This week in Melbourne a group of radio academics and researchers from around the world gathered for the Radio2005 conference. You will read some of the reports of that conference in the radioinfo news pages.
As a result of this conference, a network of Australian radio and audio researchers has formed ARARA, The Australasian Radio & Audio Researchers Association.
The group is tracking trends like audience responses to advertising, the impact of talkback, program preferences of young listeners, podcasting and many more historical and emerging trends.
Talkback, podcasting, radio history, citizen journalists, the list of possible topics is endless. The researchers are interested in feedback from radio people about topics for research and emerging trends which they can watch. They are also interested to hear from people who want to be part of ARARA.
Radioinfo invites comments from members of ARARA about their interests, and from others who want to join the group or contribute to the discussion. ARARA is being coordinated in its early stages by John Tebbut at La Trobe University. This discussion forum will stay up in the radioinfo Forum archive even after it disappears from radioinfo’s front page and will be checked by ARARA members from time to time.
As usual It’s your Forum, so you can respond to this week’s topics, choose your own topic, or respond to others.
To read or post, just click the blue title link above. If you’re a non-subscriber, you can send your post in an email to [email protected].
I see Communications Minister, Helen Coonan states "diversity and protecting consumer interests" are her priority...no argument from me. She intends to also meet with media proprietors later this month to discuss their agendas plus hers...again, fair enough.
Meanwhile, media analysts come investment consultants are predicting the pending shakeup of media ownership rules in this country will potentially be good for companies & their shareholders whether buying or selling, BUT not necessarily for consumers (and commercial radio employment.) Now, here is a scenario where we DO NOT want to follow our friends in America, based on the results of US ownership laws changing under Bill Clinton in 1996.
To paraphrase the major US player, Clear Channel, they are now realising "less is more" and I'm not referring to their ad spot inventory! Like Clear Channel, Infinity & Disney, these major American radio players are now seeing in the face of intense information & entertainment competition from Internet, Satellite & iPod sources, being BIG can be BAD. Not only are you sometimes seen to be a corporate BULLY who only cares for the bottom line and not the listeners and those passionate about creating fresh, local, programming, but also owning and successfully running a swag of stations across the country with smart technology and scaled down staff numbers looks great on paper, but is becoming harder to deliver $ on. Hence, most of the major US radio networks are looking to downsize the numbers of stations the individual conglomerate owns and runs in favour of (hopefully) doing more quality business with less stations, thus opening up more opportunities for truly local, albeit smaller operators to restore a 'freshness' radio in America desperately needs.
Our Communications Minister has a HUGE responsibility to get right the balance of free enterprise ownership versus programme diversity in Australia. I just hope she has had a good analyst give her the big picture from The States, before the Australian Government is tempted to fall for the same ownership traps, thus putting terrestrial radio at a further disadvantage in serving the new breed of smarter listeners with many new options.
Under my suggested banner of THE SOONER, THE BETTER comes the latest research finding from the US, on electronic audience measurement for radio.
Arbitron's PPM (Portable People Meter) study which surveyed projected ad spending by both small Direct clients up to major Agency groups, has just revealed commercial radio in America will lose $282 million per year moving forward IF the industry continues with the traditional diary method of audience number crunching.
By changing to the PPM method, projected revenue will increase by $696 million per annum !
I believe,if only for credibility, both CRA and the players need to speed up change in this country and finalise the accepted electronic measurement method FAST. However, despite how accurate and sophisticated the audience tracking becomes, it all comes down to the Programming. If you're not delivering 'what' your core target wants, the more accurate ratings will simply magnify your negatives and cost you heaps.