ASIA

Content from BPRAs radio people, we often live in a dream world where we assume that our listeners are hanging on for every word we say. The photo below is comical because it expresses the erroneous belief that our listeners’ lives revolve around our station. We act as if our station is as important to them as it is to us. The sad truth is that their lives do not revolve around listening to the radio.Humans are quite adept at tuning out talk that they either do not want to hear it or that they have heard so many times that the words no longer make any impression at all. We have often been told that the best way to make someone remember something is to employ endless repetition. However, anyone who has raised children knows that endless repetition is not an effective way to affect behaviour.Consider the above photo caption “more great music coming up.” After hearing this phrase repeated hour after hour, it is highly unlikely that it makes any impression whatsoever on the listener. (If you have to tell someone that something is “great” then it probably is not so great after all.) Perhaps the best promotional phrases are the ones that are backed up by hard fact. For example, “Centre City’s only Classic Rock station”.Another typical message is “Coming up next hour, the latest hit from Miley Cyrus.” In other words, listeners will have to wait until the next hour to hear the promised song. In the age of instant gratification, few listeners have the patience to wait that long.Here are some basic marketing and promotional rules:
Make the message believable. Base the message on fact.
Vary the message. Each variation makes a unique impression on the brain.
Avoid hyperbole. Ex.: “We play the best music ever made.”
When possible, allow a live presenter to deliver the message. Pre-recorded messages lack credibility especially after they have been heard numerous times.
Do not call attention to negatives such as “playing fewer ads than the other station”. This is simply a reminder that we run ads too.
“We’ll be back right after the news”. This statement begs the question “Where are you going?” In this instance, you are reminding listeners that news bulletins have a higher priority than music. This may be fine for a news/talk station but not for a music station.
The lesson is simple. Learn to think like a listener.By Andy Beaubien, BPR […]

Benztown, a global leader in radio imaging, voiceover, programming, podcasting and jingles along with P1 Media Group, providing research, strategies and consulting to radio stations worldwide, and Global Radio Ideas Facebook Group will host a free webinar On Thursday, May 18, for radio professionals around the globe.Titled “How You Replace Scott Shannon, & Lessons From An Iconic New York City PD,” the webinar is 29th in the companies’ “Global Radio Ideas” webinar series from top radio experts from around the world.The 40-minute webinar will be hosted by Andreas Sannemann, CEO, Benztown, and Ken Benson, Partner, P1 Media Group, and will feature Jim Ryan, VP of Programming, Audacy New York’s WCBS-FM and NEW 102.7/WNEW-FM.Ryan will take attendees’ questions and cover topics including:
What it was like to work with Scott Shannon, and to be his boss.
How he replaced the Greatest of All Time in New York Morning Radio, Scott Shannon.
Lessons he learned from coaching heavyweights like Casey Kasem, Whoopi Goldberg, and WCBS-FM afternoon great, Broadway Bill Lee.
What’s different, and what challenges programmers face in a post-Covid world. 
What’s his take on whether to be bold or subtle in making programming changes and why. 
His thoughts on the current ratings struggles of contemporary and young music formats and the ratings successes of AC and Classic Hits. What can the younger targeted formats do about it?
Is it still possible for AC and Hot AC stations to make format-exclusive hits?
How he came to own a radio station with Van Halen, and more!
Register at: https://event.webinarjam.com/register/82/10zx2h37. […]

India’s HT Media has announced a 25% price hike for all its radio stations under the Fever FM brand.According to the network, the hike is needed as the industry volume is back to pre-Covid levels.The Fever Network operates Fever FM, Punjabi Fever, Radio Nasha and Radio One. While Fever FM and Radio Nasha are Hindi Contemporary Hit Radio (CHR) and Retro Bollywood stations respectively, Radio One is in the international format and Punjabi Fever is a Punjabi radio station in Delhi.Overall, the network has 22 stations across 15 cities, reaching 35 million listeners with a cumulative digital reach of 6 million.It has three stations each in Delhi and Mumbai and two stations each in Bengaluru, Chennai and Kolkata. It is also present in Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad and in seven cities of UP.Ramesh Menon, CEO – radio and entertainment, HT Media and Next Mediaworks, said: “Advertiser’s confidence, on radio in general and Fever network in particular, is back and that has resulted in higher inventory demand in most of our markets. We are committed to providing the best advertising environment to our customers without compromising on the content experience of our audience. The ever-increasing demand for inventory has thus necessitated the need for price increase across our markets.” […]

Mirchi 102.4 FM, UAE, has introduced an AI presenter.The presenter, named AIRAH (Artificial Intelligence Radio Host), will host the mid- morning show Mirchi on AI from 10am to 1pm.The show will cover all things technology and social media.AIRAH is based on voice cloning technology powered by Deepsync Technologies and follows a text-to-speech format.The voice used for cloning is that of the popular RJ Sanchari. AIRAH also have her own social media handle @Airahonmirchi on Instagram.Brij Bhalla, CEO at Dolphin Recording Studio LLC, said: “This newest innovation will be ground-breaking in many ways in the days to come, opening newer horizons in radio. 102.4 Mirchi’s new radio innovation has ambitious plans to revolutionise the commercial radio space with its latest launch.”Preeti Phalke, Content Director — 102.4 Mirchi, added: “Radio as we know it, has evolved from SW, MW to FM in the past few decades providing entertainment in all formats across languages. From recorded to live radio, the industry has seen a 360-degree change in its approach towards entertainment. Radio has always moved with the times controverting the death of radio.” […]

