One of my biggest frustrations with the radio industry is how slow it is to innovate. Actually, it’s worse than that – how slow it is to even consider innovation.
Following on from my recent article on considering how we deliver radio – focusing more on on-demand content with less reliance on linear – I am now turning to one of the stalwarts of radio that I think is at risk of doing more harm than good for your station.
My bet is that when you started putting together your station’s format and its programme clocks, the top of the hour was a news bulletin. That seems to make sense because we always hear how radio is one of the most trusted sources of news, even in this sceptical world in which we live.
I also expect that if you were to ask people either what was important for community radio or explicitly asked “should we do news?” they would give it their backing. But have you dug down deeper into what they mean by that?
I would suggest that many people say they want ‘the news’ because of a fear of missing out. Another sizeable cohort, when asked about community radio, mean news about what’s happening in their local area.
News avoidance
There’s also a growing amount of news avoidance behaviour, because people are feeling overwhelmed by the volume of news and the generally negative tone. Do you need to be adding to that, or perhaps your station should be an oasis that provides an escape?
And there’s my problem with so many of the stations I hear. They do national and international news on the hour every hour – but nothing local! What’s the point of that? Who’s really tuning to your station for that?
OK, you may have promised Ofcom that you would do that. Then you must. But you can ask them if you can drop it, especially if you are replacing it with local content.
But you can’t replace it with local news, because that means resources, journalistic training, etc.?
Not necessarily. Because what’s on information, updates from your local council, business news, school news, roadworks updates, etc. are all local content that would be of interest and useful to listeners.
All of these could individually feature in a typical local news bulletin, if you had one. Just check your local ‘newspaper’ website and you’ll find it packed with all of those things. But by NOT making it a news bulletin, you are avoiding the expectation – and the burden – of constantly changing updates.
Another advantage is, that by avoiding doing this information as a news bulletin, you can package it in a way that allows sponsorships.
Alternative top of hour
Here’s an idea. Replace your top of hour news with a presenter ‘donut’ where they tease ahead to “an update on what’s happening at our local schools” or “what’s happening in the local business community.” Then run these features elsewhere in programme hours (into the 20-past break perhaps?).
The content should be refreshed regularly – at least once a week – but by sharing the responsibility among your team, it should be manageable. In fact, they may be able to clip-up short pieces from interviews they were doing anyway.
Not only are you now creating content that can be made available as on-demand content and shared by those featured, but you have sponsorable content that is targeted.
I suspect that most station management reading this will choose to carry on as they are. Because they believe that people want a 2 minute syndicated news bulletin on the hour, because “that’s what radio always does.”
But it’s time to stop playing radio with all the established formatics that are there more out of laziness and an unwillingness – or inability – to think differently. It’s time to understand and serve the genuine needs of the audience.
Having a bold news ident and the ability to ‘hit the top of the hour on time’ is of no interest to listeners. Providing them with genuinely useful content should be the priority.
