We recently celebrated another “National Radio Day,” but sadly, the fervor and excitement broadcast stations showcase on social media in past years has lost some of its luster. These days, regardless of corporate buzzwords, broadcasting insiders are no longer losing sleep over whether the industry can “leverage synergies” or “maximize strategic opportunities.”
If you’ve spent any time around executives, managers, programmers, sellers, engineers and talent, one thing quickly becomes clear. The biggest questions are no longer simply about ratings or revenue. The industry is trying to understand what broadcasting will become. Frankly, it’s asking a much more uncomfortable question.
Are we building the future of broadcasting or slowly dismantling it while managing its decline?
It’s a very real question being asked in executive offices, programming and sales meetings, and hallways. Of late, those questions are getting tougher. While I am certainly feeling some AI information overload, in reality, it’s been less than three years since we first considered its impact.
Question: Will AI make us more competitive or make us less valuable?
In every industry and in almost every home, we’re experimenting with artificial intelligence. However, the bigger issue is what happens when every media company has access to inexpensive content, automated production, AI voices, instant research and endless digital inventory. If we can all produce more content faster, has content itself become a commodity that supersedes people?
After all, I came up at a time when the industry believed its greatest assets went down the elevator and walked out the door every evening.
Broadcasters are wondering how many jobs AI will eliminate and whether the industry is replacing experienced, qualified people with technology. Even before we even know how to maintain the quality, creativity and local relationships with listeners those people provided.
Question: Where are the next dollars coming from, and will they replace the ones that disappeared?
This is very likely the most important question of all. We have witnessed our traditional revenue models come under immense pressure while new revenue streams are being tested. Digital advertising, streaming, video, events, sponsorships, podcasts and data services are all proving their value.
But we broadcasters don’t need another shiny new toy, or what my wife calls a “sparkly!”
We need predictable, scalable revenue. The industry has focused on hard realities. Shifting revenue streams through digital-first selling while trying to build diversified income fast enough to replace weakening legacy models. Is digital as profitable as radio revenue? Perhaps as a gross revenue stream. But its costs can be much greater, yielding lower margins.
Question: Are we cutting ourselves into a better future or eliminating the very things that made us valuable?
I have always held the position that you cannot cut your way to success. Lately, there has been a desire to “add by subtraction.” Broadcasting has become extraordinarily efficient at reducing expenses. However, there is a dangerous question few executives want to answer honestly:
How many more cuts can our product survive?
Radio personalities have been replaced by out-of-market trackers through automation. Local programming is becoming more centralized. Newsrooms have gotten smaller. Even salespeople are being asked to handle more. General managers are disappearing. Centralized personnel are supervising larger areas, while local programming increasingly focuses on content creation rather than on-air talent.
There’s no doubt our business continues to become leaner. But is it becoming better?
We don’t need another survey to show us that employees feel pressure to produce more with fewer resources. At the same time, concerns about even more consolidation and the long-term health of broadcast content remain high.
Question: Will consolidation save broadcasting or destroy its local advantage?
We have gone from a maximum of one AM and FM station per market to the duopoly structure established by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and, eventually, to maximum percentages of a market’s revenue. Today, the industry fights to use larger scale as a necessary weapon. The goal is to compete against massive technology platforms.
But do bigger companies automatically translate to better broadcasting?
Consolidation may generate efficiency. But it can also produce more centralization, more layoffs and even less local differentiation.
This debate is only growing as ownership rules and major mergers continue to reshape the industry. I’m not sure the real question is whether broadcasters need scale. It is whether we can become bigger without becoming more generic.
Question: Are young audiences ever coming back, or are we chasing a generation that has already moved on?
Herein lies our most uncomfortable audience question. Younger consumers aren’t simply watching and listening less. They have built entirely different media habits around streaming, social media, YouTube, independent creators and on-demand content.
Over my half-century career, I have only recently come to believe that broadcasters can no longer assume young audiences will “age into” traditional habits. I hate to say it, but they may not.
And that leads to perhaps the biggest question of all.
Question: Why are we still defining ourselves by our delivery system?
Many of the larger broadcasters have stopped thinking of themselves as radio companies or television companies. They have morphed into local media, audience, content, and marketing companies. Using whatever platform connects them with consumers and advertisers.
iHeart was among the first when it tagged its name with “Media.” Saga Communications markets were formerly known by their respective market names followed by “Radio Group” and have now transitioned from “radio group” to “media group.” Then there’s Townsquare Media, Beasley Media and several others that have openly committed themselves as “digital-first” companies rather than “broadcast radio” groups.
The transition is never comfortable. It requires bold leadership. Fresh sales skills. Perhaps a willingness to destroy some of the industry’s cherished history.
We certainly don’t need or desire another lecture about disruption.
Industry leadership needs to know who is winning, and why they are winning. What is actually working, and what is wasting money. Also, what decisions they need to make before the rest of the industry forces their hand.
What we already know is that the future of broadcasting will not be decided by whether the industry changes. It will be decided by whether it changes fast enough and whether it remembers what was worth protecting in the first place.
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