An exploration into the trends, habits and future of radio and its users.
By Rod Forbes
“Video killed the radio star Pictures came and broke your heart Oh-a-a-a oh�
Contents Did video kill the radio star?.............................................................6-7 The Radio - Defined...........................................................................8-9 What is driving radio consumption?............................................10-11 Interview with Lisa Hardisty...........................................................14-17 Survey: Listening trends - Age and Station Preference..........................................18-19 - Listening Location and Participation.............................20-21 - Active and Passive Listening..........................................22-23 - Catch-up and Devices..................................................24-25 - Summary...........................................................................26-27 Joseph Begley Q&A......................................................................30-31 Video (screenshots and explanations).......................................32-35 How far does social media influence radio participation?.....36-37 Types of audio content delivery..................................................40-43 Consumer technology trends......................................................44-47 The Future of Radio - Insights and oppourtunities.....................48-49
The Buggles: Geoff Downes (left) and Trevor Horn. Photo: Redferns
Did video kill the radio star? In 1979, The Buggles released a song called “Video Killed the Radio Star”. Shortly after on August 1st 1981, MTV (Music TeleVision) was launched, playing this track as the first music video. By October 1981, record sales of the artists played on MTV, but not radio stations, were rising. Record stores were reporting overall sales rising up to 20 percent. English bands and others from around the world began to gain popularity in the USA. Instead of being ‘killed’ by TV, radio adapted. People increasingly would call into the station and ask for their favourite song, that they saw on MTV, to be played. Radio is far from dead. In fact, radio today is just as popular as it was 10 years ago. With a reach 89% of adults aged 15 and over, the influence of radio is still huge. In 1973, local independent radio stations were allowed for the first time legally to be set up. This meant the BBC no longer owned a monopoly on radio and more niche and diverse stations could thrive. Today, there are around 600 radio stations in the UK. I want to find out what insights the future holds for radio and how I can create oppourtunities from these.
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The Radio - Defined The Oxford English Dictionary defines radio as the following: [mass noun] The transmission and reception of electromagnetic waves of radio frequency, especially those carrying sound messages: ‘cellular phones are linked by radio rather than wires’ This definition refers to the technology used to send and receive mostly sound messages but also visual content. It refers to the fact that radio sets use radio waves as a medium for content delivery. However, the term ‘radio’ is often used nowadays as a noun to describe the creation and generation of audio content that is broadcast or streamed to an audience: [mass noun] The activity or industry of broadcasting sound programmes to the public: ‘she has written much material for radio’ and An apparatus for receiving radio programmes: ‘he switched the radio on’ For the purposes of this project, the term ‘radio’ is taken to mean definitions 2 and 3 above.
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What is driving radio consumption?
Radio is being consumed in a variety of different ways nowadays. Since broadband internet became widespread in the early 2000s, the number of ways one could access radio increased dramatically. From only being able to listen via an FM/AM radio receiver, you can now access radio on your smartphone, laptop, tablet, PC, anything that connects to the internet. This advance has reduced many difficulties of broadcasting audio to a large number of listeners. Radio offers a unique audio experience. There is competition from the likes of Spotify, being an audio streaming service, but this lacks the personal connection that radio has. Radio allows live and pre-recorded content to be broadcast to millions of listeners at once. While this may not cater for everyone’s preference, radio presenters are very good at connecting to the listeners like they’re talking directly to you. There’s also a wide variety of different stations available to suit most tastes.
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There is a certain amount of imagination that goes into listening to the radio. Whether it be a sports game, documentary of the presenters playing a gameshow, the imagination element is another draw that radio has. Since there is no visual content immediately available for radio shows when listening conventionally, the presenter/reporter must ‘paint a picture with their words’. This audio description is excellent for those who are busy doing things and don’t have time to concentrate on a screen. Background listening is possibly one of the main draws of radio; you can concentrate on it when it suits you. Social media drives radio consumption by extending and supplementing the ways in which people can keep up to date and involved. For example, there is no readily available ‘TV guide’ for radio, but social media allows the station to quickly and easily communicate with all of its followers about what’s happening. An interview schedule may be posted on the station’s Facebook page, or a campaign could be launched via twitter. The possibilities that social media provides are vast.
