By Ken Kelley
What does the future of radio hold here in Canada? It was this rather lofty question panelists shed light on during the Ontario Association of Broadcasters’ annual conference, held online last week.
Of course, if you have been even semi-tuned into what the media has been saying, radio has been “dead” for years now. James Cridland wryly pointed this out during his Where Now For Radio’s Future keynote address on Thursday.
Cridland, whose resume includes the rather impressive feat of launching the world’s first streaming radio smartphone app for the original Virgin Radio in March 2005, pointed out that as far back as the 1899, Lord Kelvin predicted radio would not last. Fast forward more than a full century later and in 2005, Wired Magazine also foretold of radio’s imminent demise.
The host optimistically pointed out radio listenership has remained relatively static over the last 20 years, boasting more than a million hours of listening during any given week, according to data from the U.K.
Interestingly, according to Cridland, radio and music streaming services capture an almost equal share of audience at approximately 43% each, while the balance of the population is tuned into podcasts. In fact, according to the Spoken Word Audio Report from NPR and Edison Research in the United States, the amount of music consumed by the public has decreased by about 8% in terms of share.
“Distribution strategy should focus on live, linear radio on speakers because we know it’s still very well listened to,” he offered. “But for any device that has or can use headphones, we should be focused on on-demand content in all shapes and sizes, which leads to a change in production strategy because it allows us to benefit from the shift in behaviour that we’re all seeing.”
Later in the day, a talent panel moderated by Paul Evanov explored the ever-evolving radio landscape while panel participants including INDIE 88’s Josie Dye and Q107’s John Derringer discussed why local radio remains as vital as ever, especially in a post-COVID world.
“Staying relevant in a COVID world depends on your format and depends on the personalities that are involved,” Derringer offered. “We have tried to find a balance between being respectful to what the world is going through, while also acknowledging we really are largely here to entertain. As far as radio in general, staying relevant and 2021, what radio provides is something that represents the exact moment that we’re in. It’s real, and it’s now.”
Dye concurred with many of Derringer’s observations and took things a step further, saying she believes that if radio consistently provides an audio space that’s informed, entertained and loved, it will keep people coming back.
“I think the pandemic tested a lot of broadcasters, and I think that when it worked, it worked with people who were real and talked about real issues” Dye said. “So if you go on air and you open that mic up and talk about your dad’s death, or maybe how you had bedbugs at some point, you make that a place where people want to listen and they want to hear what you have to say.”
Acadia Broadcasting’s John Ongaro told Evanov that he believes the pandemic has helped give radio one of its finest hours.
“In a lot of ways, it was an opportunity for us to be on the air unscripted and adjust to what was happening in our own markets,” he said. “In Northern Ontario, we were late to the party. While things were blowing up in southern Ontario, we were kind of skirting through it all kind of wondering what happened. And then we got our butts handed to us halfway through. And so, we had to adjust and that adjustment on the air gives that personal touch that Josie was talking about. There’s no other medium that can do that, and so our relevance is huge.”
