ASIA

Since SCA CEO Grant Blackley articulated the evolution of Southern Cross Austereo a few years ago at RadioDays Europe, the company has been invited back regularly for Europeans to learn from the Australian company’s strategy for developing its business in a fast-changing media landscape.This year Blackley told the next chapter of the story.“A few years ago we set out to disrupt and transform the digital audio industry. We realised that listeners wanted a single destination for their audio, so we launched LiSTNR.“We are now in the scaling phase of our business,” said Blackley as he outlined the stages of business development expected for SCA audio, which are: launch, scale then peak.Key elements of the success of LiSTNR’s business evolution include personalisation, discovery, commercialisation and visualisation.Personalisation“People have different habits and use different devices each day, so we start by gathering basic information, then keep track of what they choose and where they left off in their audio feeds. We store it in a secure and private profile,” explained Blackley.The company uses Google Firebase and Salesforce to enable “a familiar and continuous experience on apps, website and email newsletters.”Discovery“Content discovery is one of the more difficult things to do well.“We aim to recommend like a friend would give word of mouth suggestions. It has to be a good recommendation delivered at the right time when they are thinking what to listen to next… We use AI to determine the content they may want next and when they want it.”Source AI and Sonnant are used to transcribe all audio for detailed analysis of the content in a show that can then be related back to the listener for recommendations. This is the next stage of a combination of new tools that convert speech to text, analyse the words used in the content, then cross reference them with words in the podcast or catch-up radio segment the person was just listening to, so the recommendation is something directly relevant to content, not just a topic described in the tag or synopsis of the podcast.Commercialisation“Our ad offering is at the core of our strategy, we aim to create a compelling opportunity for brands to use us at scale.” The company has rationalised its platforms, making sure it now controls its “full digital audio inventory,” to be able to offer the best deal to advertisers in a brand safe environment.Tech partners for this aspect of the business strategy are NumberEight and Frequency. “These partners can tell us where the listeners are and what they are doing… at home, driving, jogging, etc… The data never leaves the person’s device so it is private, we don’t store it… with this information we can delivery dynamic ads that are relevant to each person listening.,” said Blackley.The most success SCA has had with this type of advertising is with sports content. “We use dynamic ad insertion at the end of a break which tells the score of a real time game and link it to the sport sponsor or a relevant advertiser.”VisualisationSCA is embracing visualisation more in LiSTNR because “the boundaries between audio and video are continuing to merge, expecially in podcasts. We have visualised our radio content for over 10 years… we are now fully connected visually in all our offices.”Blackley sees visualisations as a “pathway forward for content and advertisers.”There has been a 700% growth of the LiSTNR app in the last 6 months, as a result of a planned digital strategy which began with switching off SCA station feeds from TuneIn in October 2021, closing old apps and migrating people from those early digital listening platforms to the new LiSTNR app. To entice listeners to the new app, SCA expanded its content offerings to include more live sport and international content offerings from Wondery and Stitcher to entice listeners to the new platform.“We are underpinning the future of broadcast radio by delivering more options. People were worried that this might canibalise their radio broadcast audience, but our projections show that it won’t do that, it will grow audience.”SCA has decided to stay within 6 verticals the company thinks are core to its audio expansion strategy:• Radio & Music• Entertainment & Culture• Sport• Factual & Drama• Parenting & Kids Entertainment• News & Info“If something doesn’t fit we won’t take it on.”SCA now controls the RSS feed and insertion of every ad and retains 100% of the funds from those ads, when previously other platforms were inserting ads and taking part of the revenue that should have all been available to the broadcaster. “New income in this area has been driven to this segment of our business…. we now have about 700 sales people and have grown our audio content output by 66%,” said Blackley.“Advertisers and audiences realise that there is a wider distribution available to them now… Younger people don’t listen on radios but they do listen to radio, we have to be on any device of their choice.”“The longer they stay in our ecosystem the more they discover what else we offer and spend more time with all our content. LiSTNR represents their AUDIO world, not just their radio or podcast world… Forget the platform and talk about the world of audio,” urged Blackley. […]

