Apple, Amazon, Google and New Tech : The Future of Programming and Distribution
It happened to print, it’s happening in video, it will happen in radio.
In the recent “Spirit of the Radio” series of posts, we rewound the birthing of some great FM radio stations. Ones that connected and created “fans...not just users.” ( go here if you missed them )
The success of these stations probably can’t be replicated today. It was a different era. Then, FM Radio was the soundtrack of America where stations became icons of their city. 2021 is the new sonic Wild West. IMO, FM has shot itself in the butt. It’s not where the action or future is. Just listen to FM and you’ll know why, or ask around and you’ll hear why. There are exceptions of course, but that’s the general mood especially among the young.
Amazing radio, audio or whatever you want to call it, can indeed exist but we have to open our heads to the reality that the revolution probably won’t happen between 88 and 107. At least not in the USA where it’s not a part of the digital revolution which is more than migrating fm signals to an online environment. In fact, one of the great myths is that the content improves when delivered digitally. It doesn’t. A bad record is just as bad digitally as it was in analog.
It’s not unlike how music listening isn’t happening on a mass scale on vinyl or tape. Early on, many resisted this reality and were late to the party. And this same digital revolution will be grabbing hold of radio programming just as it grabbed hold of music creation and distribution
The future is via the internet. It’s a new environment. It’s where brilliant new ideas that resonate with both the new and old mainstream can happen. It’s where new ways of creation and distribution will flourish.
Apple, Amazon, Spotify and others yet-to-emerge can dominate the “radio” experience as they do with music consumption. No one had cracked the code yet...but someone will because the code has been written and will be updated for the realities our new era, though the timeless basics of “ guided audio” ( possible buzzword alert ), are...timeless regardless of platform
Many of the not-so-timeless trappings of successful FM’s are painfully dated—- Slogans, mascots, 2-fer Tuesday, ballsy promos with the man in the box filter and cheesy Star Wars swooshes are among a catalog of cliches that are best suited to a Simpsons radio parody.
BUT—- there are those timeless values that yesterday’s great stations had, that the next generation channels will have—- but rethought for modern ears and likely heard on new generation platforms
Among those values:
MUSIC: An undying celebration of the genre served. New releases are embraced. Catalog is about careers not test numbers and the vibe is that the music is center of the universe. The place fueled by passion balanced with the intellect of good “programming” not just scheduling music
SOUND PRODUCTION: Theater of the mind. Magic between the songs that takes you on a journey between the ears. An extension of where music takes you. I’m not referring to funny promos, but a sweeping cinematic sound that, well, transports you
INNOVATION IN THE DNA: Daily. Hourly. Constantly. Looking for the next....now. A lost art in programming and marketing. Plenty of innovation in cost control, but little in product evolution. A core value of most big tech companies that would by osmosis, positively impact the critical development of new radio concepts. Willingness and a massive desire to join the new century even at the expense of components that we may love but are irrelevant
A VISUAL IDENTITY: A cool logo as the street is where you connect. An iconic logo and look more akin to a band than a slick agency production. A look with a soul.
A HUMAN CONNECTION: The era of the DJ as we know it might be dead. Somebody reading a liner card and in reality, upsetting the music flow. But then there are those who enlighten the experience. Howard Stern doesn’t have to play songs. Bob Dylan ( the dj ) is tied to the hip of the song mix. Others can magically compliment the music and once again take us on a journey. The definition of “disc jockey “ needs to radically change. This ain’t 1980 anymore. Humanity is critical to evolve from streaming music source to center of the audio universe..on 21st century terms but it can’t be the traditional definition of radio personality . Podcasts are changing the world of spoken word. Music is next...
GEOGRAPHIC RELEVANCE: You need to be from a place. A geographic reference. FM stations have generally given up on local service. Drive across the country and everyone sounds pretty much the same. Anywhere USA. But National or even Global radio can and will work as long as it cherishes and embraces their community, even if that community is a continent. It’s it’s great it doesn’t matter where it comes from in fact it can be sexy to be broadcasting from a cool city... to a nation. We live in an increasingly global society. Critical that a National source has to behave like a local station and ENGAGE the territory it serves. Openly, honestly and with great aggression. Why be National if you can’t flaunt it and connect the nation? That can be sonically and humanly exciting. As long as you treat it, regardless of size, as a community
A NAME: Yep, you need a handle. XM channels were originally called things like COUNTRY 1, COUNTRY 2, ROCK 1, ROCK 2
My first WTF moment was changing those to names that had soul...character. Can you imagine a potential fan saying “ man, ROCK 2 is one killer channel!” Nope. Me neither. We created cool names. Just like at the time, Z-Rock, Q and KISS stood out. You could feel a heartbeat with handles like those. Enough already with old school radio names, as the new fan generating channels will be brilliantly named
FRANCHISES: Features. Image enhancers. Specials. What happened? Stations still run block party weekends, the top 500 on Memorial Day and Electric Lunch. Ok, some are trademarks but it doesn’t end there. Think Tv in this case—new fall seasons... always stimulating with cool events. Satellite radio does this brilliantly. Apple is on the right path with artist integration though it remains a mystery to the masses at this point.
DIGITAL MAGIC: The playbook has yet to be written as interactivity , self curation and other digital benefits are incorporated into the plan. Right now there’s a lot of the jukebox effect but when programming and an amazing “station” are the core that digital components work off of, look out....
TECHNICAL DELIVERY: not to forget the essence of sound. It has to SOUND great. Tweaked with the ear of a great producer. Consider how people listen today, and engineer for that
FM isn’t dead of course, and maybe there’s some operators with vision to AFDI in 2021
But we’re in a new era, and:
Whether it’s Apple, Amazon or another tech giant, or even upstart. Radio will find a new life form there and bring back the magic firmly on today’s terms. No one is there…yet. But it will happen and deliver a positively wonderful sonic experience to your head
The playing field evens out as cars become digital entertainment centers and at the end of the day, the best programming will prevail
Learn more about identifying the vulnerabilities of radio here.