ASIA

Content from BPRRadio stations are famous (well some infamous) for their April Fools Day stunts.

And so it was for Radio Windy (now The Breeze) based in the capital of New Zealand, Wellington.The promotions department at Radio Windy came up with what they thought would be an hilarious April Fools Day promotion.The idea was that the Inter Island Ferry linking the country’s North Island to the South Island would be running free joy rides on April 1.Now the catch was that these joy rides weren’t starting from the ferry terminal but from the large international dock where the cruise ships departed.This was a big event (if it were actually going to happen).The promotions team and a few of the presenters were there at the international dock ready to greet the gullible listeners with some free giveaways and a big April Fools day joke sign.It was a great laugh……. until a bus turned up full of disabled children who had travelled over two hours to be there.Of course the local paper, television stations and radio competitors had a field day.The promotions manager kept his job……well “a” job…. he was quickly dispatched back to the copy department.David Kidd […]

Content from BPRWouldn’t you like to know what your target audience is really listening to? Traditional radio ratings services measure just one thing – radio listening. That was fine in the days when radio dominated the audio listening landscape. However, as times have changed, audio usage measurement has not. Podcasts, streaming, You Tube, downloaded music and audio books now account for a huge amount of audio usage. (We include You Tube because many people listen to music via You Tube but do not necessarily watch the videos even when they are available.)

The days when “the competition” was coming mostly from other local broadcast radio stations are over. Today, competition from non-radio audio services continues to eat up more and more of the listening time once dominated by radio.Television viewing habits have also changed. TV broadcasters are well aware that their viewers are using a wide variety of video sources. Nielsen Research in the US is now refining its television ratings service to cover the entire range of video consumption. The so-called “single measurement solution” has taken hold because advertisers are demanding a more complete picture of their target audience’s video consumption habits.This begs the question: Why not radio? How can radio broadcasters compete against other audio media if they do not even know what their target listeners are really doing with their media consumption time? A recent article in the BPR Newsletter reminded us of the famous quote by Sun Tzu that says “know thy enemy.” Those do not know their real competition are at a loss to effectively compete with them.A key issue in the 21st century is knowing who your competitors really are.  Debate about radio survey results often involves discussions about which stations gained and which stations lost.  People will say that station X lost audience to station Y.  This may be true in terms of the relative distribution of radio listening as measured within the radio listening box but that does not necessarily mean that station X actually lost listeners to station Y.  BPR’s All Audio studies reveal that many radio stations, especially music stations, are competing a lot more with other forms of audio than other radio stations.  Much of the statistical movement we see in radio surveys has nothing to do with an exchange of TSL between radio stations but rather between a radio station and other forms of audio.Fortunately, there is a solution to the question of radio vs. non-radio audio sources. BPR’s All-Audio Measurement program provides a wide range of insights into audio consumption in any given market. Here are just a few examples:
Map usage of radio and other audio services across the day showing when people move from and when they return to radio.
Identify why audio users move from radio and why they return.
Develop profiles of persons who use only radio and those who use multiple audio sources including radio.
Measure a station’s level of vulnerability to competition from other audio sources.
Create a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) for a specific radio station relative to other forms of audio.
In summary, BPR’s All-Audio Measurement program helps radio operators to achieve specific goals:
A programming and promotional plan to boost listener retention.
Identify investment opportunities whereby your station’s brand can logically extend to other audio services such as alternate music streams and podcasts.
Provide a broad view of radio listening in the context of all total audio consumption in the market.
Create a vision for the future by helping radio operators to build on radio’s strengths. The future does not have to be doom and gloom. Viewed with a new perspective, radio’s future may be more promising that you may have imagined.
By Wayne Clouten & Andy Beaubien, BPRIf you or your station would like to enquire further about BPR’s All-Audio Measurement Program please contact us at [email protected] […]

SYOK has announced the winners of the ‘Anugerah Podcast SYOK Merdeka Edition’, an online contest for podcast submissions held from 16 August to 5 September on SYOK.One winning podcast each across English, Malay and Tamil language categories were selected based on the highest listenership received during the contest period. The winners for each category took home a RM1,000 cash prize and a trophy.The winners for each category are as follows:

English language: Shenoj Kuruvilla Vadekethu and Ivory Anne Butlar Madden, two best friends spill the ‘cha’ about Malaysia in ‘What’s in cha-resting about Malaysia’ podcast.Malay language: Mohd Azree bin Mohd Ariffin and Mohammad Hafiz bin Abdul Latif, talk about what makes Malaysia a country of its own, with podcast titled ‘Membilang Syukur, Menghitung Nikmat’.Tamil language: Santhananathan A/L Jeganathan, Hindravel Chandrabose, Sudhankumar A/L Silvakumar, Saara binti Ismail Gani, Anbanathan A/L Poonga (Paul) and Nireshan A/L Nadarayajan, offer insightful discussions about Malaysia in podcast ‘My Tamil Comedy Club – What’s Interesting About Malaysia’.There will be a live stream of an appreciation event for the winners which will also reveal insights and sharing of their podcast production journeys on September 30 at 8.30pm via the SYOK podcast Facebook and Instagram. […]

Earlier this year, in February and March, the DRM Consortium conducted an extensive trial of the DRM standard in the FM band in New Delhi and Jaipur in India at the request of the AIR (All India Radio).It was a part of an evaluation of two digital radio options for the FM band for the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to choose from and recommend.The measurements were done with a professional DRM receiver and a selection of commercial DRM receivers and mobile phones upgraded for DRM reception in the FM band.