Music Directing is an art and a science. The science part is the rotation and playout. The art is the part that connects people to audiences and tries to make every track matter to each listener when and where they hear it.During an ‘in the round’ session hosted by Nik Goodman at RadioDays Europe last week, three music directors discussed their approach to the art and science of music directing, with input from other music specialists in the round room.Des Paul, a presenter/producer at Greatest Hits Radio, Lea Stonhill, music programmer at Radio X and Chris Price, Head of music at BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra all shared their approaches to music programming.For some stations, programming music by age demographic is now less important than programming by lifestyle. Des Paul’s niche station plays only show tunes, but makes sure it also has cross over with other stations in the company’s portfolio that have wider appeal. It is one of the sub-brands of Bauer Media’s Magic music brand.In contrast, for the BBC “age is everything,” it is enshrined in BBC Radio’s operating licence and the way it defines each brand. In Britain are locked to their formats by a promise of performance to the regulator Ofcom and the BBC Charter, so it is difficult to change the target audience.BBC Radio 1 is aimed at a younger audience of 15-29-year-olds, playing popular music across a variety of genres. BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 3 both target audiences 35-54 years old, Radio 2 with Talk and Radio 3 with classical music and cultural programming. BBC Radio 4 targets a more mature audience of 55 years and older, focusing on news, current affairs, drama, and cultural programming. Radio 5 targets 25-54-year-olds, with a focus on sports coverage, news, and current affairs.With its tightly defined age limitations BBC Radio stations regularly face the dilemma of throwing away one part of their audience and replacing them with another. The corporation hopes that audiences transition to other BBC stations, but in the changing media landscape this is no longer always the case. To help BBC Radio 1 build its position at the younger end of its target audience pipeline, Chris Price says he gives a lot of thought to “making the right relationships with artists for the future and prioritising female artists.”Lea Stonhill was head of music for Radio X for 7 years, but has recently accepted a job as UK Music Content Manager at YouTube. Commenting on station brands and sub-brands, she observed that “all stations now have sub brands, different versions for a similar, but not the same audience. A sub-brand should increase the number of listeners, not cannibalise the current audience… Niche brands can exist within an ecosystem,” she said.To a round of applause and laughter Des Paul answered the question, ‘how niche can you go,’ saying, “Not much smaller than show tunes.”More seriously he explained: “So long as there’s crossover and commonality between your niche stations it will work… there has to be something in common with the master brand.” They may be radio stations, or stations may use other sub-brand strategies such as podcasts or additional streams.Nik Goodman then threw to another music programmer in the room for an opinion on niche formatting. To another round of laughter, delegates heard about a sub-brand of the kids radio station Fun Kids that only plays music for ‘moments when children just need to chill after playtime.’ Fun Kids Naps is “a station that literally sends its audience to sleep… it fulfills a need.”Many stations have dropped older forms of music research such as auditorium music testing because, with music streaming services such as Spotify changing the landscape, “the way audiences consume music has moved on… the relationship between who’s telling who what to play, or who the new artists are, has changed.”BBC Radio 1 has stopped doing call out music research. “It used to help us with recurrents and golds but now it has changed. We’re awash with data from shazam, spotify, Tiktok… We don’t miss the old research, the most important data point for me now is, have we already played this song, is it connecting to our presenters and audience,” said Price. He still values research about burn rate of songs, but otherwise looks at a more holistic view of music research by combining all the plays data from music services with internal reaction from his music specialist team.Radio 1 has a huge music universe, playing around 12,000 new songs per year, about 1000 a week. This contrasts with some commercial classic hits stations in the US which are on the other extreme of the spectrum, playing as few as 229 songs per week on very high rotation. “They want you to have the song you want as soon as you turn on,” commented another music specialist in the room, Sean Ross.Radio X’s strategy is a little different again is it “a catalog station, a rock indie alternative mix,” according to Stonhill.