No Radio, No Problem

It's not a hardware problem. It's a software problem. And it's not really a problem at all, so much as it's a challenge.

Earlier this week, a data point from the upcoming Infinite Dial study showed an increase in people saying they have no radios in their house, and the headlines all included the phrase that was in the press release, something about radio's "hardware problem." In fairness, the study itself notes that people now have many other devices with which to access radio content, but the very idea that people don't have radios in their houses is unthinkable to old-line radio folks. But, again, it's not like people can't access radio. To the contrary, it's never been easier to hear a radio station anywhere you are. Radio station streams are on smart speakers. You can get them on your smart TVs and streaming sticks. Most crucially, they're on your phone, which is probably with you right this second, wherever you are. You can hear a station by asking Alexa for it. It should be a positive, not a "problem."

The actual problem, such as it is, stems from that ubiquity. Listeners can get radio stations anytime, anywhere, on a plethora of devices. They can also get other audio. It's that "Infinite Dial" again: Anyone can create audio and distribute it in an instant, live or on-demand, internationally, with practically no technical or financial barriers to entry. So there's a flood of content, and little effective curation. Radio doesn't have a monopoly anymore, and it hasn't for years.

The same question applies to every audio producer, whether it's radio or podcasting or streaming: Why would a listener choose to listen to this product over all the others out there? What makes what I'm doing special? Radio didn't have to ask that in the past; where else were people gonna go? But now they have a lot of places to go, maybe too many, and that means radio, like podcasters and streamers, have to offer a reason for listeners to choose them. Again, not so much a problem as a challenge.

We've been seeing these studies for years, and we've told ourselves time and again that we have to create for every platform, that we're not just in the radio business anymore. We're not even just in the audio business, whether or not we're producing just audio. The competition isn't restricted to audio. You're competing for your audience's time and attention. You always have been, but now you know it.

So, can we leave the panic about how people don't own actual radio devices in their homes behind and embrace the wide open future already? After all, we don't all have landlines anymore but we can still make phone calls. You probably don't have a printed newspaper around, but you still read the news. You may not use your TV to watch TV shows and you may not be going to the theater to see movies, but you still watch TV shows and movies.

You make entertainment and information. You still have plenty of access -- more access than ever -- to reach your audience. Let the people who make radios worry about the hardware problem.

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Perry Michael Simon
Senior Vice President/Editor-in-Chief and News-Talk-Sports-Podcasting Editor
AllAccess.com
psimon@allaccess.com
Twitter @pmsimon