By Dave Charles, CEO of Media RESULTS Inc. exclusively for Radioinfo Australia

I’m sick of hearing and reading about radio’s demise. If the truth be known, most of us operating in our Radio world are guilty of spreading falsehoods about the state of radio. In my view, WE ARE THE PROBLEM and need to stop the harmful rhetoric that’s seriously damaging radio.

Here’s some new commandments that are worth stating in hopes that we can all get behind radio and bring it back to form. I’ve collected these from some of radio best and most successful broadcasters. They agreed I could publish them in this article without any name credits. Send me yours and I’ll do a follow up article. ([email protected])

1. Thou shall not make broad statements that “radio is different these days” when you’ve been in the industry for 5 minutes and come from accounting.
2. Honour your listeners, and the community you serve. Your listeners aren’t dumb. They can and do spot a fake.  Make your listener a part of what you do every day.
3. Stop trying to tell your clients they need to advertise to maintain awareness and preparedness, particularly in tough times, when you cut the guts out of your own marketing budget.
4. Don’t buy into the false narrative that ‘delivery’ is the new king. Content will always be king, just make sure you deliver it every way you can that’s worthy and viable.
5. Radio has a perception problem. Perceptions aren’t changed for the better simply by cutting staff and reducing resources.
6. Thou shalt not fire good talent for no good reason because you failed to manage your station and can’t take care of business. Many great talents have been cut out of radio because of bad management!
7. Don’t be embarrassed by the word RADIO. It’s who you are and what you do. BE PROUD.  Radio can still deliver on live, local and interactive better than any other media.
8. Stop acting like deer caught in the headlights. While the environment you broadcast in has changed dramatically, the fundamentals of great radio have not. More story telling, two way conversations with listeners and community HOT SPOTS are ways to bring attention to radio again.
9. Seriously, do you think you’re going to win the battle with YouTube and Spotify? Pick your fight, because that’s not one of them.  Great radio can add personality and contexting.  Bad voice tracking needs your attention immediately.
10. Honour thy listener and the fact that they need real local information from your station every day to survive and thrive!  Out of all the radio research, LOCAL remains radio’s real strength. 

Dave Charles, President Media RESULTS Inc. Mobile: +1 289 242 8313.

Email: [email protected]

www.mediaresults.ca