If I Owned a Radio Station

I just got back from Radio Ink's Convergence conference in San Jose and spent a good chunk of my flight reflecting on the Radio Industry, where it is going, and where it should go. For those that don't know, the Convergence conference is all about the convergence of Radio and the Web, with lots of panels on utilization of the web - i.e. streaming, loyalty programs, etc. - to make your radio station more profitable and more appealing to listeners.

The conference was great. I go to a lot of radio and web conferences throughout the year, and this one is by far the most informative and while most other radio events are painful for me (especially because I focus on the interactive side of the business), this one is less about preaching to the choir, and more about sharing ideas and inspiring a traditional business to act.

However, the perspective of these events are always from that of the traditional radio broadcaster. Sure, this makes sense since that is who attends these conferences, but I am not sure the traditional operator is going to be the driver of this convergence. I actually think it will meet in the middle. The web operators, with all the information they have about their listeners, will be in as good a position to dominate "radio" as the terrestrial operators, and maybe more. Here's what I would do if I ran a terrestrial music radio station:


1. Get rid of my programmers

I hate to even say this, because the programmers are probably the people at terrestrial radio stations that I admire the most and enjoy spending the most time with. However, after using algorithmically personalized web radio like Pandora and Slacker recently, and using community driven services like Last.fm and Hype Machine, it seems that we should be able to program stations more efficiently. I am not saying that there shouldn't be a human element in programming - Pandora has 20 musicologists analyzing songs - but I am advocating utilizing technology to program in a different way. I would use the online community of music listeners and music lovers to program my station.

2. Take it easy on the ads

Every serious music lover I know barely listens to terrestrial radio. And if you are under 30, forget terrestrial radio altogether. But these people love internet radio. A big part of this is the personalization - and a lot of this can't translate to terrestrial radio. However, another big reason is commercials. Plain and simple, commercial breaks on terrestrial radio are too long. An ad shouldn't be longer than 30 seconds and there shouldn't be more than 2 in a row. That's the way internet radio stations operate. Throw out the 5 minute stop break and keep the music going as long as possible, and when you need to make some money, keep it short.

3. Throw formats into the garbage

Every terrestrial radio station has a format. Even when they tried to mix things up they called it Jack, and there was a specific format associated with Jack. I think it may have even been patented. However, I believe a music station should avoid formats. Let the community decide what they want to listen to. This way the station can evolve to the tastes of it's listeners. Just like one person can fine tune a personalized Pandora station, the "wisdom of crowds" can ultimately create the best mass market terrestrial station. And rather than firing all the DJ's, switching the call letters and having a commercial free summer to launch the new format, the flavor of a station can simply evolve into what the audience wants it to be.

4. Be platform agnostic, but web centric

These words get thrown around quite a bit these days, but it is important to offer the best programming to your audience whether they are listening on an FM signal, the web, HD or on a cell phone. Of course there are limitations to all of these formats, but a good operator provides the best experience each format is capable of. But in each case the web will provide the interaction and information necessary to enable the station to serve their listeners.

Of course, as someone who never actually ran a radio station, it is easy for me to say what I would do. I don't have an existing revenue stream to worry about, and I am not leveraged beyond my cash flow. I mentioned I was going to write this to an 80 year old, former station owner over lunch today and he looked at me incredulously and said, "what do you know about running a radio station?" Well, not much, but it is clear that the current model needs some work, and mixing it up a bit could be just what the industry needs right now.