Roberts Revival - 2008 Photo: Rod Forbes
Interview with Lisa Hardisty - Key points
On the 1st December 2016, I met with Lisa Hardisty. Lisa has a background in broadcast journalism and currently lectures Journalism at Northumbria University. To gain a better understanding of the background of radio and where it might be going in the future. I first asked “Do you prefer working in radio or TV?”, as Lisa has worked in both. She answered saying both have their attractions but in different ways. “You can make it as journalist just with you and your phone and a simple editing software, TV requires a lot more teamwork”. I like this point as it highlights how radio is a lot more personal that TV, more human. “Would you say that TV is taking over from radio or that radio has its own niche listener group?”. - No, radio is so portable, you can listen pretty much anywhere on lots of different applications. - Daily routine is filled with radio, whether you’re listening to it or not. - Funding can be difficult but radio always finds a way.
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“So you say you have a routine where radio wakes you up etc, do you think there could be a more fluid interaction between the switch over from in the house to the car to work? Or do you like a break in-between?” - Radio can be in the background if you need it to be. - Radio is not as intrusive as TV. You can easily break away from listening to the radio. - You can listen in so many different ways but the transition between listening medium is not really an issue.
Picture: http://www.shoutcommunications. co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/interview.jpg
“What do you think the main differences are between TV and radio production style? Eg, radio can be for background listening, TV requires more concentration?” - Increasingly, on-demand is how people watch TV. Could radio go the same way?
Interview - continued
- People still tune in for live stories such as breaking news to watch events unfold, but entertainment is increasingly ondemand. “Do you think there are any trends emerging in radio? eg quite recently with the advent of the internet, live streaming video from the studio has appeared...” - Social media is affecting how news stories break, with citizen journalism etc. - Websites becoming obsolete as social media provides all the key thing you need in one place. - As technology develops, broadcast mediums will follow. “Going back to the other point, you have quite a lot of on demand TV, you don’t necessarily get as much on demand radio. Is radio more of a live only medium?” - Podcasts and content like Radio 4 documentaries. - The radio lover will find time to search out what they want to hear.
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- Generally more specific content, commercial radio is repetitive by nature, small playlists. “Do you think radio should be more interactive/connected? Play along gameshows etc. two way connection between DJ and listener?” - Radio is usually well connected, but the best DJs connect with their listeners the most. “The best radio presenters, they’re talking to one person and the person listening thinks it’s them.”. - Alan Robson’s night owls in it’s day was packed with callers. Very popular. “If you’re listening to sport, there a lot of imagination. Do you think this is one of the main strengths of radio, imagination?” - Essential. Description is really important, presenter must “paint a picture with their words”. - Details matters, could be improved with supplementary information that isn’t spoken?
Survey Results and Analysis - Age and Station Comparison
After the interview with Lisa, I wanted to better understand people’s listening habits, so I drew up a survey and sent it out to thirty respondents. This sample represents a range of people aged 17+, with the majority falling into the 25-30 age bracket. From the questions asked, insight will be gained into how and where people listen to radio, how they interact with it and what the next generation might want from radio. The answers have been filtered into age groups; 17-24 on the left and 25+ on the right. Straight away it is clear that there is a difference in listening preference. The younger respondents prefer pop culture and current music whereas the 25+ group generally listen to talk shows, documentaries and iconic or older music. It is likely that the younger listeners will progress into listening habits like the older group as the content is generally targeted at different age groups.
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Age Group
20-24
25-30
17-19
40+
30-40
Number of respondents in group: 12
Number of respondents in group: 18
Which radio station do you listen to the most?
17-24
25+
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 2
Other BBC Radio 6 Music - x3 BBC Radio 5 Live Talk Sport Absolute 00s Radio X Capital
BBC Radio 1xtra Other Capital Absolute Heart Rutland Radio
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Where do you listen to radio the most?
