He said that radio has been predicted to die many times – by TV, by video, by CDs, by MP3, by streaming, but it’s still around and growing.

“Radio sleepwalked through the smartphone era, but is fighting back with the smart speaker era. This moment in time is the key to reinvent radio,” said Cooper.

According to him, in order to reinvent a radio business, top content priorities should be 3A’s – Audience, Artists and Advertisers.

“Commercial radio has been focused on getting a famous name for breakfast and following it up with a playlist for the rest of the day. We need to provide more content, as audiences are demanding more.”

“For Artists, radio is a great way of telling audiences about music. Catalog music makes up 80 percent of music labels. Being useful to the music industry is important. Even more so for new music. Labels know how important radio is for introducing new music.”

“Advertisers want a merger of content, advertising and marketing. Social media and video content allows us to be creative in new ways.”

Summing up his presentation he said, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it yourself.”