TORONTO – What would radio be without good, lively banter among radio personalities? And that’s exactly what attendees at the Radio Interactive conference on Thursday were treated to during a panel discussion called “Social Radio” that included execs from both terrestrial and pure-play digital radio companies. Radio Interactive was held as part of Slacker Canadian Music Week 2012 in Toronto last week.
A friendly but competitive vibe among the panellists could be felt early in the session, especially between Dave Farough, vice-president of brand, programming and new media for Corus Radio, and Rob Farina, executive vice-president of content for Astral Media. Alluding to BCE’s planned acquisition of Astral Media, Farough turned to Farina and joked: “I feel so small and inadequate sitting beside you with your 118 radio stations now. We only have 37, so we’re just a little player in the broadcast industry.”
Farina responded by reminding Farough that BCE is buying Astral Media and not the other way around, adding that he just wanted to clarify that in case Bell Media Radio president Chris Gordon was in the room.
Speaking about Astral Media’s digital strategy, which includes the recent launch of its on-demand digital music service, Farina said the company has hired more than 100 new staff in positions that didn’t exist before, in the areas of digital content production, social media, sales, technology and business development. “As an industry, we need to embrace digital media to strengthen the relationship and value of our brands to the consumer,” he said.
“I don’t believe it will always be towers delivering our signal, with more audio and streaming options heading to the dashboard. The opportunity is now for radio to reinvent itself and enhance our role in the communities we serve, and ensure our spot on the infinite dial.”
For his part, Corus Radio’s Farough said he likes to keep things simple, which means focusing on his company’s core business of radio. “We’re not a concert promoter, we’re not a streaming service, we don’t have Katy Perry playing in movie theatres,” Farough said, which provoked a playfully mocking “Ha-ha!” from Farina, as it was a reference to Astral Media’s new agreement with Cineplex to advertise the VirginRadio.ca on-demand service.
Farough went on to explain that Corus actually dissolved its entire interactive department a year ago and brought it under the radio division. “We realized that we’re not radio and interactive – we’re ‘this’ now. It really is all one big pot, if you will,” he added. “So it makes no sense to have this whole other interactive division that doesn’t understand the radio model.”
Farough said Corus Radio’s digital strategy focuses on four key pillars: its streaming radio player, web sites, mobile apps and MyCommunity social media platform. “And we continue to learn about this digital space,” Farough explained. “Anybody who says they are an expert in this digital space is lying to you, so delete that e-mail. None of us know where this going.”
The pure-play digital radio services represented on the panel were Slacker Personal Radio and Rdio – both based in the United States – and CBC Music, the public broadcaster’s new digital music-streaming service launched a month ago.
Jack Isquith, senior vice-president of strategic development for Slacker, said traditional and pure-play digital radio services are ultimately fishing in the same waters for listeners. “But make no mistake about it – we are friends and we are competitors,” Isquith said. “We are basically trying to figure out what the most compelling experiences are and deliver it to our audience, but we may have different pathways of getting there and different angles.”
Slacker Radio offers both subscription-based and ad-supported digital radio services, including 175 pre-programmed radio stations and an on-demand service. Isquith said Slacker believes listeners still want curated radio but also personalization. “I think the Jack-FM phrase is ‘Playing what we want’. We think that day may have passed. We think now we need to play what the audience wants,” he said. “And so we have a saying: ‘We build the stations, you make them better.’”
Rdio is a subscription-only on-demand music streaming service, because Rdio does not believe in the advertising model for digital radio, said Scott Bagby, the company’s vice-president of strategic and international partnerships. Users pay US$4.99 a month for Web-only streaming or US$9.99 a month for a combined Web and wireless streaming subscription (the company most recently launched with Telus in Canada). Bagby said 80% of Rdio’s customers pay for the higher-cost mobile streaming service.
“To pay twice the amount means, not only are they willing to do it, but also that they want to do it,” Bagby said.
CBC Music decided to go with an ad-supported business model to provide a free digital music service to its listeners, said Chris Boyce, executive director of radio and audio for CBC Music. “We think our biggest opportunity is music content across all of our platforms – TV, radio, digital,” he said. “Our goal with CBC Music is really quite simply to connect Canadians with the music that they love.”
CBC Music offers 40 Web radio channels, featuring music from a range of genres, such as classical, hip hop, indie rock, R&B and soul. In addition, CBC Music has 14 online communities, built around different music genres, which enable music fans to connect and explore music together, Boyce said.
Given the panel’s theme of “social radio”, moderator Dan Anstandig, president of Listener Driven Radio, asked if the panellists would hire a manager today who didn’t have a Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn account.
“Unlikely,” said Farina. “My view is this is a person living in a world that ceased to exist 20 years ago. If they’re going to be a leader in a communications company, they have to be immersed in communications themselves.”
Farough said his company expects new on-air talent to be content creators as well. “So some of the interview questions we ask are: ‘Tell me about your video skills. Tell me about how you use Facebook. When you do something on air, how are you going to have that across multiple platforms?’”
And Farough had a message for radio veterans who aren’t willing to move with the times. “To those old dogs that refuse to learn the new tricks in our business, I say to them: Get another job. Go find another industry, because this is the way it is,” Farough said. “The Internet is here to stay, and let’s embrace it and use all of the tools at our fingertips, instead of fighting against it.”
