Bill Scott
We now live in a time where there are so many choices that compete with radio. We compete with cell phones, computers, tablets, satellite radio, now streaming audio that goes directly to our dash in our cars and the list continues.
Even though this could be seen as a challenging time for radio, I also believe it’s a time where radio can really grow. We are no longer bound to just radio but we are able to provide video, magazines and social media. It wasn’t that long ago we couldn’t interact with our listeners once they turned the radio off, but now we can. It wasn’t that long ago listeners could drive out of our coverage area, or go to work in a building that didn’t receive our signal but that has all changed.
So here is what blows my mind and perhaps it’s just me. I’d love some feedback on what I am writing on today. So why would a radio station buy the cheapest app available to them? Knowing that with the right app your listeners can access social media, donate online, see the album cover of the song you are playing, allows the listeners to buy the song or full album, use your app as an alarm clock along with many more 
features. I recently wanted to listen to a radio station not in my area. By industry standards this station would be considered one of the leaders and yet once I downloaded the app, I found it was perhaps the cheapest app you could buy offering very little to the listener. On a side note, I never got the app to stream. Why would your station buy state of the art equipment for your radio station and miss an app for the listeners phone? Why wouldn’t you consider this app as important as your transmitter that you paid tens of thousands of dollars for. The app goes everywhere. Your audience can jog with the app, exercise, go on vacation, go into buildings that cannot receive your signal and listen to the app. We live in a day and age where it’s no longer an option not to have a state of the art app for your station.
Here’s a homework assignment. Go to an office and walk through the offices and cubicles and let me know how many radios you
see. Go to the gym and tell me how many people have a portable radio strapped to them. Go onto the back deck of someones home and ask to see their radio. My guess is you’ll come up with zero radios or close to it. This doesn’t mean they won’t listen to your station with an app but it does mean things are changing. We as a family haven’t had a radio hooked up in our home for the last seven years. If we listen to radio, it’s through someone’s phone and only if the station has a good app. We are not opposed to FM but we are opposed to listening through an actual radio.
It’s a new day and if radio doesn’t adapt soon, you’ll be in another business. I would love to hear your feedback.
