ASIA

“Audio is the new cool, so we need to become the leader of audio,” said Charles-Emmanuel Bon from Radio France during a panel discussion at RDE23.“We need to segment in the way audiences use digital media, not in the traditional way through age demographics. Audiences need to be profiled by understanding their content interests and how they consume content…“We aim to produce less content, but more targeted content by forging links between our marketing and programming areas to inform our content and delivery.” Bon explained that his station segments content by thinking it through, producing it and distributing the content on a targeted platform.These are the key strategies to meet Radio France’s identified challenges for the future:• Think about content as being non linear• Understand how we can use technology and help our journalists use AI in their work.• Hybrid radio• IP distribution is important as users are moving faster• Spend more time on packaging program content to reach audiences that will never tune into our stations as part of Public Broadcasters’ mandate.• Opinion isn’t difficult but some of the population sees us as biased… we must present the facts and keep the conversations going.“We plan to further invest in our people by training them to move from sound design to motion design,” said Bon.Martina Rihova from ACTIVE contributed to the discussion saying, “our biggest challenge is creating appealing content for the audience. We often forget about content and focus too much on new technology.”She identified these further challenges:• AI coming in can be leveraged as a useful tool in assessing the viability of podcasts.• Creating different ways to deliver content to keep younger audiences on multiplatform distribution.• People are tired of news so we have less news less on air and more news content on our podcasts.“My advice is to learn to make AI your friend,” she said.“Collaboration is the common goal,” said Cathinka Randon, NRK, from Norway. “Together we focus on the most important aspects and deliver through our own  platform NRK radio app.”“We will continue to build our content and understanding of our listeners by understanding their habits and how they find their content.”Guy Frankel, Director. Rock Antenne plans to keep up with Generation Z and Alpha “by seeing what they are looking for like anchor points in music which can then be packaged by announcers on social media.”“Creating multiplatform content has lead to a change in the sales unit to work more closely with marketing through straight brand management. We’re increasing our sales by working with clients to increase their profile on digital platforms where they wish to be.” […]

In a traditional session at RadioDays Europe, six of the best presenters are selected to summarise their talks from the conference into a tight 5 minutes.They give 5 tips each, totaling 30 tips in this 30 minute fast paced session.Here are this year’s speakers and their tips.Tanya Tarr has a corporate learning and development company. Her 5 tips are about burnout:
Admit you are burned out (and stop judging yourself)
Stay curious and not furious. Wonder creates positive chemicals in your body and presents opportunities
Refocus on purpose – especially shared purpose (every sacrifice matters because we’re building a better world, do for yourself what you ask others to do)
Be a protective steward of the people who surround you
Steal every moment of joy and ‘drive like you stole it.’ Encourage your teams to use their power and tell them how great their work is – be specific. 
Internationally renowned audience researcher Tom Webster from Sounds Profitable’s ideas are formed as questions.
Don’t ask ‘Where did you discover my podcast,’ ask ‘HOW did you discover it?’ The answer will probably be ‘from friends and family,’ but go further and find out how, that way you will learn what to do to market your podcast.
What other podcasts do you listen to? From this question you can discover why they listen and round the audience out as a 3 dimensional person.
How long should my podcast be? This is a bad question and unanswerable. Instead, ask,’ should my podcast be shorter or longer?’ This will help you explore what more is needed in the show or what has to be cut.
How would you describe my podcast to a friend? A specific person. What exactly would they say. This will give you an authentic insight into what people value in your podcast.
If my podcast died tomorrow, what would you miss the most? People can be very precise about what they would miss. If the answer is nothing… then you have a problem.
Comedian Sadia Azmat focused on self promotion to enhance your career.1. Believe in yourself2. Get over yourself3. Be less emotional and be more strategic4. Reassess/ Review and think about the ways you can overcome your challenges5. Sales, it’s a numbers game, don’t give up, keep knocking on doors“Self promotion is layers… telling others about yourself and the things you do.”David Fernández Quijada is Research Director at South 180. His tips are abot forward planning.1. Think and act long term. Focus on what is important, not what’s urgent.2. Appoint an AI explorer. It’s not just a fad or hype, AI will be able to satisfy a lot of your future needs, so you need someone dedicated to understanding and progressing it in your team.3. Do different things, do things differently. Don’t race to the bottom by copying others, race to the top by being distinctive. Bring unique content, surprise your audience.4. Work on context to boost your content. You need to understand where your power is, it’s not just in the content, but in the wider context in which you operate. Your competitors in Big Tech are just data providers, you are more than that, you have connection and unique editorial content.5. Measure and explain the content you deliver. Are you keeping listeners and clients up to date about your strategy and what’s happening in your business.Angela Stengel, from the ABC’s Innovation lab advised how best to build teams who can reach young audiences.1 Give young people decision-making power. Give them autonomy and trust, it goes a long way.2 The internet is full of sub-cultures. Go niche, and do it well. At the ABC we’ve been getting talent who can do things well and we’ve built a large audience on social media.3 Stay authentic to your station or brand.4 Set up the scaffolding and then get out of the way. Make sure they have access to quick decision making, including budgets.5 Stand strong in the face of criticism. It will come.Swedish Radio’s News Director Olle Zachrison’s tips are about quality behind the hype:1. Define your strategic goals within all the AI hype. Don’t get distracted from your mission by the hype2. Use AI to add value in our products and people, not to replace them.3. Go from broadcast chunks to digital atoms. We are tending to concentrate on long form content for podcasts, but your best journalism can also be short. Short chunked stories are easier to work with for automation and for audiences to personalise their content.4. Get senior editors involved in AI. This is about their audience, so they must be involved.5. It’s the journalism stupid! Be guides to the truth in a flood of misinformation. Explain, investigate and use your knowledge to produce the best journalism.Peter Niegel , the General Manager of RadioDays told the audience that there are more RadioDays conferences around the world, “You can go to Canada in June and RadioDays Asia in Kuala Lumpur in September if you want to continue to be  part of RadioDays,” he said.The next European RadioDays will be held in Munich, 17-19 March 2024.[embedded content] […]

