Month: March 2024

“Radio will stay relevant in 2030…” said Christian Schalt, Chief Digital Officer RTL Radio Deutschland.“We need to understand the present challenges  for radio in order to understand the future challenges.”These present challenges include:
more competition and more digital stations means a more crowded market
new audio players
consumers’ time is competitive
Time spent with radio is decreasing. Younger listeners have a more rapid decrease. Although cume is going down it’s stable as it’s only down by 1% between 2021 and 2022.The good news is that radio will still be relevant in 2030 due to the following:
it’s position in cars
music discovery tool, radio retains top 3 position
Schalt said the survey conducted by the Katz Radio Group (U.S) 2022 showed that radio advertising is highly effective as it’s also the least annoying medium in the advertising space. It’s also seen as the most trustworthy medium in Europe. The research shows that Brands using radio get back their money nearly eight times over on average.Another reason for radio’s continued survival is that radio personalities are influencers, just like influencers social media as 84% of audiences said they’d follow their favourite personality to a new station. When their favourite radio or podcast personality recommends a product 77% would try the recommendation.Radio will stay resilient as it will operate on more data. Data shows in real time how to monetise inventory, realtime KPI’s for spot monetisation.Radioplayer, more personalised app experiences and smart speakers will also play in role in keeping radio relevant.Schalt said that radio will be essential in home entertainment through the rise of the smart TV for mostly radio listening. Schalt quoted another 2022 study that 37% of online audio users who own a Smart TV use it for Webradio.AI can help reduce costs and add functional benefits by helping create content, market and sell plus broadcast, said Schalt.AI can add value to the chain by using:
Synthetic and artificial voices for reading news but not replacing DJ’s
Automated spot creation to make spots more affordable.
Artificial voices for speaking sponsor message e.g.. Tom Hanks contextual audio add.
Summing up Schalt says that radio will stay relevant in 2030 because:
It’ll be driven by data and insights
Strong in the car
Smart and connected
Highly effective for advertising
Leveraged by AI […]

At the start of Erin Callaghan the Director of Enterprise Partnerships for Futuri‘s talk at RadioDays Europe 2024 she spoke of people’s reticence the year previously to acknowledge AI, and it’s potential to replace sales, copywriting and on air talent. This year is different with Callaghan speaking to the importance of “live and local”, not necessarily “alive and local”.Futuri offers a selection of Audio AI solutions including Topic Pulse, which can create show prep and talking points based on what is trending on social media and even can predict future trending topics. They also have Spot On, which can create a commercial, to the length you require, AI voiced, in literally seconds – even creating A & B options for the client. They can additionally make AI voiced current news and weather spots for dayparts that might otherwise have no presenter, and the option of having it “voiced”, using the technology, by the familiar news presenter of the station.Of course that has ethical implications, and Callaghan also spoke to the lessons Futuri have learned through progressing the options they are rolling out to US radio stations. Top was transparency about any AI being used. But Futuri’s position is that AI must be incorporated into radio scheduling as a net cost saving option, rather than replacing people with Callaghan saying:“It is possible, and essential, to come out swinging and for us to claim AI.”Callaghan mentioned the statistic that the top US influencers on social media have a bigger audience than TV and radio stations, and how that shows that we are still invested in what people are saying and doing. From that she said that no day part should be a throwaway, ie devoid of local voices and current news and information, as that is our ongoing point of difference.What AI can do is shorten creation time, take over repetitive non human tasks and provide an immediate and current audio solution when a station is unmanned. Radio stations and audiences are ready for that now. […]

AI is a big theme of RadioDays Europe 2024 with Max Brandl from Bayerischer Rundfunk demonstrating a targeted and localised news service delivery option that is being trialed in Germany.This backend technology, using geolocation information, allows people to be able to select the suburb they live or work in, with the Remix Regional metadata then creating a circle around that area you have personally targeted of a size you determine, lets say a radius of 20 kilometres, as you can see in the image.What this AI summariser does is break down audio news bulletins into individual stories taking key words, in this instance relevant to location. A person can then get five stories that are specifically targeted to where they are. They can set the age of the stories, and this information is kept and reapplied the next time the person seeks their local stories.This summariser doesn’t have to be geolocation based. The metadata could be set to political key words, names of people or industries, sports and so on. It allows for current news, on topics of interest, targeted to the individual, who can change the subject or location as they wish. […]