Spend the time building and maintaining good local shows: Rhys Holleran at #RadioAsia

Former Southern Cross Austereo CEO Rhys Holleran is at the Radio Asia conference in Beijing this week sharing his management experiences with broadcasters across Asia.
 
Giving insights into the complex nature of managing modern media organisations, Holleran explained how to manage small to very large media companies, from single stations to being the largest broadcaster in the market.
 
For single stations:

  • It’s about the radio business
  • And focusing on the 4 R’s – research, ratings, revenue and results

 
Duopolies:

  • Look to introduce shared management of key areas
  • Begin to move the stations to “brands”

 
“You can dominate a demographic with brands…it’s better to compete with yourself rather than someone else”, Holleran said about forming duopolies.
 
What about the focus when building a small network that then grows to a bigger network, and becomes the largest network in the country?
 
The small network

  • The introduction of leveraging scale
  • Strong local brands with commonality
  • Content takes on local, regional and national dimensions

 
The large network

  • Scale brings opportunities in national sales
  • Best practice across markets
  • New business opportunities emerge

 
Being the biggest network

  • Cradle to grave opportunities emerge for talent
  • The dilemma of central versus decentralized control
  • Your voice in the space creates influence and opportunity to shape the sector

 
 
Holleran also talked about his immutable rules when it comes to building radio station, no matter what size station or market you operate within.

  • Revenue is driven by content
  • Strong local revenue is driven by strong local content
  • Great local shows will beat great national shows
  • Great local shows are hard to build and harder to retain

“Spend the time building and maintaining good local shows”, Holleran says.
 
In discussing the future of radio, Holleran says tomorrow’s radio stars are more likely to come from places like YouTube, organize and authentic content will beat formulaic content, and that the connected car will continue to move audience and the battle of the future may well be the battle of the dashboard.
 
For more reports from RadioAsia, see our sister site AsiaRadioToday.

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