Xperi has launched a new service that can deliver high quality rich content to listeners’ dashboards and give new insights for programmers into how people are using radio in cars.Speaking at Radiodays Europe, Joe D’Angelo and Desmond Fuller unveiled DTS AutoStage, which “unleashes the power of audio through UX and analytics.” It also puts radio back into a strong position again as auto manufacturers make plans for enhanced entertainment options in autonomous driving cars.Xperi has been working on the rich car radio experience for some time, and has now moved into the second stage of the project by releasing an analytics platform for radio managers and programmers to see how their listeners are using their station while driving.It only tracks car radio usage, but is one more piece in the puzzle for managers as they seek to understand their audiences better. Combined with rich data gathered from mobile apps and market survey data, this new service will give more insights about audience listening habits while commuting.The service works with connected cars that have integrated the Xperi DTS Autostage platform into their dashboard system. It gives drivers and passengers a richer experience by adding related events, interactivity, artist notes, logos, cover art and more to the radio station display. Data is able to be added by presenters or content directors in real time from a portal at the radio station.“This is a global solution,” D’Angelo told conference delegates. “Participation in the platform is free to broadcasters… the company monetises the service by charging car makers a licence fee to use it. We are expanding rapidly within the auto industry.”The service is being expanding to more and more car brands across the world and now serves over 90,000 different radio stations in 147 countries. A BMW with the Xperi enabled dashboard is on display at the conference.Fuller, one of the architects of the system, explained that the broadcaster portal gives editorial control of content and access to audience data. “You can see when and where people are listening and what they are listening to.”“We’ve been working in the car radio space for over 20 years. We saw what was happening in the dash and decided we are uniquely placed to help the radio industry compete with big tech’s attack on the car’s multimedia dashboard… Big Data has changed every industry, why should radio be left behind.”DTS Autostage allows stations to offer a consistent user experience to the “previously lalacklustre radio interface on the car dashboard.”From the programmer’s point of view, the most significant elements are the heat map, which can show you where your listeners are when they are driving around with your radio station on…and the time of day graph, which can pinpoint on a daily basis when your listeners are listening to your station in their cars.Data is available on a daily basis within 24 hours. Given the potential for tracking, the DTS Autostage service has had to proceed carefully to navigate all the appropriate privacy laws in different countries and is now compliant with regulations across the world.The company asks three things of broadcasters who want to take part in the platform:• Permission• A Streaming URL• Live data such as song playing and metadata from playout system“We are now able to prove to programmers, advertisers and agencies that there is still high degrees of listening to radio in cars… digital migration is taking place in front of your eyes.”In preparation for autonomous driving, car makers are becoming proactive about how they offer a richer user interface to people in autonomous cars. “This will hopefully keep radio ahead of the competitive curve,” said Fuller.[embedded content]
Some of the car brands currently using Autostage are shown below. More information here. […]

“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] […]