The measurements were carried out based on a pure-digital single DRM signal (block) as well as multi-DRM configurations (placing multiple DRM blocks side-by-side from a single transmitter). DRM is a pure digital standard, but a simulcast operation (DRM and analogue FM signals side-by-side from a single transmitter) was also conducted from the same transmitter. DRM was also shown to work in FM white spaces without affecting ongoing analogue FM transmissions.The measurements demonstrated that DRM can deliver up to 3 audio plus 1 multimedia service per DRM signal block in the given spectrum , while allowing for maximum utilisation of the FM-band spectrum.During the trial it was confirmed that adding DRM transmissions to the FM band is fully compatible and does not interfere with on-going analogue FM services. Also, DRM as a pure-digital radio standard has the ability to efficiently broadcast multiple DRM signals side-by-side from a single transmitter, and for operating in flexible configurations alongside an analogue FM signal from the same transmitter.DRM also delivered additional Journaline advanced text service in multiple Indian languages, to be ready for delivering Emergency Warning Functionality, and to efficiently enable traffic, travel and online teaching services over broadcast, without requiring internet connectivity.It was also proven that existing receiver models, already supporting DRM in the AM bands as adopted by India, can support DRM in all bands by a simple firmware upgrade without hardware modifications.Download the full overview here […]

On 20 December 1939, just after the start of World War II, Robert Menzies launched Radio Australia with the words: “The time has come to speak for ourselves”.Today, its international audiences are in the millions and in the regions and countries of great geostrategic importance to Australia.Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) International today operates on a budget of $11 million per year, estimated to be less than a third of pre-2014 levels. It has a staff of 38 who work mainly in media development programs for the Pacific region, and sometimes parts of Asia, and a small number who manage and administer its various international broadcast channels (radio and TV) as well as wide-ranging digital content activity.

ABC International management and staff have been committed to Australia relevant in the Asia-Pacific region, but its present resources are not enough to reach a potential audience of more than three billion people. It has the capacity to do more to reach audiences in the Indo Pacific region and needs more funding and support for needed expansion.ABC Radio has FM service in 13 of the most populous locations across the Pacific and in Timor Leste with a monthly listenership of at least 407,000.It has syndicated in-language (Tok Pisin/Solomons Pidgin/Bislama) news and current affairs program Wantok to Radio New Zealand (RNZ) on their shortwave service which is heard in the remotest locations across the Pacific.It also shares Wantok and our other daily news and current affairs program Pacific Beat with partners such as PNG’s NBC provincial services while also making the case to Government to expand Radio Australia’s FM footprint.Alongside this, its International Development team works with local media and broadcasters to build and strengthen their own transmission capacity, to take homegrown media and stories to populations in remote and urban regions.It has also commissioned the ground-breaking Pacific women’s issues program Sistas Let’s Talk, education content for pre-school and early primary students in Pacific Playtime and a Pacific focussed music show Island Music.It recently got some funding to create a new Pacific focussed sports program for ABC Radio Australia (Can You Be More Pacific). It builds on our existing bespoke programming for our Pacific radio audiences which includes comprehensive coverage of Pacific news and current affairs (delivered in English and through the in-language Wantok program) produced by ABC’s dedicated, specialist Pacific team in the Asia Pacific Newsroom in Melbourne. […]

Afghanistan continues to be a perilous place for journalists after Taliban took control of the country last month.Dozens of reporters have been killed in the last few years, and local reporters are now at even more risk as Taliban fighters conduct searches for them.News organisations and media outlets have been making frantic efforts to get staffers, journalists, stringers, translators and fixers who played a major role in their reporting from Afghanistan, out of the country.

Nematullah Hemat of the private television station Ghargasht TV is believed to have been kidnapped by the Taliban, and Toofan Omar, the head of the private radio station Paktia Ghag Radio, was shot dead by Taliban fighters according to government officials. Amdadullah Hamdard, a translator and frequent contributor to Germany’s Die Zeit newspaper, was shot dead on August 2 in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad. Last month, world-renowned Indian photographer and Pulitzer Prize winner Danish Siddiqui died in Kandahar, presumably killed by Taliban militants.Recently, Taliban fighters searching for a Deutsche Welle journalist shot dead a member of his family and seriously injured another, while other relatives of the journalist were able to escape and are on the run. Deutsche Welle also reported that the homes of at least three of its journalists have been searched by the Taliban.“The killing of a close relative of one of our editors by the Taliban yesterday is inconceivably tragic and testifies to the acute danger in which all our employees and their families in Afghanistan find themselves,” Deutsche Welle Director General Peter Limbourg said in an article published on the broadcaster’s website.Washington Post Publisher Fred Ryan has emailed White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan with an “urgent request” on behalf of his paper, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal for the US military to help evacuate “204 journalists, support staff and families.”Deutsche Welle and other German news media also made a similar appeal for help for their Afghan staff.The organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called on the UN Security Council to hold an informal special session to address the perilous situation of journalists in Afghanistan. […]