What will the radio landscape look like in 2018?
As another year ends, Zoe Samios chats with the radio bosses to discover what they’ve learnt from the tumultuous year that was 2017.
Another year of radio is done. Every network is claiming victories where it can – whether it be poaching talent from rivals, audience share gains, demographic wins or cumulative gains – and spruiking its credentials moving into 2018.
And while all programming bosses are celebrating, some results could be seen as redundant, given the successful talent is shifting to rival networks.
Or at least that’s how Guy Dobson, Southern Cross Austereo’s chief creative officer, sees yesterday’s drive result.
Guy Dobson on 2DAY’s breakfast show…..
“a different kind of breakfast show” with the continuation of a “very strong female lead”.
This statement is incredible. The sole reason this show is tanking and getting lower and lower each survey is because of the “female lead” and the people of Sydney can’t stand her. And before everyone jumps up and down and plays the “sexist” card, it’s got nothing to do with the fact that she is a woman and everything to do with her brash, bogan, unfunny personality. Ranting at the top of one’s voice does not make one funny. Seriously, have you every listened to this show? She is dreadful.
Come on Guy, just make it the “Ed and Grant show” so we’ve got a real alternative to listen to.
We always see market share numbers but what about the size of the market? With car radio presumably providing a large portion of the market, and the increasing deployment and popularity of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, I would be very surprised if the market share for FM radio in particular is not taking a dive.
I expect that talkback radio will always be strong, but I can’t imagine many people with streaming services would choose to listen to FM radio where they have to put up with constant ads and can’t choose the music they listen to.
These radio bosses have been spouting the same lines for years. But what they are all failing to do is treat their listeners and staff with respect. Its all about the bottom line for them. Yes its a business, and I get that making money is important. But they are not creating a seamless experience for their listeners.
Props to Nova who largely unchanged in key shifts this year. Although their morning show is now effectively networked out of Sydney.
Hit have made a huge mistake in poaching Hughsey & Kate from ARN, where they fit the demo well. The Hit Network spent 3 years purging “aging” breakfast teams from their vast array of regional stations. Now they’re backing it up with what is almost a heritage drive show.
ARN are inflicting a young all male drive team onto their largely 30+ female audience and expect it to work. The KIIS network overall is so disjointed you can barely call it a network. More like 5 stations with the same logo. They need to streamline their content strategy and either align all the stations together, or break them apart with seperate content and talent suited to their targets. Right now it feels like KIIS 1065 is the bullseye and the other 4 stations are darts being thrown at it.
Finally, the survey clearly shows different tastes in drive shows, so when will a network take the hint and put local drive back on? Triple M Brisbane did it for a little while this year but now it’s being slashed back to a one hour show ahead of a networked show.
I have 8 stations preset in my car and there are more and more days where I can’t find a single thing that grabs my attention. So maybe it’s time to start putting content before cash and letting the rewards follow.
What is Duncan Campbell talking about??
Fox cume is over 1.1million, and went up.
You just have to read numbers Duncan. It’s not even cryptic. Or hard. It’s just numbers.
Pay attention at the wheel Duncan, you’re nodding off.
Always balanced and with a good understanding of Radio. If only the other ‘media’ sites were as detailed and understood the industry as much as this journalist does. Well done, Zoe!
Yes we’ll done Zoe!
So pretty much the same as last year then? With the names shuffled about and a couple of NZers?
Commercial radio in Australia is so unimaginative it is depressing. The business model is still “pay as much as you can afford for talent and marketing, as little as you can for the music and other staff” then make it all back with broadcast advertising.
Success is based on results from eight surveys a year (and even then, only in five cities). It’s like we all still live in the eighties.
Sure they’re talking big on podcasting all of a sudden, but a good podcast might get heard by 1000 people. Don’t be fooled by the iTunes Charts, the actual numbers are low low low.
And they wonder why people spend their advertising dollars elsewhere.