ASIA

Radiodays Europe has begun.As a media partner for Radiodays Europe, radioinfo can bring you exclusive content from the conference, which is taking place now in Lisbon.Yesterday (Saturday 9 Oct) the conference began with a covid safe Fast and Curious meet, greet and discuss session and this morning Lisbon time in-person delegates began to enter the conference, while virtual participants logged in from their home offices in their own time zones.In the first session of the world leading radio and audio conference, Peter Niegel opened by telling the audience that 60% of them are at the conference centre in person, while another 40% of attendees are virtual.[embedded content]

Marianne Bugge Zederkof, the Director of the commercial radio body Danske Medier, said one of the important things on the agenda for radio companies in Europe is to prevent anticompetitive practices such as third party apps that do not pay to rebroadcast radio services and apps that insert ads into radio streams without the permission of the original broadcaster.
“We will act to ensure that listeners can continue to access and enjoy free radio.”

[embedded content]Adam Bowie, Business Development Manager at the BBC World Service looked at changing audience habits during the pandemic.In The UK, Rajar surveys stopped because the methodology involved visiting people’s homes and capturing the data on paper, but Adam used other information to extrapolate the changes to audience habits during this disrupted covid period.“What we know about radio is that it is habit driven, but habits were disrupted. We know that the commute is an important part of radio listening, but working from home became more common.“People are now coming back to work in cars and commuting data shows car transport returning to normal, but we have seen that public transport commuting has not returned to normal so listening on public transport has decreased. But what we have found is that people are listening more during the day than they were previously, especially to podcasts, which you can do between work and parenting from home.”“People are also exercising more and having picnics. their audio listening has adapted. 22% of Americans are listening to more podcasts during the pandemic. Listening has not been lost, it has been displaced.“Longer term there may be some reversion to normal listening, but it will not be a total return to normal in radio listening nor many other things either, habits have changed, such as online shopping and many other changed things too.”[embedded content]
📺 Watch the Opening Session of #RDE21 in Lisbon… https://t.co/yS0OUEDg7s
— Radiodays Europe (@RadiodaysEurope) October 10, 2021 […]

Content from BPRThis article is the second in a six part series.The real value in strategic thinking isn’t just in generating ideas or in making better decisions: it’s about building a framework that future-proofs your radio station and provides you with the best chance of achieving long-term success.Here’s the next tip on how to become a better strategic thinker..Step 2. Use All of Your BrainBecause strategic thinking is about creating connections, it requires two types of thinking: (1) divergent thinking, where one looks at the big picture, generates ideas and explores many possible solutions, and (2) convergent thinking, where one examines and arranges those ideas logically and derives the best solution or strategy.Psychologists have conducted research which found that the most innovative thinkers have the ability to switch between these two styles – divergent and convergent – rapidly.So how can you improve your ability to switch between the two styles of thinking?One popular method for doing this is through the Six Thinking Hats technique pioneered by Edward De Bono. In summary, this technique approaches a problem by wearing six different ‘hats’, reflecting different types of convergent and divergent thinking.The green hat focuses on possibilities, new ideas and creativity.The red hat deals with feelings, hunches and intuition.The yellow hat – brightness and optimism, exploring the positives.The white hat calls for information, known or needed. The “facts just the facts”.The blue hat manages the thinking process.The black hat – risks, difficulties, problems. The risk management hat.The more often you practice De Bono’s technique the better you usually become – and the more your mind moves with ease from one way of thinking to the next.By David Kidd, BPR […]

Content from BPRThis article is the first in a six-part series.The real value in strategic thinking isn’t just in generating ideas or in making better decisions. it’s about building a framework that future-proofs your radio station and provides you with the best chance of achieving long-term success.Here’s the first tip on how to become a better strategic thinker.Step 1. ReflectForbes states that “strategic thinkers are more observant and reflective than the average person. Strategic thinkers do it differently. They understand and dig deeper with regards to analyzing processes, developing and applying performance metrics, collecting data and producing analytics to make more informed decisions. Strategic thinkers have high levels of critical thinking skills. When it comes to decision making, they are more contemplative”.The Harvard Business Review : “Strategic people create connections between ideas, plans and people that others fail to see.”But you can only make those connections if you give your mind the chance to see them.In other words, to think strategically you need time to actually think. Great strategic decisions are rarely made on the spur of the moment; they are carefully thought through, allowing time to consider all possibilities and ramifications.One method suggested by behavioural psychologists to give yourself “thinking time” is to schedule a time every day or every week where you focus your mind on simply thinking. It doesn’t matter how or where you choose to do your thinking, just ensure it happens regularly. As they say, practice makes perfect …… the more often you do it, the better you’ll become.By David Kidd, BPR […]

