ASIA

Hitz FM fans can now enjoy a bigger and louder ‘Hitz Morning Crew’ with new additions, Raj and Anne, new announcers who will be joining hosts, Ean and Arnold, every weekday mornings from 15 August, Mondays to Fridays at 6am to 10am.The show, which is the country’s first four-person morning crew  will also feature some new segments:Cikgu Gen Z, every Monday, where Cikgu Anne gives the boys a Gen Z term and Ean, Arnold and Raj need to spell out the term and use it in a sentence.

Trust Me Tuesdays, every Tuesday, where two announcers will describe two boxes to be chosen, one is a horrible and another is lie that will test trust of the other.Anne’s Hitlist, every Wednesday, where Anne plays a snippet of a song and if the boys guess it right, they are saved from carrying out a punishment.What’s That Movie???, every Thursday, where Raj and Anne will act out a scene from a movie for Ean and Arnold to guess.First World Problems, every Friday, where fans can call in and share their first world problems to be solved by the Hitz Morning Crew.Priya Prabakaran, Head of Content, Astro Radio, said: “We are thrilled to introduce this bigger and louder line-up to our popular Morning Crew, bringing in fresh and relevant new local talents to boot. We hope our listeners enjoy the first four-person radio breakfast show as well as a new feminine presence to balance and add depth to our vibrant line-up.” […]

Content from BPRA lot of radio station tactics are “hit & miss”. When tactics deliver a result there is general celebration. When they are not successful there is a tendency to look for excuses to rationalise why the tactic didn’t work.  The reality is that the issue is rarely the idea. It’s usually about the execution and/or who the intended target was thought to be.  If there is not sufficient definition of who you are targeting and what their motivational triggers might be, then programming tactics become an exercise in throwing an idea against the wall and hoping it sticks.Mood, motivation and brand affinity are much more accurate ways to describe the various “tribes” that listen to your radio station at various times for various reasons.  The key issue is sorting the wheat from the chaff so tactics can be focussed on those people who offer a tangible opportunity of conversion and/or greater usage of your radio station.  The fact is not all P1’s are the same and not all P2’s are the same.Within the cume audience of a radio station there are 6 primary tribes:

P1 Disciples.  These people love several things about your radio station and these things are critical to maintaining your differentiation and listener loyalty.  What these people love about your radio station must be preserved above all else.  These are the people most likely to talk about you and share things about your station with their friends.P1 Cool.  These people represent a tribe with either relatively low attachment to radio itself or in some form of transition with your station, either newly arrived and discovering you or slipping from you because you are doing something which is starting to annoy them.  Your image trends with this tribe provides an early warning of where you are falling short of expectations.P1 Brittle.  These people are on the brink of changing their listening preference to another radio station.  Something you are doing has specifically disenfranchised them or they were never particularly loyal to begin with.P2 Fans.   These people love a particular thing about your radio station, generally it will be your music.  The reason they are not P1’s of your radio station tells you pretty much all you need to know about where your primary point of competitive stress is.P2 Interested.  As with P1 Cools, P2’s Interested are generally in transition.  They can be a very important tribe to understand if they represent a big chunk of your cume.  P2 Interested are often using your station on weekends and offer additional TSL opportunity if you have the right message for them.P2 Ambivalent.  These people have a very low attachment to your station and are likely sampling you for one particular thing like a contest, a late-night program or a weekend feature program – at best.  There is generally very little to be gained by throwing resources at this tribe.The needs, motivation and behaviour of your 6 cume tribes can be surprisingly different which explains why tactics targeting a broad P1 or P2 assumption can sometimes be ineffective, particularly in highly competitive markets.By Wayne Clouten, BPR […]

How do we safeguard the “orphan” accounts?Selling Radio Direct with Pat BrysonIf your stations are similar to the ones I deal with, from time to time we need to move accounts from one salesperson to another. Sometimes that occurs when a tenured salesperson retires. Sometimes a salesperson leaves for “greener pastures”. Many times, the person who is leaving hasn’t done a good job and is asked to leave. In any of these scenarios, we are left with “orphan accounts”: accounts who have had their relationship with our sellers disrupted. What do we need to do to make sure the transition is a smooth one and we don’t lose business?Scenario one: A tenured salesperson retires or leaves.