“It aims to give a full picture of the genre within 20 mins. We kick off the hour with a song that has amazing research for us.” The hourly clock format begins with a familiar song from the noughties, followed by a 90s, then a new song from then current category, then 00s, 90s, a current, into an ad break at the 20 minute mark, followed by a similar rotation each 20 minutes. “Protect your unfamiliar new songs with two familiar songs either side,” advised Price.BBC Radio 1 does it the opposite way. “We break those rules,” said Price.Des Paul gave a tip for presenters in formats with high repetition. “Presenters struggle with repetition… we get excited when we see new songs on the list, but finding new content to talk about for the high rotation songs requires hard work from the presenter.”He also talked about the importance of ‘spice tracks.’ They may not be tracks that test highly or are played often, but they are valuable because they “add something else that gives spice to the hour, something else to talk about, but make sure that there are not too many at once,” he advisedWith Artificial Intelligence being a major theme running through many conference sessions the three speakers shared a common view. Music Direction has been using AI for years in its music scheduling systems and MDs are used to adapting to the latest features, machine learning will help scheduling systems further evolve, but the art of music directing is in the choice of music and the way it connects to the audience. “You have to have cultural knowledge to program music that works for real radio.” […]

Afghanistan’s only women-run radio station – Sadai Banowan, has been shut down for playing music during the holy month of Ramadan, according to a Taliban official.Sadai Banowan, which means ‘women’s voice’ in Dari, started 10 years ago. It has eight staff, six of them female.Moezuddin Ahmadi, the director for Information and Culture in Badakhshan province, said the station violated the “laws and regulations of the Islamic Emirate” several times by broadcasting songs and music during Ramadan and was shuttered because of the breach.“If this radio station accepts the policy of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and gives a guarantee that it will not repeat such a thing again, we will allow it to operate again,” said Ahmadi.However, station head Najia Sorosh denied there was any violation and called it a conspiracy. The Taliban “told us that you have broadcast music. We have not broadcast any kind of music,” she said.According to a report by AP, Sorosh said at 11:40 a.m. on Thursday representatives from the Ministry of Information and Culture and the Vice and Virtue Directorate arrived at the station and shut it down. She said station staff have contacted Vice and Virtue but officials there said they do not have any additional information about the closing.Speaking to The Independent, a staff member said her crew was tired of seeking the Taliban’s permission to speak about the basic rights of women in Afghanistan.She said she was ready to “fight” to save the radio station’s existence, even if it meant being punished.She said her team are pinning their last remaining hope on a conversation with the Taliban, expected to be held this week.“I have now decided to speak with the Taliban’s cultural chief and apologise, if needed. If he does not agree, I will break up the equipment and all my materials and shut down operations for ever,” she said.“But right now, I am not scared, and I will fight for my radio station’s existence. Even if the Taliban wants to jail or kill me in their prison custody,” she added.The Taliban have barred women from most forms of employment and education beyond the sixth grade, including university. […]

RØDE has announced an addition to its range of wireless microphones, the Wireless ME.The Wireless ME combines the same sound quality and innovative features that RØDE wireless microphones are revered for and the company hopes that with unprecedented ease of use, it is the ultimate grab-and-go microphone for content creators.To coincide with the release of the Wireless ME, RØDE has also launched a free iOS video app, RØDE Capture.The video app is designed specifically for today’s creators, it is aimed at becoming the perfect platform for making content on an iPhone and the perfect companion for the Wireless ME.Key features of the Wireless Me™
Ultra-compact and easy-to-use wireless microphone system
RØDE’s state-of-the-art Series IV 2.4 GHz digital transmission for crystal-clear recording with over 100m range
Intelligent GainAssist technology automatically controls audio levels for perfectly clear sound in any application
Broadcast-grade microphones built into both the transmitter and receiver for versatile dual-channel recording
Ability to connect an additional transmitter for capturing three microphones simultaneously
Connects seamlessly to cameras, smartphones and tablets (iOS and Android), and computers (Mac and Windows) with all required cables included
Easy control over settings via RØDE Central; compatible with RØDE Connect, RØDE Reporter and the new RØDE Capture app
Designed and made in RØDE’s precision facilities in Sydney, Australia […]

For the first time, users of the Adthos Platform can generate complete audio ads from start to finish using AI technology.  
