Today, I invited Dales Whyte, Business Advisor Enterprise Plus (South Coast Of NSW), Charity Founder & Creator Of Businesses, Community Leader, and International Broadcaster to share his perspective on the state of commercial broadcast radio from his home, Down Under.
-0-
Radio, a medium that has been a source of entertainment, information, and connection for generations, is facing a crossroads. As a radio enthusiast who fell in love with this industry in the late ’70s, it pains me to see its decline. The ghost of radio may linger, but its glory days seem to be fading unless we take action now! I refuse to attend its funeral, and I believe that with the right strategies, we can breathe new life into Radio.
Today, I serve as a business advisor for the New South Wales (NSW) Government, working with small to medium-sized clients daily. Ironically, this role has given me a unique insight into the state of the radio industry in Australia.
I’m not advocating a return to the good old days of the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, and yesteryear’s hits. Instead, I’m championing the use of modern technology and techniques to rejuvenate the industry. The future of radio lies not only in its past but also in its present.
One strategy I often recommend to my clients is reverse engineering the sales process to better serve and adapt their businesses. Radio must apply the same principle to secure its future. We need to focus on two key client bases crucial for our survival.
1. The Customer:
• The customer is not just the listener but also the one who pays the bills, keeping the radio station afloat.
• While streamlining operations and adopting network-centric models can save money, we must not sacrifice localism. If we do that then the customers advertising will be impacted by not having the number of listeners to act on the message of the commercial stop
• Balancing cost-saving measures with local touch is essential to keep our customers satisfied and our revenue strong.
2. The Radio Listener:
• Listeners are the lifeblood of radio. We must provide them with content that meets their needs, wants, and desires.
• Local radio plays a vital role in informing communities about local events and news, making it an invaluable resource.
• We need to address the growing disconnect between what listeners want and what we deliver.
To revive the radio industry, we must consider the following strategies:
1. Embrace Social Media:
• Radio has traditionally shied away from social media, but it’s time to change. Social media can enhance the connection between listeners, customers, and radio stations. We have to be the leaders in social media in our marketplaces.
• Utilize platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram to engage with the audience and expand reach.
• Use social media for the coverage of events. Radio must now return to the days of turning up to every dog and pony show.
2. Live Streaming:
• To cater to today’s audience, we must offer live streaming of radio shows.
• Interact with the audience in real-time during shows and engage them through video and audio content.
3. Invest in Talent:
• Radio’s success hinges on having the best talent in the industry. Not just announcers but for the entire radio station.
• Encourage people to pursue careers in radio by providing opportunities and training. I have long advocated that nights and mid dawns should be utilised as training/sessions to create a true radio school.
Shared Responsibility: The responsibility for radio’s survival falls on all stakeholders in the industry.
1. Announcers:
• Announcers should consider their role as being a dedicated professional, not just a job.
• They should stay informed about local events, engage with the community, and embrace localism. Announces need to embrace localism!
• Never miss an opportunity to localise or interact with the community.
2. Sales Teams:
- Sales teams should focus on creating successful advertising campaigns that truly benefit clients.
- The quick sale mentality must be replaced with a client-focused approach.
- Members of the sales team have to be individual advertising agents understanding and utilising skills in conjunction with creative writers to achieve outstanding results for radio customers,
3. Station Staff:
• Every member of the station’s staff plays a critical role in its success.
• The friendliness and engagement of receptionists, for example, can leave a lasting impression on visitors.
4. Managers:
• Managers should lead the way by encouraging new ideas and a change in business practices.
• Regular positive meetings and staff collaboration are essential for radio station success.
5. Owners:
• Owners must be willing to embrace change and enforce ethics in the industry. People must feel safe in their job and part of a living breathing team that is growing and won’t replace them at the drop of a hat.
• A long-term approach is needed to ensure financial success and maintain radio’s relevance.
Conclusion: The radio industry is at a pivotal moment. We can choose to let it fade into history, or we can take action to revive it. By embracing change, focusing on the needs of both customers and listeners, and using modern technology, radio can continue to be a vibrant and essential part of our lives. It’s time to write a new chapter for radio, one that ensures its survival and success for years to come.
-Dales Whyte
Empowering businesses along the picturesque South Coast of New South Wales as a dedicated Business Advisor under the Enterprise Plus / Business Connect program, I also take pride in my role as a philanthropist, founding charities and nurturing innovative enterprises. As a community leader, I strive to foster growth and collaboration, creating a positive impact locally and beyond. Additionally, my voice extends globally as an international broadcaster, sharing insights and stories that resonate across borders. Together, let’s build a thriving and interconnected world.
DickTaylorBlog 
These are indeed admirable and important objectives, and you’ve extensively addressed many of them in your previous posts, Dick. However, two critical factors remain unchanged. Firstly, the listener demographic for radio is diminishing as older listeners are dying off, and newer generations lack a compelling reason to make radio their primary source for news and entertainment. Secondly, advertisers now have unlimited alternatives to disseminate their messages, causing radio to occupy a smaller and diminishing portion of their advertising strategies. Similar to the makers of eight-track players, cassette tapes, and CDs, who likely contemplated methods to enhance their products to retain market share, the reality is that these markets shifted, presenting uncontrollable challenges. The state of flux in media has even led the Washington Post to wonder what it’s going to be in the future laying off 200 employees. This media fragmentation is only increasing with new outlets creating niche audiences.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We are a dramatic period of change, in all areas, in our world.
It’s a media revolution and like all revolutions, the distruction occurs before the new way get established.
Fasten your safety belt.
