Always there, live and entertaining
Radio’s unique strengths
When I was writing my last blog I felt it was too gloomy on the state of radio. So I ended that blog with some thoughts on radio’s unique strengths — things that I feel it could make more of.
They are:
Being available everywhere
Being live
Being entertaining
Radio’s omnipresence is such a big and unusual thing. I don’t know what your data package is like but I can’t use Spotify on the bus. YouTube won’t work for me on the tram and Netflix in the car is a non starter. Even if I got better data or when wifi is all around I reckon my battery would be on 15% by about 10am.
Radio is just there. Easy to switch on and easy to keep on. Radio can be there whether I’m reading the papers, driving across a city, working away or cooking tea.
How can radio make the most of that? One way is to start working in longer time frames. Much of radio these days seems like the presenter delivers it in 90 seconds and then moves on. Another record is then played and the next subject comes up. This creates a disposable feeling. You can dip in and out without missing anything.
Howard Stern at his peak would tell a story about his childhood that lasted for 45 minutes. Chris Moyles was great at spinning a show storyline out through an hour.
Who’s brave enough these days to do something at 7.20 and do the conclusion or follow up an hour later? Radio is uniquely placed to execute this and has the technology to deliver it to the listener.
Most radio is live. The older TV networks are harnessing the power of live now as it’s something YouTube and Netflix haven’t got the hang of (yet). Part of this is to create event TV that is best watched at the same time as it happens. The other part is when you know something is live it becomes more interesting. You’re never quite sure what’s going to happen.
How can radio make more of that? First mention it more, remind people it’s live. Second start creating things with an apparent element of danger in them. Third be ready to go with the flow more and see where the day takes you. Some things you hear now are so pre-planned they may as well have been recorded the week before. It feels safer than Sesame Street. Use live to create a sense of adventure, let the audience know that even you don’t know what happens next. Done right the unpredictability will become addictive.
Think of Radio 1's The Live Lounge. It’s more than just an artist in session. The live element adds to it. You know there’s only one take, you won’t hear the most polished and shiny finished product. It’s better for hearing the odd missed note and occasional fluffed line, and it makes you respect those that nail it more.
Next is entertaining. It feels like the desire to create radio brands has squashed out a lot of the creativity in radio. If you put too many restrictions on ideas the best ones won’t come.
I know people work extremely hard on their shows. But how many are working hard on making something which “fits the brand”? (translation: doesn’t piss people off -> translation: bland) rather than entertains?
How many are under pressure to do something that goes viral? (hint: things that go viral are very rarely planned to go viral).
To harness the power of entertainment it’s better to be working hard on something that makes people go “I can’t believe they did that”. Generate a “how did they pull that off?”. How can you make tears of laughter pour down someone’s cheeks or get a lister to wait 5 minutes in the car park to hear the reveal?
The Kiss Breakfast show in London is a great example of how to do this. Kiss is a tightly defined brand that knows its audience. Within the Breakfast Show you can hear they make space for entertainment in everything they do. It’s mainly the personalities of the presenters that drives that entertainment.
I sometimes feel when I’m listening to radio now that it’s treading water and not doing too much till it knows from which direction it will be swallowed up. That’s saddening.
But I truly believe radio has so much going for it. Instead of seeing the threats seize these opportunities. It’s such a noisy world, take advantage of your strengths and go for it.
Got a comment? It’s @euanmcmorrow on Twitter
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