By RJ ANKIT VENGURLEKAR
92.7 BIG FM As you read this; some marketing head/business development head/CEO of a private radio station is sitting in an uncomfortably cool air-conditioned room full of freshly recruited management trainees, programming folks and marketing whiz kids.
The topic of discussion is ‘How to make Radio Social’. This is a common scene in most newsrooms, newspaper offices, publication breakout rooms and radio channels. While it is understandable that most traditional media is struggling to harness the reach and interactivity of new age social media, Radio as a medium is a pleasant exception. That’s because being social is in the DNA of Radio.
It has been so since the inception of this broadcast medium. For years now, since the days of the world wars, radio has been the only broadcast medium offering a platform for dialogue. A dialogue between strangers, a dialogue that reflects the true sentiments of the demographic, a dialogue that had the immediacy and intimacy that no other traditional medium enjoys!
Why people are questioning the social nature of radio is beyond me. This is the one traditional medium that has lived in oblivion, true to its DNA. It didn’t have to bother about the so-called fever of social media gripping the world faster than HIV. It could afford not to bother, because social was built in it since day one. Radio presenters were speaking to listeners, helping them tide over personal crisis, passionately rant about failed government policies and join celebrations that fused society together. Radio has a captive audience. They already curate and create entertaining content, and they know first-hand the value of a true fan. They know how to build real value for the listeners.
So what is to be made out of this new-found obsession with going social? Nobody has successfully cracked the formula yet. How could they? If you do the maths, 1crore 5 lakh people are tuning in to radio in just one city! The ratio of people tuning in to radio is growing. For as long as high speed broadband is a distant dream, radio is and will remain the only true social network.
Where new age social media services help compared to traditional media is amplification of your brand, online. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube help you engage with the netizens in a way that no other medium offers. The unedited frankness and rawness of Internet lets the audience get an exclusive preview into the otherwise invisible and often closely guarded world of radio jockeys and studios. I love sharing details from every show, every recording, tiny quirky details of celebrities’ lives, all of it. It lets audiences participate in the interaction with achievers from every aspect of life, elusive decision makers and most importantly, people who create incredibly awesome music. It gives each person the power and the tool to convert the mundane into something awesome. So then social media and its army of services is like a magical switch, one that when switched ON, converts every day and every minute into a world of infinite entertainment, entertainment and then some more.
Feedback: ankit.v@reliancebroadcast.com
