The Strengths and Weaknesses of Radio: Exploitation of its Strengths to come up with Future Relevant Programmes Radio broadcasting is such a powerful medium, therefore its potential for communication is very great but the actual outcome may be quite small. To the consumer, radio is radio, whether it comes out of their stereo or the computer on their desk. For the most part, this is true. However, all transmission mediums have their strengths and weaknesses, and it is these qualities, which may determine a medium’s future success.
The Strengths Of Radio Radio might be a blind medium, considering the fact that one can only listen to it, but it has the potential to reach large numbers of people, by informing, educating, entertaining, propagandising and persuading. The sights and sounds of radio are created within the listener, thus stimulating his or her imagination. Radio is a more personal indulgence, as the one has direct contact with the radio and it can have greater impact and involvement in one’s daily activities.
It provides for people as a form of relaxation and entertainment, diverting them from their troubles, anxiety and stress at work or school. For radio to play such an important part in people’s lives, it has to possess that ‘personality’. And this lies in the voice of the deejay- the warmth, the compassion, the anger, the pain, and the laughter. Radio is a convenient and generally credible information source. It can increase the perceived credibility and worth of your project. In radio, there is no way for a listener’s opinion to be influenced by other people or pictures.
People always want to hear the unusual, the latest, the sensational, the ‘stars’, both well-known and entertaining identities, spectacles and events, ‘people’ stories and public-interest stories involving who, what, when, where, why, all these direct from the radio programmes. The information is presented through various programmes and the public can generally choose to listen or disregard the material offered. Another important strength of radio has always been its portability.
All a listener needs is a transistor radio, which allows people to tune in outside the home where people have less contact with radio’s audiovisual competitors. The radio signals clear mountain barriers, crosses ocean deeps and forested areas. Radio has the ability to unite those separated by geographical locations or nationality. The transistor revolution has made radio a daily personal item. On the whole, I would say that radio is a very flexible and mobile medium. The Weaknesses Of Radio Other broadcasters are looking for new ways to reach the target audience that is already listening to the radio.
Radio may be perceived to be weak because of its presumed limited space and expertise and also spending on promotion, as well as its presumed uncertain means of support. I somehow feel that public radio does a poor job promoting itself. Just by holding phone-in contests and having winners doesn’t necessarily mean that there are many people tuning in. 8 hours of sleep plus 8 hours of work, tuning in to radio is only when travelling to work or lunchtime or relaxation once you reach home, that is barely less than 8 hours you get to listen to the radio.
Another point is that radio doesn’t easily get sponsors because they are attracted to a medium with ‘visualisation’, like television. And getting sponsors have to depend on the station’s personality and its ability to reach the wide audience. And it is pointless to hold roadshows once a year when people actually have no idea what the personality of the radio station is all about. This is due to lack of proper promotion of the radio station. When strategizing, it’s important to put yourself in the competitors’ shoes, to see the world as they see it.
This is what you might probably see: Their time spent listening will probably continue to decline. New competition from audio streaming on the Internet, as well as overseas satellite radio firms will cut into commercial radio audiences. Music stations are particularly vulnerable to decreased time spent listening, making it more attractive to expand into talk programming on FM. They consider public radio a medium to weak competitor. Future Relevant Programmes for the Listeners Beyond practicing good radio technique and grounding your decisions in public radio’s mission, we suggest:
Be Local: Whether programming originates from the organisation or from the networks, make certain that listeners can expect consistent quality throughout the day, and know which station is giving it to them. Emphasize local basics such as personalities, news, public affairs, public service, weather, traffic and even time. Core and New Sampling: Learn from the mistakes of commercial radio programmers. While serving the core audience, look for ways to serve your borderline audience and new listeners. Encourage new listeners to sample your station.
Sampling is where your new core listeners will come from. New Programming: Experiment with new programming in daytime when few people are listening. Collaborate with other stations or independent producers with whom you have a similarity. If you are primarily a news station, emphasize experiments with news-oriented talk programming before a commercial competitor does this in your market. Promotion: Be proud of your live, local service and tell your story every day. If the external corporations own all of the commercial radio stations in the market, claim the “local” position.
Target a portion of your promotion budget to increase new sampling. Make sure that your advertisers are willing to sponsor the amount needed for new programming which will win back more audience than asked for. The only way to ensure that the medium covers its project is through paid advertising, but this is expensive and there is still no guarantee that your target group will take in your information. If paid advertising is not possible, there is value in examining opportunities to access community-service information for radio.
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