17-24
25+
At home
At work/uni
In the car
Walking/cycling
Public transport
Other
Do you ever participate in live radio activities such as text requests for songs, phone-ins, tweeting the radio station?
Yes No
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Survey - Listening Location and Participation Looking at where people listen to the radio most, there is almost no difference between the two age groups. In the car comes out on top both times, followed by at home. How people listen to the radio in these places is covered on the next page. As for live radio participation, the results are again quite similar. Only a very small percentage actually participate and interact with the show as it is happening. Getting your song request chosen on Radio 1, or being selected to be part of a live quiz can feel like a lottery and discourages many from even trying. Even though social media is at our fingertips, individual comments get lost in a sea of others. What if participation could involve everyone and have a personal touch?
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Survey - Active and Passive Listening When asked where they listen actively and passively, results are similar between the age groups. For active listening, the car comes out on top both times. This is not surprising, as in the car there is often not much to occupy yourself with. Radio is a convenient, hands free source of entertainment that suits the car well. Since mobile internet coverage is not brilliant in the UK, radio provides a generally constant reception. Looking to the future however, mobile internet will be much faster and widespread. The development of driverless cars will also mean that the passengers needn’t concentrate on the road at all and will be able to work or relax instead. So could this mean radio in cars will be replaced with other forms of media such as on demand TV on tablets or working on a laptop during the commute to work? Or maybe listening simply become more passive as the passenger has other things to do. Passive listening happens mostly at home and at work. Having said this, at home is also in second place for active listening. This is probably because listening habits at home are subject to the most change; in the morning you may have the radio playing music while you get ready, not paying much attention, and in the evening you may specifically tune into The Archers and give it full attention.
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Where do you listen actively (paying attention to what’s being said) the most?
17-24
25+
At home
At work/uni
In the car
Walking/cycling
Public transport
Other
17-24
25+
Where do you listen passively (in the background, little concentration to content) the most? 23
Do you ever listen to catch-up radio online?
17-24
25+
Yes No
Do you ever use any of the following devices to listen to live radio? Tick all that apply. 100%
100%
50%
50%
25%
0%
Pocket radio - 0
75%
Shower radio - 0
75%
25%
0%
Pocket radio - 0
Age group: 25+
Shower radio - 0
Age group:17-24
Standard DAB radio set
Mobile phone
Laptop/PC/ Mac
Standard FM radio set
Tablet
Alarm clock
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TV
Survey - Catch up and Devices The results show that a higher proportion of older listeners seek out radio that they have missed, online. This could be because (as shown in question 2) the older listeners tend to listen to more talk shows rather than background music. Another possibility for this difference is linked to what devices are used. Interestingly, there is a large difference in the types of device the two age ranges use to access radio. Where the 25+ group listen largely (just under 80%) to radio on a standard radio set, around half of the 17-24s listen using a radio set. The younger group have chosen more connected, portable multi function devices over the classic radio set. Could this suggest a move away from the stationary box radio into a move connected, multi-platform experience?
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Survey - Summary of Findings From this survey, a few themes have become clear. It is apparent that age is a major factor in what and how radio is consumed, yet consumption habits are similar. Where people pay attention to the radio and where it is background listening often defines the content being played and the level of participation. Participation itself is an interesting area, the results show very little uptake in live radio participation even though there are so many different options available such as twitter, facebook, text messaging and phone in. Also, the younger group are shown to use more connected devices like smartphones and laptops to access radio, yet still participate less than the older group who listen mainly on standard radio sets.
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Again with catch up radio, it is the older group who use it more despite the different use of technologies. This, combined with listening to more talk and documentary style radio suggests that the older group makes more of a defined effort to listen to radio, not just because it is conveniently a click away or easy to turn on through an app. Listening to catch up radio requires the listener to know what they want to hear, not just tuning in and listening to what ever is on. Perhaps the key to increased participation lies with engaging with the user, and that user seeing a result to their efforts.