Inovonics has been selected for audio processing with the installation of FM 90 Radio Unity, a new Community Radio Station (CRS) in the tribal Narmada district of India.System Integrator and Inovonics´ partner – BECIL (Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd) chose the 719N DAVID IV FM Broadcast Processor to integrate with the installation because of its audio processing capabilities and unique feature set.“It is very gratifying to play a part in the launch of FM 90 Radio Unity with our audio processing technology”, said Ben Barber, President & CEO of Inovonics, Inc. “Through our Regional Sales Manager, Mukesh Chaudhary, we have worked hard to promote the Inovonics brand and gain the confidence of our partner BECIL for integrating Inovonics broadcast products in their installations,” he said.The community radio station was launched on the occasion of India´s 75th Independence Day. Radio Unity is located in the western Indian state of Gujarat (Kevadiya Colony) near the statue of Sardar Patel – an important statesman who is credited with unifying the country into the Indian Union we know today. The Statue of Unity is the tallest in the world at 182 meters (582 ft), almost twice the height of the Statue of Liberty at 93 meters (298 ft).BECIL (Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd) provides project consultancy services, system integration, and turnkey solutions encompassing the entire gamut of radio and television broadcast.  Khuswinder Singh Bhatia, Asst. General Manager at Becil said: “The launch of FM 90 Radio Unity is a great example of a successful installation for Community Radio Stations. We have designed an excellent and affordable solution that can be integrated with other community radio stations across India”. […]

Content from BPROne of the most contentious and misunderstood areas of radio content management is commercials and the degree to which they impact radio listening behaviour on a commercial radio station.

Commercials are generally seen as a problem, particularly for TSL on music driven radio stations.  As a result, stations spend a lot of time employing tactics designed to mitigate the impact of commercials such as promising limited commercial break length, promoting “commercial free” hours or offering non-stop periods of music.  Yes, most listeners will tell you they dislike commercials on a radio station but how big a problem are commercials really?It is naïve to think that radio listeners truly hate or avoid radio commercials.  Radio listeners are not morons, they know they will hear radio commercials when they tune to a commercial radio station.  The issue is really about listener tolerance and the balance between whether the perceived entertainment value of what is being listened to is worth putting up with the interruptions in between.Radio commercials in themselves are not the villain, the true villain is the broader issue of what the listener perceives as unnecessary interruptions to their listening experience. That may be a commercial break, but it can also be a DJ talking over the end of a listener’s favourite song, a promo for the breakfast show that has already been heard several times or a traffic report that is presented so quickly the listener has no ability to absorb what was said.All these things can be triggers for listeners thinking to themselves “I’ve had enough of this” and moving from your radio station. It is not just commercials.A significant factor is the degree of contrast between the perceived interruption and the entertainment/information either side of it.  The more a listener loves something such as a particular personality, a show or mix of music the more they resent what they love being unnecessarily interrupted by stuff they are not interested in.  Equally, the more a listener likes something the more inclined they are to stick around through the interruption waiting for what they like to resume.The breaking point for listeners is when the perception forms that there have been too many unnecessary interruptions relative to the entertainment/information they are receiving.  I call this balancing act the “Shit to Fun” ratio.When it comes to commercial breaks there are a couple of points worth noting.  People who listen to commercial radio stations are remarkably tolerant of commercial content however a commercial break longer than a song is a danger zone as is a commercial break with too many commercials.  Listeners are generally more conscious of the number of commercials (elements) than time.  Frequency of the same commercial is also a big issue. This unfortunately goes against the premise of how radio likes to sell itself however commercial repetition is just as big a negative as song repetition however there are ways to mitigate this.Finally, it should never be forgotten that people appreciate commercials that inform them about something they are interested in. Radio advertising works and that is because a lot of people hear and absorb the advertising messages and respond. It is in everyone’s interests for a commercial radio station to have a commercial content strategy that minimises listener tune out and maximises listeners hearing the commercials. In this respect the longer-term strategy should be about making commercial breaks more listener friendly rather than villainising them. Listeners will tolerate your commercial breaks more if you give them half a chance.By Wayne Clouten, BPR […]

Radiodays Europe (RDE) 2021, which had been postponed due to the pandemic, is on in Lisbon this weekend.For those in covid locked-down countries, attendance is possible via the virtual conference and last minute registrations are still open.Europeans who are free to travel, will be going to the country with the most vaccinated people in the world, where restrictions were lifted when 85% vaccinations of the over 12 population was reached recently. Medical experts in that country say they are now having difficulty finding anyone else to vaccinate.

Tomorrow night Asian time, the conference opens with registration and the now famous ‘Fast and Curious’ networking session.On Sunday (evening Asian time), all the Sunday sessions will take place, continuing on Monday. The full conference program is available here.If you live in Malaysia, for instance, the conference full days begin at 4pm. World Time Buddy is a handy calculator to work out what time it will be in your time zone.RDE 2021 will be held at Lisbon Congress Center and will also be available virtually, on-line.If you registered for the event in 2020 your ticket is still valid for this event in 2021.Registration details here, buy tickets here.Nicolau Santos, President of the Portuguese Public Media Service RTP, is the keynote speaker in the opening session. He is a former journalist with experience of over 40 years in media.Paul Mckenna, recently named by the London Times as one of the world’s leading and most important modern gurus alongside Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama, will join Radioday and will be interviewed by Francis Currie in a special session. Mckenna initially started his career as a radio broadcaster in pirate radio stations Radio Sovereign, Radio Jackie and Radio Caroline. He also worked in local radio for Chiltern Radio, Capital Radio and finished his radio career at BBC Radio 1 in 1991.The best & brightest speakers from radio, podcast & other specialist fields will all be speakers at the conference. See them all here.More details here. […]