Chances are, these people have had good relationships with their clients. They have worked with the clients long enough to know the trends of those businesses. They may have become close with the decision-makers. They have lived through good and bad times with those clients. Now, the client is faced with reestablishing a relationship with a new person. They may be thinking, “Now I’ve got to train another one.” The good news is, this client probably has experienced good results from our stations. This may transcend the break in relationship. We know that one of the things our clients value most is a long-lasting relationship. Here are some steps to begin establishing a new relationship without damaging the business:1. Immediately call the client, introduce yourself, and set an appointment to come see them. (It’s even better if the outgoing salesperson will personally introduce the new AE)2. Research their account. Pull billing figures from your traffic system. Go back several years if necessary. Look at production orders. How and what are they advertising?3. Talk to others in the station who might know the history of this account.4. Do some research on the category of business if you have not handled accounts in that category before.5. Now you go to the appointment. “I’ve done some research on your account but I’m sure there are many other things I need to know to make sure I take great care of your business. Might we talk about those?” Now you do what we call a “mini-CNA” where you delve into biggest concerns the client is having now, where they are, where they want to be in the next 6 months. You probe for needs and goals. Talk about the business of the business. Begin to establish a relationship with them.6. Set parameters on how they wish to work with you. “Mr. Client, I want to see you at least once a month, but that might not be often enough. How do YOU define “exceptional service”? Do you want to see me once a week, twice a month? How is the best way to communicate with you? Do you like to text, use email, phone?” Then make sure to plot these contact dates on your calendar. It will be important that you over service this client in the first 3 or 4 months.In our next newsletter we’ll investigate what needs to happen when an underperforming salesperson leaves to safeguard business or, as I’ve found in many cases, to pick up the pieces and move forward.Happy selling! […]

Malaysia last week lifted all covid restrictions on international travellers entering the country, making it easier for visitors to come to Kuala Lumpur for the ABU’s Radio Asia conference and the RadioDays Asia conference in the same week.

From 1st August 2022, all travellers are allowed to enter Malaysia regardless of their COVID-19 vaccination status and do not require a pre-departure or on-arrival COVID-19 test, according to a health ministry announcement.
A statement on the health ministry website says:
“There are no quarantine orders related to COVID-19 enforced by the Malaysian Government upon arrival.
“Travellers can download and activate the MySejahtera application before or after arrival to Malaysia to indicate their COVID-19 risk status while staying in Malaysia. The COVID-19 risk status in MySejahtera may be checked upon entering premises.
“Travellers who develop COVID-19 symptoms while in Malaysia should get tested and if found to be positive, are subject to the current protocol for positive COVID-19 cases as below… Please continue to practice COVID-19 preventive measures while in Malaysia.”
The ABU’s Radio Asia conference takes place on Sunday 4th September (training day) and Monday 5th September, followed by RadioDays Asia on Tuesday 6th and Wednesday 7th September. The two conferences have worked together this year to offer a Super Radio Event Week to help radio and podcast companies across the region regroup and rethink after the effects of covid on their businesses in the past two years.
radioinfo readers can receive a substantial discount for the RadioDays conference by using the code RINFKL.
ABU Members receive free entry to the Radio Asia conference, and non-members can attend for a small fee. Sponsors and exhibitors are free. Discounts are also available to ABU Members who want to stay on to attend the RadioDays conference. […]

A live event titled ‘DRM Digital Radio – at the Forefront of FM Broadcasting’ was organised by Indian and international hosts in New Delhi on July 21, 2022. Among the participants were the Association of Radio Operators for India (AROI), five leading private broadcasters in India, representatives of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), Indian Cellular Association (ICEA), Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA), Micromax – the Cellphone manufacturer, NXP, Technomedia Solutions Private Ltd and Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd (BECIL) – the broadcast system integrators, Inntot Technologies Pvt Ltd – the Indian DRM receiver manufacturer, OptM Media Solutions Pvt Ltd – the broadcast solution provider, and the DRM Consortium.The participants were reminded that the global, open, and all-band DRM standard, offers full broadcaster independence allowing broadcasters the freedom to broadcast any content without any fees. There is also no revenue cut, as all technical details are openly standardised. And no technology license is needed to implement products and solutions of DRM.DRM is most efficient in terms of spectrum usage as one DRM block requires about 100 kHz (half the bandwidth of analogue FM) for 4 services (up to 3 audio and 1 multimedia). DRM FM allows for simulcasting DRM FM and FM analogue from the same transmitter without the need of replacing an existing FM transmitter. Each block can represent one single broadcaster who has full control of the spectrum and content. The participants explored together the three ways of possible DRM FM introduction in India: broadcast of up to 18 audio services in DRM digital from a single FM transmitter, broadcast up to 12 audio services in DRM digital along with a service in analogue and broadcast of up to 15 audio services in DRM digital in the white space between the two analogue FM transmitters.