Advertisers simply submit a short briefing via a self-service portal, and using AI technology, Adthos will generate the script, adding AI voices, sound effects and music, resulting in a fully AI-produced ad that’s available to be played out instantly. The platform utilizes a dozen AI technologies including GPT- 4, the latest language model to be released by OpenAI. The platform’s own library offers 100’s of hand-picked and trained top quality AI voices that collectively hold 1000 IMDB credits. This includes Emmy Award winning voice actors and talents who are part of the Top 10 Morning Shows in the US.   
 This breakthrough technology provides advertisers with efficient self-service and instant production of high-quality audio ads that offer the best voice talent available. For publishers it enables the kind of micro-transactions that will help to support long-tail revenue streams. Publishers are also able to add their own branding to the self-service portal to provide a more personalized service for customers. Adthos offers out of the box integrations with radio automation systems and ad-servers meaning that creative audio can be immediately played out, enabling publishers to create a true self-service ad-buying platform.  
Raoul Wedel, CEO of Adthos: “Adthos has delivered several firsts to the industry, but I am more excited about this than any other so far. We have been working with OpenAI for the last two years as part of their programs and have already pioneered its use for creative script writing. The addition of AI to select voices, music, and sound effects takes it to a new and exciting level.”   
Two dozen of the world’s largest publishers have already been selected to test out the product. To apply to participate in the trial, please contact [email protected].   
 A video demo of the platform is available at https://vimeo.com/813493380/85219b4303 
 Those interested in experiencing what Adthos Creative Studio can do can access a demo of audio commercials created using synthetic voices at: https://adthos.com/adthos-creative-studio-preview/   […]

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released recommendations on issues related to community radio stations (CRS).In India, community radio stations have been flagging a number of issues that restrict their market growth and expansion. In November 2022, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had requested the authority to provide its recommendations on:
Inclusion of not-for-profit companies, registered under Section 8 of Companies Act 2013, in the list of eligible organizations
Increasing of permission period from existing period of 5 years to 10 years
Maximum duration of advertisement per hour of broadcast on CRS
Number of CR Stations operated in each district of operation by Not-for-profit organizations, operating in multiple districts
After considering all comments/counter-comments received from stakeholders during consultation process and further analysis of the issues, the authority has finalised its recommendations.It said that Non-for-profit companies established under Section 8 of Companies Act 2013 are already covered in the extant eligibility criteria for CRS. It also reiterated its recommendations regarding disqualification of religious bodies from owning broadcasting channels.It said that the initial period of permission should be increased from five years to ten years, at a time.Present policy guidelines for extension or renewal of CRS license are adequate and should continue to be the same.It recommended that the duration of advertisement on a CRS should be increased from seven minutes per hour to twelve minutes per hour.Not-for-profit organizations, operating in multiple districts, should be allowed to set up multiple CRS in their area of operation. An organisation should be allowed to set up a maximum of six CRS throughout the country. An organisation seeking to set up multiple stations should submit an undertaking confirming that the programs will be prepared locally and not sent from other CRS.MIB may actively pursue with Central and State Governments to sponsor more programmes on CRS for helping CRS in their sustainability. All the universities of Central or State Governments may be provided budgetary support to establish and operate Community Radio Stations.All the processes for granting CRS should be made online through a single window system. SACFA (Standing Advisory Committee on Radio Frequency Allocation) clearance should be granted within one month of application and the grant of WOL (wireless operating license) license should also have a prescribed period preferably within one month of application. […]