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Braun TP1 portable turntable and radio, Designed by Dieter Rams 1959
Joseph Begley - Q&A To further my knowledge surrounding the production side of radio, I contacted LincsFM presenter Joseph Begley. From the answers I gathered, I have extracted the key points and themes that I think are relevant to this exploration. As a producer/presenter, do you feel as connected to your audience as you could be? - Radio is the most connected now that it’s ever been. - Although the volume of texts received has dropped off in recent years, social media has picked it up. - We still receive lengthy emails from some listeners. - Connection with the audience has become increasingly more important with the advent of other listening options such as streaming, podcasts and an increase in automated digital radio stations. Do you think a system where voice could be used to request a song (or ask a question etc.) with no interaction required other than speaking to the radio would benefit the producer/listener? -Very few people actually contact the radio station they’re listening to; they can still feel involved with the output but be a passive listener. -Listeners will frequently phone you on hands-free anyway, if they wish - although I always prefer a written message with all the details given to me, rather than me trying to scribble down names/places/messages accurately!
Do you think the radio set itself will become obsolete? Is radio moving away from radio waves and more towards fully digital/ internet based? - There’s a multitude of other entertainment options on the same device (eg. mobile phone). You’re no longer battling other stations you can receive on your radio but the entirety of the internet. - If listeners know that good bits will be posted online after a show has aired will they ever feel the need to tune in live? - Radio stations are becoming cross-platform brands with radio being just one element. - People will still want an audio hub in their homes, but it’ll have Bluetooth connectivity etc rather than just a radio. Are there times where when presenting you feel like you can’t deliver all the information you want to, to the listener? - You have to be careful how much reference you make to things you can’t see. Those pictures or funny tweets might have gone viral, might be relevant to your listeners but they won’t always be in a position to view them regardless of what tools you put in place. -If a listener is interested they can find out more themselves. What’s your favourite thing about being a part of radio production? -Its immediacy as a medium is always great - you can be more relevant to someone and more “human” than any other thing in their life. -They’re allowing it (radio) into their lives, it becomes part of their routine and that’s a great honour. -You get messages from listeners thanking you for keeping them company when they’ve been ill, or cooking or helped them avoid a tailbacks due to a crash on the roads and you think yes, we’re doing something right here, aren’t we?
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Scan to watch the full video on YouTube Length - 1:41
A Day in the Life This video shows a series of situations throughout a person’s day where they might interact with radio. It was created in order to better understand where someone might experience active and passive listening and to pick up on any other habits around radio usage. In the morning, a radio alarm clock is a popular choice for many. Radio shows often tailor their content at peak waking-up times such as 6:30 or 7am, encouraging users to use their station as their alarm. Listening can be active, but not for any length of time, 10 minutes maybe while the listener gets out of bed. Then, another popular choice is to listen to radio in the shower. Not many people use a waterproof shower radio anymore, instead opting for their mobile phone outside the shower. Listening here is generally passive as the water can create noise and distraction, music is preferred. Listening at breakfast really depends on the person. For example, a couple might listen to the news attentively, but a family with small children might have the radio on simply as background noise ‘whilst the chaos ensues’ before school.
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Day in the Life cont. At work listening is generally confined to passive background sound. A worker will be focused on a task instead of listening in to the radio. However it has been observed that workers occasionally take ‘micro-breaks’ when working if they hear something of interest like a news article. These breaks can last anywhere between 10 seconds and 2 minutes depending on level of interest and story length. This is similar to the ‘cocktail party effect’ where a person picks up on their name being said even through crowded conversation. The survey has shown that in-car listening is where people listen attentively/actively the most. Especially as a driver, vision is fully focused on the road ahead. Hearing is used when driving (listening for sirens etc) but is not as essential as sight. For this reason, listening to the radio is often the best way to pass the time. Radio stations tailor their content, just like in the morning, to the commute home around 5-6pm. Evening listening can be passive, eg. when preparing food or actively listening to an interesting documentary. Radio soaps are also popular such as the Archers, to wind down to.
