I got the opportunity to spend a few days last week at the NAB Show New York, and left encouraged by what I heard and saw.
There’s almost an expected doom-and-gloom anytime news or forecasts are released about the radio industry. I’m not optimistic enough to pretend that everything is sunshine and rainbows. On the flip side, I’m not so pessimistic to believe that the medium is headed into the crapper, either.
There were several things that I thought were worth mentioning — outside of “I need to buy a much nicer suit” — but here are the four biggest things I took away from a fantastic NAB Show New York.
Xperi is Revolutionizing the Radio Analytics Game
In 2022, the world is driven by analytics. Nearly every industry has the most asinine information about their brands, their products, and everything in between.
And yet, in 2022, the majority of the radio industry is still relying on a tiny amount of people in a given market to write down on a piece paper what they listen to and send that piece of paper in the mail back to a company. If you live in a real fancy market, that company will give a tiny amount of people in a given market just what they wanted — another device to spy on them! — in exchange for what can only be regarded as somewhat accurate information.
The world has evolved all around radio, and yet, that’s what we accept as “the best we can do”. To hell with that.
And that — if I can put words in their mouths — were Xperi’s thoughts, too. The technology company has developed hybrid automobile radios — DTS Autostage — that will continue to showcase AM/FM radio as the heart of the audio experience in many makes and models.
In addition to continuing to feature AM/FM radio, it has the ability to switch from your station’s over-the-air signal to your station’s stream seamlessly when a driver is beginning to lose the signal. That’s a huge deal! To tell the truth, I’m a SiriusXM subscriber, and one of the biggest reasons is because I hate having to scan the dial for something to listen to while driving on road trips. The convenience factor alone makes this technology a fantastic advancement.
But most importantly, DTS Autostage will provide real tangible analytics. Weekly. Its technology will show you how your stations performed over the course of a week, and will also show you a “heat map” of where listeners listened to stations in your market.
Xperi has created a dashboard for stations to control what their metadata looks like on each car’s center stack, and all you have to do to be featured in their cars is put in your station’s logo/positioning statement/call letters, etc…, your station’s stream URL, and the live data from your automation system, like song title/artist or your DJ/host’s name. That’s it. That’s all they want from you.
Now, the current downside is the radios will make their way into cars in the first quarter of 2023, and Mercedes-Benz is the first manufacturer to equip their cars with the technology, but the company claimed two other manufacturers are set to be announced in the coming weeks. So, it will take some time for the technology to truly take hold and make an impact, but it is a truly overdue product the company will offer and I’m incredibly encouraged to see someone take the project on, but also intrigued to see the future potential results of the information provided.
Start Podcasting, Already
And I don’t mean just turning your morning show bits into a 14-minute podcast. Put resources into podcasts. Especially local podcasts.
How many radio groups operate in areas where the community’s newspaper has been decimated by budget cuts to the point of either a reduction days it prints or to the point that the majority of the paper consists of stories from the Associated Press?
There’s a real opportunity in the podcast space, especially in the local podcast space, and if you’re not going to do it, someone else is, and you’ll regret not getting in the arena when you had the opportunity.
I damn near gave Bonneville Vice President of Podcasting Sheryl Worsley a standing ovation after she said “What happens if you don’t try? If you don’t try, it’s worse than nothing,” in regards to those being hesitant to start putting tangible resources into podcasting. It worked for Bonneville, as it took home The Marconi Award for Best Local Radio Podcast of the Year.
One of the biggest issues I have with the radio industry is its almost complete lack of interest in evolving or trying new things. And trust me, I understand the hesitation, especially if you’re running a billion-dollar company. But take the dive. And stick with it. You might not see immediate success, but the revenue share of the medium is going to continue to rise. You can either join the movement or stand in the way.
Nick Wright Wants To See The Next Generation Succeed
Nick Wright is one of the biggest names in sports media. Wright is a somewhat polarizing figure to sports fans, rising to fame for his impassioned insistence that Lebron James is the greatest basketball player of all-time (and he’s right, but that’s a different story for a different day).
Wright had a long career in sports radio before ascending to a role with FS1 which sees him host First Things First , while making appearances on other shows like The Herd with Colin Cowherd and The Dan Patrick Show. He’s got more than 500,000 followers. To “the kids”, Nick Wright is a big deal.
And it was completely by circumstance that I saw this interaction, but I was so blown away I had to share it here.
WRHU, the student radio station at Hofstra University, won The Marconi Award for College Radio Station of the Year. After the show concluded, Wright came over to speak to the entire representation from Hofstra to congratulate them for the win, but also to encourage them to continue in the radio industry. If you haven’t noticed, not many people in college want to work in radio. They believe, and rightfully so, their futures are in podcasts, YouTube, and Twitch. So for someone like Nick Wright to not only take the time to congratulate a group of college kids but to also encourage them to continue in the field, telling them that it wouldn’t be easy but it would be worth it, could be the difference between someone sticking with the industry or someone starting a Twitch channel and working a 9-5 job in an industry that will crush their soul.
Hofstra wasn’t the only school Wright — a Syracuse graduate and proud former member of the school’s radio station, WEAR –stopped at. The look on the faces of the kids was indication enough his actions made a lasting impression. He stood nothing to gain from his actions, and did it anyway. That speaks to Wright’s character, and I thought he deserved some recognition for trying to make a difference.
Now, I think Nick Wright owes many in attendance for not rushing to the stage to accept Dan Patrick’s Marconi Award, which the pair discussed on Patrick’s show Friday.
People Are Still Key
I will do my best to be short and sweet in this area, and not try to take shots at any specific people or companies.
I couldn’t help but notice at The Marconi Awards the stations that took home awards were ones that hadn’t been gutted by corporate budget cuts or stations that relied upon out-of-market voice trackers to fill out the daily lineup. The stations that won awards, are still successful revenue generators, and make a real impact in their communities are the stations that are still well-staffed and take the responsibility to serve their local markets as a high priority. It’s almost as if there’s a recipe for success.
And that’s all I have to say about that.
Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing bi-weekly industry features and a weekly column. He has previously served as Program Director and Afternoon Co-Host on 93.1 The Fan in Lima, OH, and is the radio play-by-play voice of Northern Michigan University hockey. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
