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Radio Days

• Ian McTear
• 6 Dec 06, 01:24 PM

There was a great deal of discussion about what the future holds for radio at a recent meeting of the in London.
The title of the day was 'Radio at the Edge' and it was looking at where radio will go in the era of the internet, mobile phones, digital listening, iPods and so on.
The day opened with Andy Duncan, the chief executive of who said he believed that the radio industry is going through a much bigger change than it realises. Andy believes that both AM and FM will fall away over the next five to ten years during which broadcasting will turn into a two way landscape with much more audience participation.
Basically Andy's warning was that radio is more vulnerable than people might realise - especially to a younger generation - and that if it does not reinvent itself it will decline.
But he also believes that digital will allow radio to reinvent itself in terms of its relationship to the audience.

This theme was later picked up by Martin Talks of which produces podcasts for companies. He described radio as being like a library where you have to wait for a book - but on the internet you can just go and get the book. Martin believes that relevancy to the audience is increasingly being dictated by the audience.

And Tom Coates, who has worked for Yahoo and for the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½, went further. He said all the media which have been in dominant positions so far will gradually diminish. Tom believes that although radio has been resistant to the changes so far it too will diminish gradually.

James Cridland from pointed out that there are more mobile phone users than PC users in the UK and therefore the radio industry would be better focusing on them because that is where young people spend their time.
With screens appearing on radios and radio's availability on phones and on television James wonders whether we should now just simply refer to the audience, rather than to listeners or to viewers.

Further evidence of the growing popularity of interactivity was provided by Ben Chapman, an interactive television producer at the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½. He revealed that more than 19 million adults are listening to the radio on the television and that a million of them are pressing the red button on Freeview for the interactive options.

Later there was also a spirited discussion on what the future holds for AM. The most trenchant contribution came from Fru Hazlitt, of Virgin Radio.
She believes that it should be ditched as soon as possible because AM gives people the wrong impression of how radio will be in the future.
Or as she put it succinctly "AM makes you realise the need for a digital future."

So there it is there is everything to play for - but which direction would you like to see us head off in?

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