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How far does social media influence radio participation? The survey revealed that the younger listeners are increasingly using connected devices to listen to the radio. However, this does not seem to equate to an increase in participation. This appears odd, as modern smartphones and laptop are almost always connected to the internet and therefor social media. Social media has been designed to be intuitive and easy to use, just one or two clicks or taps is all it takes to be up and running. So why is participation not much more prevalent? Social media provides a platform to share thoughts and information with lots of people at once. It is good at providing snippets of people’s lives, news articles etc. which feeds the culture of instant gratification. When you ‘tweet’ a radio show, it is extremely rare for that tweet to be recognised simply because of the number of other people trying to tweet in too. This in turn
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discourages that person from trying again as they don’t get that instant satisfaction they are used to. Social media does however provide other oppourtunities that are more accessible to more people. Radio 1 have recently completed a campaign called ‘1 million hours’ where the goal was to get the public to donate one million hours of combined volunteering time to charity. “let us know that you’ve become part of the movement by tweeting @bbcr1 or @1xtra with the #1millionhours hashtag.” Radio 1 encourages its participants to tweet them with how many hours they’ve pledged. R1 will not respond to each tweet individually, but a campaign like this and tweeting the organiser gives the participant a sense of community and reward for doing a good deed. Mass participation like this, with no direct interaction to speak of, generally sparks much more interest and gets more people involved.
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Plugg Radio by Skrekkogle - 2012
Types of audio content delivery Audio such as music, documentaries and news updates to name a few,can be listened to on a large number of platforms. Each platform has, or had its own unique benefits with some suiting certain content over others. Radio Radio is typically broadcast using radio waves, with the listener tuning their radio set to a specific frequency. This is known as FM radio. Recently however, DAB (digital audio broadcasting) has been taking over from FM. DAB uses a higher frequency of radio wave it is able to carry more information such as time and radiotext (a feature which allows the user to see details like what song is playing). DAB radio has a higher quality of sound than FM. Another way of listening to radio is over the internet. Most radio stations now broadcast their content live online in parallel with FM/DAB. The advantage on online is that the quality is always at its maximum provided you are connected to the internet. You can listen on a range of devices that wouldn’t have an FM receiver built in like smartphones and computers. A disadvantage currently is that internet is not nearly as available whilst on the move, especially when driving. It also costs money to connect to an internet service provider (ISP) whereas radio is free once you have bought the receiver.
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Alongside listening live, the internet also provides the capability of catch-up listening. While it is not as popular or mainstream as on-demand TV, catch-up radio provides an invaluable service for those who use it. Probably the most popular on demand radio show is The Archers. Commercial radio tends to be very repetitive, so does not generally need to be caught up on. It is entertainment and documentaries that appear to be accessed on-demand the most. Streaming As a source of audio, streaming is becoming increasingly popular. Via the internet, streaming allows the user to selectively choose what they want to listen to. For music, Spotify, Tidal, Apple music and Deezer are some of the main competitors. These services offer high quality music from all genres, often collected into pre-made playlists. This differs from on-demand audio as the content has not been broadcast live previously.
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Although primarily focused on music, these services also offer content such as podcasts, comedy sketches and are venturing into video content. Youtube is another streaming service. Dealing in videos, Youtube is very visual but is often used as a simple free audio streaming service. Download As the internet is becoming more widely available, downloading audio content is becoming less popular. iTunes revolutionised the download market with its ease of use and companion technology - the iPod. However, as more and more devices are becoming connected to the internet and for affordable prices, the only real benefit of download is its availability offline. Download suits those who travel a lot, enjoy having their own personal collection or those who simply prefer the process.
