Year: 2023

“We use AI in our programming, but the power of radio lies in it’s strength to be a friend… I don’t think AI can do that,” said James Rea Director of Broadcasting and Content at Global.He also predicted that with smart speakers, “there’s currently nothing to protect radio’s prominence, legislation is needed to make sure radio’s position is protected online.”From his future predictions of trends in the industry to more recent achievements at iHEART, where the changes he implemented made the station brighter and hotter, he discussed his career and gave insights into his strategies. The breakfast team is now the leading show and this is the leading station in the market.His podcast strategy involved hiring BBC presenters as podcasters, turning this endeavour into a massive commercial success, due to the massive marketing push across all stations. He finds podcasting exciting, because it brings new audiences and because creativity is involved in the process of making podcasts.Earlier in his career he transitioned to news management, which lead to a move from GMG to Global. He was offered a job running LBC a talk station (marking it’s 50th year), and turned it around from a station that couldn’t make a profit to one that currently makes $3.5 million. He and his team worked on giving the station a core identity and set the news agenda, plus encouraged presenters such as James O’Brien to have an opinion. The second thing was to elevate the callers to centre stage. The third thing was to televise radio and turn around clips so they were then able to lead on news stories. James began his career as a 16 year old enthusiastic lover of radio and has made a huge impact in the commercial radio sector. His success comes down to, “strong partnerships and collaboration with a good team allows us to go from 0-100 just like that!” […]

In a session this morning at RadioDays Europe, Iram Ansari, Diversity Advisor and Manager of Multicultural diversity at Norway’s National broadcaster NRK, outlined the project she administers, called Talent Group NRK FleRe.The project has successfully increased the multicultural competence in the workforce and diversity in stories reported at NRK. The success of the 10 month program is measured by the number of graduates who are employed, 50% at NRK and a further 30% in commercial stations. Because of the initiative, the national and commercial sectors are reflecting more multicultural stories.From 290 applicants the last in-take of 10 program participants were selected, all possessing the multicultural competencies of language skills, perspective on society, access to new networks that are otherwise not inthe broadcasters’ usual contact list.Ansari, whose family is from Pakistan, was a former graduate of this program and used her skills in Urdu and cultural knowledge during the terrorist attack in Pakistan, August 2019. She was the only journalist who got access to report on the attack, one week ahead of other journalists. She was also able to secure an exclusive interview with the hero who held down the attacker for half an hour until the police arrived.Her language and cultural background also allowed her access to former Pakistan President Imran Khan and a number of other major stories.“Multicultural competence is needed in the workforce to maintain diversity in stories,” said Ansari.A tip for all journalists is to keep a well organised list of contacts of multicultural experts in their fields and offer them media training to increase their effectiveness as a source. […]

EBU Director General Noel Curren urged the industry to challenge those who portray radio as ‘legacy media.’He told the Radiodays Europe conference:“We need to resist this positioning from others towards us. It doesn’t reflect the dynamism of radio. 84% of Europeans still listen to radio, three quarters of those are young poeple.“Radio is the most widely consumed and trusted medium… a hard earned relevance that has been hard won, we should protect it.“We need to emphasise radio’s dynamism. The strongest growing demographic for spoken word audio is 13-24 year olds, so young people are still listening to radio and are listening to spoken word content.“In a world where young people are increasingly getting news from social media, radio has a unique opportunity to transfer the extraordinary trust it has into the social media space… Podcasts can offer the solution-based journalism that young people can engage with.“Radio has come into its own in recent years… anyone who forgot this got a daily wake up call from the front lines of covid and Ukraine to remind them of the relevance and trustworthyness of radio.“It is not a dying medium… yes we have a legacy, but we also have a dynamic future… we can leverage our legacy into the online audio world.He urged people who work in radio to believe in the ability of radio’s talented presenters, producers and teams to adapt and innovate to ensure that the medium continues successfully into the next 100 years.[embedded content] […]