Opinion: Radio's Audience is Moving Online

What Are You Doing About That?
From Rob Green, for Radio Ink:

One of the famous sayings in poker is “you have to play the hand your dealt”. I think this applies to business, too, and particularly to radio today. Many years ago I worked for John Kluge of Metromedia fame. During an interview a reporter asked him what he thought about all of the fledgling international competition the US was facing at the time.  He replied that he was only thinking about the international opportunities. This is exactly the position radio finds itself in today regarding the rise of digital—concerned about how to beat this new competition and not focused on the new opportunities digital provides.

Radio seems to be playing a hand it was dealt long ago against competitors that are no longer relevant and playing defense in an unwinnable game.  Let’s not repeat what has happened to the newspaper industry.  Instead we need to focus on the vast capabilities and opportunities provided by digital.

At the Radio Ink Forecast Conference last November there was very little discussion about digital.  Folks, this is where your audience is going.  In fact, they are already there. Moreover, this is where the mindshare is, and why our industry valuations are low. Comparing radio to the newspaper industry, as many speakers at the Forecast conference did, tells analysts that the radio industry is living in the past. As a friend of mine told me a long time ago, momentum is really hard to get, but it is even harder to get back once you’ve lost it. Newspapers have long lost momentum and radio will too if it keeps looking backwards.

Read more here. 

Rob Green currently serves as the CEO of Abacast.