Types of audio content delivery - continued Legacy Legacy formats include CD, Cassette tape and vinyl. These formats are largely dead now, however do make comebacks now and then. In week 48 of 2016, figures provided by the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) showed that £2.6m was spent on vinyl albums and only £2.1m spent on digital downloaded albums. This is in contrast with the previous year having only £1.2m vinyl vs £4.4m digital download. The ERA suggested that increased sales could be due to factors like a greater number of retailers selling vinyl such as supermarkets and the popularity of vinyl as a gift. This doesn’t necessarily mean people are listening to vinyl rather than digital, the figures only cite downloads and not the increasingly popular streaming platform. Although legacy formats do occasionally surge in popularity the mainstream methods still thrive.
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Consumer technology trends Data / Algorithm Driven Content Curation Streaming services such as Spotify cater to a ‘ segment of 1’ - because they have so much data on each user’s habits that they can tailor their offering. Eg their ‘Discover weekly’ playlist sees over 40million users receive a unique playlist each Monday. Their clever use of data has been highlighted as a key strength in their humorous ad campaign recently, shown on the previous page. Netflix presents content to the user similarly, based on preference and viewing history. This allows us to quickly and easily discover content that we are likely to enjoy. However, people may become more aware of the control of algorithms over the choices they’re presented with and therefore demand for using such services ‘incognito’ may rise to allow people to break out of the ‘filter bubble’ to discover TRULY new and different things. Radio for Social Change The increase of ‘content series’ perhaps created by brands or organisations, some with the aim of social change or increased social consciousness. For example, the Starbucks ‘Upstanders’ series “an original collection of short stories, films and podcasts sharing the experiences of Upstanders – ordinary people doing extraordinary things to create positive change in their communities.”
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Consumer technology trends - continued Similarly in terms of engaging people through radio content for social change, radio 1 ran the 1million hours volunteering campaign this year to encourage people to pledge their time to charitable causes and gained huge engagement on the radio, social media and in the organisations who were given time. They ran dedicated features about it and also mentioned it a lot in ordinary shows and got people to ring in and talk bout their experience. Voice Commands As voice recognition continues to become more accurate, more and more technology companies are investing in voice interaction in their products. For example, Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Home, Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana... the list goes on. This paired with ‘artificial intelligence’ and learning systems is set to become significantly more popular. “users of digital
virtual assistants are set to rise from 390 million in 2015 to 1.8 billion worldwide by 2021.� (Tractica, August 2016). Could voice be used in a radio interface? Of course! Function is not just limited to replacing the buttons with voice commands. Situations such as being in the car listening to an interview on radio where the presenter is not asking the right questions, could you shout out a question whilst driving which gets picked up and sent to the interview in progress? This could be similar to tweeting to texting in, providing comments in real time but with no physical interaction needed.
The Future of Radio From the articles read, data gathered, surveys completed, people interviewed and observations made, certain insights can be obtained. Here are the basic design insights and oppourtunities I believe will impact radio in the future the most: Radio is far from dead. It is often a large part of people’s lives from the time they wake up to late in the evening. - Investigate ways of creating a better user experience throughout the day, using connected technology. Radio offers a unique experience to other audio platforms. It gives a live, human centered experience as opposed to algorithm based suggestions. - Ensure the human aspect is kept as priority. Make communication of listener --> presenter as intuitive as speaking face to face. Those who are the most interested will make the effort to contact the station. - Remove barriers so that there is little to no effort in making contact with a station. The younger listeners are increasingly listening on connected devices such as laptops and smartphones. - Look into creating a cross-platform service, or multi compatible features. Radio is still and always will be a source of audio as the primary output. - Any other information, be it broadcast or found elsewhere, should be supplementary and not essential to basic listening.
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Social media has the power to reach millions in just seconds, but is often one directional. - Investigate crowd-generated messages and ways of making more people feel involved and not lost in a sea of other people. Radio is not just limited to what is said on air anymore, festivals, campaigns, cross-media presenters and more are coming out of radio now. - Don’t limit ideas just to audio and a ‘box’. Radio is now a multi platform source of media and benefits from video and download.
Tilt radio - By Luka Or 2012
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