New Media Can Grow Radio, Say RAB Prez

As radio emerges from what was its biggest slump in 25 years, stations actually are poised to come out big winners by embracing -- and integrating -- the new media platforms that already are helping increase listeners, one industry leader said Monday.

“It’s very easy to look at [new media] as threatening, as something that’s going to take us over,” said Jeff Haley, the Radio Advertising Bureau’s president-CEO. “But partnerships rather than competition against these folks will actually give us more then less.”

At BIA/Kelsey’s Digital Strategies for Broadcasting conference in Jersey City, NJ., Haley said that despite an all-too pervasive belief that radio is on its way out, data shows that radio stations can stay alive and well -- and can even grow -- by using new media outlets to reach audiences.

Data shows that over-the-air radio is still the second most consumed media, with only television being used more, he said. With that sort of following, stations are poised to grow by partnering with new media outlets to give their content and brand recognition greater reach.

“We really have to be confident in embracing these tools and embracing distributing content across platforms,” Haley said. “We can continue to go up.”

Data and experience shows that strategy already working, Haley said. For example, data shows that online radio audiences actually listen to 20 percent more over-the-air content than traditional listeners do, he said.

Other means have been proven successful in reaching both audiences and advertisers, he said. For example, stations have driven consumers to advertisers by promoting “D.J.-endorsed” products on their Facebook pages.

By using My Shuffle, a program that allows consumers to take radio playlists and shuffle the songs, stations have both increased means for reaching audiences while opening up a new revenue generator, as My Shuffle sites can be sponsored.

Even the iPods and MP3 players of the world can be a friend not foe, he said. Radio has only to gain by making over-the-air content available to audiences who want to listen to it on their own terms, he said, and embracing emerging technologies that allow listeners to “tag” songs they hear on-air and purchase it through a mobile device.

Radio’s use of new media also is an increasingly imperative part in wooing advertisers, as more and more advertisers seek a media mix rather than buying just radio inventory, he said.

According to Haley, online initiatives account for just 3% to 10% of most local radio stations’ revenues. However, 80% of over-the-air sales agreements include an Internet component, he said. “It may not be a big piece of our pie, but it is an integral piece of our pie.”

Doing so, though, also requires breaking the mindset that is still pervasive in the radio world that believes that radio, as an old medium in an increasingly new media world, is knocking at death’s door.

“I often find radio is its own worst enemy,” Haley said.

“We sit there and think that everyone is against us. I don’t think that’s the case,” he said.

But breaking free of that mindset and pursuing the opportunities that do exist can reap rewards, he said. Radio not only has abundant content and history, but also still has the ability to reach massive amounts of people that other platforms, such as mobile, don’t, he said.

“Explode your brand, explode your content into as many places as possible,” Haley said.

“To me, this is a very exciting time in radio. We are coming back from the abyss.”