Requirements for Radio Broadcasters
It is essential that youth-orientated radio broadcasters acknowledge a set of requirements they need to implement in order to appeal to the participatory user while competing with new delivery platforms that have developed and become prevalent in the digital age. The following are strategies that radio broadcasters must address and implement if they want to remain a successful broadcast medium:
1. Connecting listeners together in an imagined community.
Radio brings a disperse collective of listeners together, over long distances, to share an experience. Radio has traditionally been a one-to-many broadcast scheme, and although this path was previously mainly one-way, it can now be opened up to enable a two way stream of commentary and feedback. The most successful stations take advantage of the power of radio to build a tribe. The benefits of having a loyal and committed listeners are their huge involvement and support of a station during charity events.
2. Expanding to social networks.
Radio has always been a communication tool that enabled the overcoming of distance. Incorporating social medias should not be feared by radio broadcast, but embraced as a natural and logical extension to the medium. Consider social media partnerships; teaming up with social media sites can be beneficial as a huge component to radio, as well as what sets radio apart from non-stop music services like Itunes, is social interactions. Interesting and relevant content that fits between the music, commercials and promos, comprises of topics, relate, affect and interest members in the community, and social media sites are a prime place to cultivate and gauge human interaction.
3. Developing new and compelling convergence media productions.
The combining of real life events with social media, as well as adapting to visual formats rather than remaining a purely aural based medium. Producing innovative multimedia for broadcasting will captivate listeners and enable them to interact with the station in a multidimensional community.
4. Creating content for multiple platforms.
Extending on-air content online is simple and offers greater depth to broadcast content. Producing content for a range of devices as well as enabling streaming services offers listeners a more personalised experience. A key aim is to create a franchise rather than an individual program or a single brand. Producers now have the power to create content on a variety of devices, many of which are mobile. Content should be delivered to users in the way in which they prefer to consume it, whether that be on their actual radio, or on their phones, on a tablet or on their computers.
5. Creating and shaping not just an interactive experience but also a participatory culture.
For a considerably long time radio has been partially participatory when it comes down to talkback and using the phones to give the audience a voice. However, since the development of the Internet, greater opportunities have arisen to take participatory opportunities a giant leap forward. Radio does not strictly send news and entertainment; it now also receives. Traditionally radio has had a more active audience compared to other mediums; radio caters for a community and establishes a much more emotional and intimate level of relationship with its listeners than television or newspapers. Radio broadcasters must accept and address head on the evolution and immersion of radio into a much larger platform.
6. Provide a constant service.
Although there are certain times which have a higher rating of listeners, consumers want media at any given moment. Archiving programs and having extended content online creates the opportunity to build an alternative channel or area for broadcasters to incorporate not only playback content but rather a cloud-based stream of additional multimedia content. Presently online streaming services are viewed as competitors of traditional radio broadcasters, however it would be advantageous to actually unite streaming with broadcast radio. Itunes enables subscriptions to podcasts so they could potentially be used to distribute a station's programs as well.
From a traditionally audio-based medium, radio will need to consider adapting to the convergence playground and begin presenting content in a variety of formats, to be delivered on a diverse field of platforms and devices, if they wish to retain a significant connection with their audiences. By embracing new technologies and local content, radio will remain at large in the digital world accompanied by a supporting, loyal and participatory community of listeners.
1. Connecting listeners together in an imagined community.
Radio brings a disperse collective of listeners together, over long distances, to share an experience. Radio has traditionally been a one-to-many broadcast scheme, and although this path was previously mainly one-way, it can now be opened up to enable a two way stream of commentary and feedback. The most successful stations take advantage of the power of radio to build a tribe. The benefits of having a loyal and committed listeners are their huge involvement and support of a station during charity events.
2. Expanding to social networks.
Radio has always been a communication tool that enabled the overcoming of distance. Incorporating social medias should not be feared by radio broadcast, but embraced as a natural and logical extension to the medium. Consider social media partnerships; teaming up with social media sites can be beneficial as a huge component to radio, as well as what sets radio apart from non-stop music services like Itunes, is social interactions. Interesting and relevant content that fits between the music, commercials and promos, comprises of topics, relate, affect and interest members in the community, and social media sites are a prime place to cultivate and gauge human interaction.
3. Developing new and compelling convergence media productions.
The combining of real life events with social media, as well as adapting to visual formats rather than remaining a purely aural based medium. Producing innovative multimedia for broadcasting will captivate listeners and enable them to interact with the station in a multidimensional community.
4. Creating content for multiple platforms.
Extending on-air content online is simple and offers greater depth to broadcast content. Producing content for a range of devices as well as enabling streaming services offers listeners a more personalised experience. A key aim is to create a franchise rather than an individual program or a single brand. Producers now have the power to create content on a variety of devices, many of which are mobile. Content should be delivered to users in the way in which they prefer to consume it, whether that be on their actual radio, or on their phones, on a tablet or on their computers.
5. Creating and shaping not just an interactive experience but also a participatory culture.
For a considerably long time radio has been partially participatory when it comes down to talkback and using the phones to give the audience a voice. However, since the development of the Internet, greater opportunities have arisen to take participatory opportunities a giant leap forward. Radio does not strictly send news and entertainment; it now also receives. Traditionally radio has had a more active audience compared to other mediums; radio caters for a community and establishes a much more emotional and intimate level of relationship with its listeners than television or newspapers. Radio broadcasters must accept and address head on the evolution and immersion of radio into a much larger platform.
6. Provide a constant service.
Although there are certain times which have a higher rating of listeners, consumers want media at any given moment. Archiving programs and having extended content online creates the opportunity to build an alternative channel or area for broadcasters to incorporate not only playback content but rather a cloud-based stream of additional multimedia content. Presently online streaming services are viewed as competitors of traditional radio broadcasters, however it would be advantageous to actually unite streaming with broadcast radio. Itunes enables subscriptions to podcasts so they could potentially be used to distribute a station's programs as well.
From a traditionally audio-based medium, radio will need to consider adapting to the convergence playground and begin presenting content in a variety of formats, to be delivered on a diverse field of platforms and devices, if they wish to retain a significant connection with their audiences. By embracing new technologies and local content, radio will remain at large in the digital world accompanied by a supporting, loyal and participatory community of listeners.