similar ads as they do on their streaming services now in their gaming apps. “Advertisers are realising that if you serve a video ad in a game, it stops the game, but if you serve an audio ad and the audience can keep playing the game the ad is more a part of their experience.”It’s not just nerdy young males playing games. The average gamer is 34 year old and female, they are playing games such as Sudoku on their phones on the way to or from work.There are now 1000 voice activated apps in the new Audi. “Is your radio station ready to be prominent in the car… is your radio station offering interaction through voice,” asked Cranwell.

With interactive voice functions, stations can integrate selling, donations to charities, interactive campaigns/promotions, and sponsored voice games. “Everyone loves a pub quiz, why not do one via an interactive voice interface,” he suggested.Cranwell also discussed having your own audio apps and asked, why bother with them?Here are the reasons why he thinks it is worth radio stations bothering to have their own apps:
To find first party data, to capture your own data
Better audience engagement is an extension of your brand now and people are willing to register and give you their data if you engage with them well enough. First party data is very valuable
Talk shows – are you capturing them in the podcast library part of your app, why not get advertisers to sponsor the library back-catalog
E Commerce can be integrated into your app
Programmatic ads – it’s easy money and there is a lot of money going through programmatic at the moment
It gives you the ability to interact through smart speakers for games and interactivity
Social media – live audio rooms (Clubhouse), use these new channels
Roger Cutsforth, who had a long career in radio sales before founding radio and audio consultancy White Label Studio, gave an agency view about buying digital.“When I went to pitch to customers we spent a lot of time talking about our wonderful brands but not enough time on what the prospects wanted to do… digital buying cuts through all that,” he said.He says radio networks must integrate digital revenues and make their audio ads available in the digital space. “Radio ad revenues have been challenged by the digital world… buying digital is easy. With radio the advertisers still have to talk to people and find out which station is best, then buy it… they prefer a dashboard, it makes it easy for them to buy.”If audio is to hard to buy they will just go for the digital channel. He says clients want radio stations to “make it easy for us to buy radio… At the moment, it’s too hard.”Buyers don’t know audio very well, so Cutsforth urges radio sales departments to think about what is going  on in their world and relate to them by using programmatic language and tolls. “Relate it to what they know and educate them about what audio can do. Don’t talk about numbers, instead tell them about the strengths and benefits of audio. Where do we fit in their ecosystem and why will it work?”This attitude is also holding back both radio and podcast advertising according to Cutsforth.AdTonos is a platform and marketplace for digital audio advertising. […]

Cilla Benkö, Director General Swedish Radio, delivered the keynote address at the opening of Radiodays Europe today in Malmö.She began her address recapping the invasion of Ukraine on February 24th at 4am, bringing war to Europe.Eight minutes later, Swedish Radio cleared their talk station P1 of regular programming to broadcast non-stop for the next 48 hours covering the invasion, using correspondents on the ground and local voices giving local perspectives from local channels, as well as in-depth analysis from internal and external experts.Benkö says that during this 48 hour period, SR’s P1 gained 400,000 to 500,000 new listeners that “…didn’t come from another Swedish radio channel, they didn’t come from commercial radio either.” She urged the audience to remember that they all have “…colleagues on the ground in Ukraine covering the war, giving the public historical voices and historical perspectives and while we are sitting here in comfort they are taking a huge risk and are in huge danger.” She says that audio is now booming with rapid growth like never before and that “Never before have there been so many players investing in sound, both public service and commercial. We have ordinary radio channels on on-demand offerings such as podcasts and news clips, and audio books. “Listeners have an enormous amount to choose from.” Seeing Spotify as the biggest competitor for radio, Benkö says radio has to continue to grow and change, but that its connection to the listener remains radio’s biggest strength, but says that radio stations “…need to develop linear formats while at the same time spearheading new on-demand formats.” […]