Through its extensive presence across the Middle East and North Africa region, Sky News Arabia broadcasts comprehensive 24/7 regional and international news coverage across its TV, radio, and digital platforms. When the broadcaster enhanced its radio offering from a simple audio simulcast to unique, radio-specific content, they selected the DAD automation system from ENCO to enable intuitive audio workflows with their existing Avid iNEWS® newsroom computer system (NRCS).This project was developed in line with the network’s aim to consistently enhance its services. As Sky News Arabia was already using the iNEWS system for its TV broadcast, they also wanted to integrate their TV and radio operations through the same NRCS to keep the workflow streamlined, and ensure ease of use for its journalists and producers.ENCO’s iNEWS MOS Interface plug-in enables Media Object Server (MOS) protocol integration between iNEWS and the DAD automation system, allowing journalists and news producers to access DAD audio asset libraries directly within the iNEWS client interface. Users can search the ENCO library, preview clips, trim media as needed, and bring the results into their stories by simply dragging and dropping the desired items. iNEWS rundowns are automatically synchronized as playlists on the DAD automation system to keep everything effortlessly updated for subsequent playout.Audio clips can be recorded into Sky News Arabia’s DAD system in the studio, or imported as files either manually or through watch folders using the DAD Dropbox utility. Journalists interact with the DAD system primarily through the iNEWS plug-in, while studio personnel take advantage of the intuitive DAD Presenter interface for managing playout.ENCO’s world-class customer support and installation services proved extremely valuable in ensuring a smooth deployment for Sky News Arabia’s technical requirements. ENCO personnel ensured the project was implemented successfully in a timely manner, and played an active role in helping Sky News Arabia resolve third-party workflow and technical issues unrelated to DAD itself. The broadcaster has been very satisfied with the results of the integrated DAD and iNEWS solution, and continues to add DAD licenses at more journalists’ desks as their radio news operations have grown.Suresh Kumar, Director of Technology, Sky News Arabia, commented: “The process of deploying DAD radio automation and integrating it with our iNEWS newsroom system was done in line with our aim to constantly enhance our technical efficiencies. This seamless integration will enhance our ability to deliver content quickly and efficiently to our audiences through our radio channel, and we were pleased to partner with ENCO who acted as an extension of our own team throughout this project.” […]

AV digitizing and archiving specialist NOA GmbH has won a major contract with United Arab Emirates-based public service broadcaster and media company Abu Dhabi Media.Systems integrator Broadcast Solutions Middle East has been working with NOA to manage the project, which includes the delivery and installation of a complete audio and video archive workflow system in Abu Dhabi and Dubai for the digitization of the organization’s entire national radio and television archive including 153.000 audio tapes and 340.000 hours of video.As part of the agreement, a scalable jobDB workflow management system will be installed as a basis for the facility comprising 16 channels of audio ingest with NOARecord and N7000c audio hardware units on four ingest places as well as 32 channels of video ingest with NOA FrameLector , five BarcodeStation custom script creation stations, five UniversalDialoger scanners and five full-scale MediaButler transcoding processors. In addition, the package includes a carrier positioning system for the required multisite logistic realization.The jobDB workflow orchestration system can combine any kind and number of audio and video ingest stations and server-side tools into an effective industrial digitization facility. It connects audio (and video) capture, quality control, and other client workstations as well as server-side tools and transforms them into an efficient industrial digitization facility. In addition, jobDB allows the setup of processes for capturing, reshaping, and analysis of media as required for archiving, transcoding, or other complex business processes. It integrates automatic, semiautomatic, and manual or instructive process steps in a well-defined and complex process flow.“This project is the largest Archive Transfer Technology installation to take place in the Middle East,” explains NOA’s managing partner Jean-Christophe Kummer. “ADM decided to approach this task with a CAPEX investment in mind — not as an outsourced service, since they have all gear, expertise and staff in-house and wanted to maintain control of the assets from a legal point of view. In addition, ADM is relying on us to manage the logistics of all carriers between the archive in Abu Dhabi and the ingest facility in Dubai. We are thrilled to continue our global expansion with this prestigious project and are confident we can assist the organization in streamlining its large-scale digitization process with our reliable tracking and quality ingest systems.” This is the second large deal for NOA in the UAE. In 2017, Sharjah Broadcasting Authority, the government organization dedicated to developing the media industry in the emirate of Sharjah in the UAE, purchased its first mediARC for the digitization and management of its entire legacy video archive. Subsequently in 2021, SBA purchased – besides a second mediARC system as part of its disaster recovery plan – also a complete OTT ready integration to ensure the preservation and presentation of its archive now and in the future.Established in 1969, ADM, which is part of ADQ, has become one of the largest media companies in the Middle East and GCC regions. The organization operates across the broadcast, publishing, and digital media sectors. In addition, the new addition of ADRadio’s digital platforms and applications features audio and podcast streaming across the radio assets. […]