-DT
LikeLike
So many points, so little room. Realize we’re in a media revolution. People have so many choices that the pie is being splintered into smaller slices than ever. No one is winning though-which can offer up hope for the legacy medium, radio if we get our act together. It’s still easiest, free-est and could be exciting. Time to get into the mainstream mode and stick with it. We know the problems. The answers here have been written for decades now -with different phrases-but we know what can be done to fix it. The question is – will broadcasters rise to the challenge, finally?
LikeLiked by 1 person
That is the BIG QUESTION Dave.
-DT
LikeLike
I never worked in sales, but as a production director (and occasionally as program director) I worked with sales staffs. I wonder: are stations and chains relying on national sales staffs and agency buys at the expense of local advertisers?
While I haven’t paid attention until now, it occurs to me that some of the stations I listen to seem to air more spots for national advertisers than they do for local businesses. Obviously some of this is during the “network” portions of syndicated-programming stopsets, but I don’t hear local ads filling up a lot of local avails; sometimes it’s more national buys, other times its PSAs or promos used as filler. Makes me wonder if some stations are largely ignoring potential local advertisers.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m hearing local advertisers in my area on streaming platforms and I also see them on SLING TV breaks. Somebody is selling them.
-DT
LikeLike
Sadly..the points mentioned are archaic in nature and do not reflect the problem our beloved medium has before it TODAY. As Dave Mason said, this has been addressed with different labels for decades and gone untended to…it’s a three slice pie. Support from ownership and management. Desire by staff to succeed by way of their own personal ability. Technical hurdles that stand in the way of all of the above. The individual roles of all radio broadcasters have been minimalized, and in some cases have been diluted to a thankless, and tedious JOB..and not viewed as a desirable career to undertake.
There is no need to learn or perfect a craft that has a self-assessed dim future. We are presenting the image of an industry on the verge of extinction. Who would want to jump on that bus? Internally we are not promoting our own industry. If I was considering getting into media..I would never look at radio broadcasting as a path to success. Pretty
much all you hear in many markets is radio stations as barker channels for corporate online content, out of market podcasts, specialty streams etc..with some rare exceptions..very
little
local station promotion, and similarly little outside advertising..and lots of whining about how it used to be. We need to promote our own industry to attract quality people..but I fear they won’t be interested in rewinding the past.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank You Jeff for stopping by the blog today and sharing your thoughts.
-DT
LikeLike
If there were any new way in Mr. Whyte’s methods to save radio, I must have missed them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dales gave us look behind the curtain in Australia and what he sees as the issues that need to be addressed in that country.
For broadcasters in North America, it might seem like “old news.”
However, it shows that these issues are global for the radio industry.
-DT
LikeLiked by 1 person
Having missed multiple opportunities since the early-2000s, America’s radio industry will not step onto the fast moving digital train today. Even if it could the Velocity of Change is too great for radio to catch up.
We are in a “music of your life” downward spiral by attrition.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The same thoughts that run through my head Ken. Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) looks to be the future in all areas of human endeavor. The speed at which it is evolving is head spinning to even those involved in its development. The rest of us will either adapt or be road kill.
Having enjoyed success, both with listeners and advertisers with the Music of YOUR Life format on a daytime AM radio station, that last line sent a chill down my spine.
But you’re so very right in that analogy.
-DT
LikeLike
Just a thought here. Many of us spent a Sunday watching “America’s Pastime”-the NFL. I used NFL Red Zone-and am always impressed with what they’re doing to enhance the game. The key to it all? HUMANS. From Scott Hansen to 11 players to coaches to coordinators-it’s all HUMAN. My wife attended a comedy show last night-and it was presented by HUMANS. I keep reading about artificial intelligence, and realize it can aid, enhance, everything in media -but it still needs HUMANS to make it all work. Listeners can’t hear (or see) media, whether it be analog or digital without technology-but it still takes the human element to keep it going. Seems that radio has decided that technology needs to take over the jobs that humans once did, which is diminishing its value. Time to realize there’s a place for tech-and a place for (drum roll again)… HUMANS. Even the NFL provides live coverage of up to 10 or more games with human involvement (Red Zone), and we know that they’re not hurting for revenue. Let’s hope that the NFL never becomes publicly traded.
LikeLike
The key to all that, is that those humans you describe are seen. We humans have “grown” beyond radio, because now we need visual stimuli in addition to audio to “complete the picture”. Radio just can’t succeed without accompanying visual stimuli. That missing element will eventually doom radio.
LikeLike
The spoken word and music will always have a place in people’s daily lives. The real question is how it will be delivered.
I suspect when delivery is as easy and seamless as radio, that will be a game changer.
Already, I find streaming audio in my car via my iPhone produces higher quality audio, than the noise/interference floor these days for FM radio . (Forgetaboutit for AM)
I can listen WETA or WTOP out of Washington, DC with better quality and a more stable signal this way than I can to either station over-the-air. (This wouldn’t be true if I lived in the DC metro, but our local TV are the DC channels and I read the Washington Post {online}.) We live about 64 air miles from DC.
I can’t see either of these wonderful radio stations not surviving because they don’t have video with their broadcasts.
-DT
LikeLike
May be true however that is a streamed service..As far as “radio” surviving there WALL always be a desire for audio entertainment. But no need to expensive transmitters and towers when ANYONE can set up a listenable stream in ONE DAY! The key IS still the human connection..but delivery method is not relative any longer. I read that there was a kid in Denton Texas that had an internet station in his bedroom with MORE listeners than THREE fulltime AM signals, and ONE FM station in DFW COMBINED!! The radio business needs to embrace online, and drop the multi-tower AM sites..on expensive land..with the exception for a few higher power stations to serve as emergency comms when the beloved Internet fails.. Only then..more competition from more streamed onliine signals worldwide..so the content better be STELLAR
LikeLike