Broadcast of multimedia content along with the digital audio services was demonstrated, including DRM’s Journaline advanced text application with support for all Indian scripts through Unicode. DRM standalone receivers as well as car radios already available in the Indian market for the reception in the DRM in the MW band, have been proven to be software-upgradable (without any hardware changes) to receive DRM in FM band, too. DRM’s efficient digital transmission results in huge savings in transmission power and thus distribution costs. Only about one-tenth power of DRM transmitter is sufficient in digital to deliver same coverage as existing analogue transmissions.India is the world’s largest digital radio deployment by All India Radio (AIR) with 39 transmitters (35 MW and 4 SW). AIR is also providing some exclusive radio broadcast content (24-hour News), multilingual Journaline information and has tested DRM for Emergency Warning Functionality (EWF) signals. DRM digital signals in India today can reach over 900 million people when all the installed transmitters work in full digital operation. Over 5 million cars on the Indian roads or 30% of new cars (from Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Mahindra, Toyota, MG Motor and Mercedes Benz) have already DRM radio reception facility – at no extra cost to buyers. The Starwaves DRM SoftRadio App is now available in various Android app stores to upgrade existing phones for DRM reception, and that Gospell, Starwaves, Inntot and many other DRM desktop receiver manufacturers are coming up with various standalone DRM receivers.During the New Delhi event participants enjoyed a live transmission on many standalone receivers, a car radio, Android mobile phones and tablets. Reception of DRM FM in a car parked outside the venue was also demonstrated.The participants took a keen interest in the presentations, demonstrations, and the discussions. They got a very good opportunity to debate not only how the DRM system can maintain the established FM environment but also how it defines and advances the future of FM broadcasting by creating whole new revenue sources besides audio-ads while enabling targeted broadcasting with an overall audience increase, as well as cutting distribution costs significantly.Involving commercial broadcasters in practical demonstrations of sharing same infrastructure and introducing DRM at reduced spectrum and energy use, while giving receiver manufacturers a chance to develop new solutions, will be the next step in digitising the FM broadcast and firmly establishing it as a core medium of India in the 21st century. […]

The latest edition of Steve Ahern’s well known text book Making Radio has been released.And it has an updated title to reflect the new dynamics of the audio industry.Making Radio & Podcasts, 4th Edition has updated the radio industry content to include podcasts, smart speakers and the latest developments in audio.

The book is now published by Routledge, reflecting the international status of the book, which has become a leading teaching text for training institutes, universities and schools across Australia, Asia and the Pacific.“I wrote it in a way that a teacher could pick it up and assign the first couple of chapters for pre-reading, then work through the skills chapters as part of a core curriculum, then choose selected later chapters depending on how the cohort intended to specialise in their craft skills,” says Ahern.The book is available in hard copy and paperback from the publisher’s website, or just ask your local book store or library to order it in.All chapters have been updated and new chapters about The Future of Radio by James Cridland and Making Podcasts by Britta Jorgensen have been added.Other new contributors include Richard Palmer, Triton Digital’s Director of Market Development for APAC, Fyona Smith from AFTRS, international sales expert Pat Bryson and ARN’s Barry Keohane, amongst others. The many other contributors from past editions have updated their comments.In the introduction to this edition, Ahern writes:‘Radio’ is a powerful word that has developed its brand values over more than a century. However the old definition of radio, based on free-to-air transmission and receiving of broadcast audio signals is no longer an accurate description of what we do.If you work in radio now, you will also very likely be making audio content that will be delivered via online streams, catch up replays and podcasts. Or you may work in an audio content production company that is not a traditional radio business. The content you make may be heard on smartphones, watches, computers or requested by voice control on smart speakers. Your content may be integrated with music services and be played to you as a curated sequence based on your specific playlist requests or an AI algorithm that has learnt your listening preferences.The on-demand nature of audio delivery, coupled with intelligent search and sophisticated playout systems is superseding the old norms of business and programming. World leading companies that have realised the extent of the changes are reinventing themselves and the industry as we find ourselves at yet another point of change. We don’t know all the answers yet, but there are some clear trends that this book will identify. There are also some things that don’t change, like the need to engage an audience, to connect using your personality, to gather and present quality audio, to tell compelling stories and to engage people at both the intellectual and emotional level, through audio.Contents:
History of Radio
The Future of Radio Internationally
Making Podcasts
Broadcast Laws and Regulations
The Studio
Radio Announcing
Presentation
Interviewing
Researching and Producing
Talkback
Copywriting
Audio Production
News
Audience Research and Promotions
Radio Sales
Programming
Features and Comedy
Transmission
Order via any bookshop quoting the ISBN 9781032020723, or online here. […]