Occasionally, I have some students who contact me asking to help them with their research into a particular area of their study. I’m normally delighted to help, but part of the bargain is that you get to read their questions (hello, Toni) and my answers here. These are, naturally, personal replies and not on behalf of my employer.

The context of radio is now a multimedia environment. How can radio face up to this new context?

Radio has a great place in a multimedia context. Almost the ‘unique selling proposition’ of radio is that it is a secondary medium - that is, it can be enjoyed while you’re doing other things. There’s tons of research which shows that many people listen to radio while they’re surfing the internet. Naturally, it’s also enjoyable while driving or while at work. There is merit in not requiring a listener’s full attention: you can’t close your ears, after all.

Radio’s easy to add to devices: most mobile phones now have an FM radio built-in, for example, as do many MP3 players. The advantages of adding radio into a consumer device is well understood by manufacturers. However, it’s also arguable that less people are buying “a radio” - just a device which just happens to have a radio in it. Once we understand that, it’s clear that radio is in rude health, although big wooden boxes calling themselves ‘radio sets’ might not be.

Coincidentally, I was in some research today where one of our “subjects” waxed lyrical about how great radio was, and how much she enjoyed listening to it, before she mentioned almost off-hand that she didn’t own a radio at all. Not sure why I found it amazing, but I did. (She listened off the TV mostly).

Is Radio 2.0 possible? How should it be?

I’d argue that Radio is already up to Radio 3.11 for Workgroups. (That’s an old techie joke which young people these days don’t understand).

If your definition of “2.0″ is a much more collaborative experience, where many people provide the content you’re looking for, then Radio 2.0 was born with the advent of the request show or the phone-in. Of the ‘old media’, I’d claim that radio has always been the most democratised, most involving media there is.

If your definition also includes “giving control to th audience”, then (quite apart from the superficial control that request shows give the audience), again radio has a good story to tell. Listen-again services, like the BBC provides with their BBC iPlayer for Radio, have succeeded in takng radio away from being an uncontrollable linear stream of content to one that is more malleable. It’s particularly good for niche programming - if you look at programmes like Radio 1’s Essential Mix, you see that it has nearly as many listeners online as onair. The iPlayer provides the long-tail and discoverability of content that is the issue with an old-fashioned linear stream.

Some research shows that the Net Generation is leaving radio for new technologies like MP3 players. How can we keep them with us? What strategies can the radio industry employ in order not to lose these people?

Many radio stations have focused recently on ‘more music’, and less local presenter involvement - particularly the commercial radio operators. It seems a little peculiar to me that radio has taken away the main differentiator between it and my iPod: after all, my iPod plays a better choice of music that I can find anywhere on the radio.

I’ve believed for some time that speech radio has a bright future in the new technological world. By ’speech radio’, I mean everything from LBC 97.3’s news and phonein format to the World Service’s news content and even the mostly-speech BBC Radio 1 breakfast show with Chris Moyles. There are millions of young people enjoying speech radio every day, though some might not think they’re listening to the radio; after all, a good bit of speech radio, prepackaged and made available as a download, is what most people call a ‘podcast’.

I believe that radio’s future depends on great content. If programmers focus their attention at the bits between the records, and less slavishly on following their music testing, then we can ensure radio’s future. If radio is just to become a non-stop ‘music aggregator’, then last.fm and services like it will always do that job better (even if last.fm’s algorithms need rather a lot of work).

What is the role of podcasting within radio’s internet strategy? Is it only another way to deliver the same content?
May podcasting be a way of inproving content vaue - ie with some new content offered by journalists only as podcats? (Newspapers such as the NYT have successfully used podcasting to improve the product)

Podcasting along with listen-again, and even little things like the Electronic Programme Guide which allows Sky+-type PVR functionality for radio, are of course simply other ways of delivering the same content, yes. The interesting thing about downloads is that they allow you to listen in situations which are impossible for a web-connected device (on the move, for example).

However, podcasting also enables stations to make their content more niche - potentially, you might want to broadcast a three minute “how to buy a new home” piece on the radio, but offer a 30-minute programme online. The BBC doesn’t do this: its podcasts are refashioned programmes, with no approval from the BBC’s governing body, the BBC Trust, to allow additional programmes or even video podcasts right now. But many other stations do; and some, like LBC, even produce ad-free versions of their programmes to purchase online.

Would it be possible to use podcasting to involve the audience more, ie introducing podcasts made by listeners? For example - making a podcast with the calls and voicemails of clients or non professional specific podcasts eg extreme sports to round off a sports radio programme for example.

Podcasts made by listeners, eh? I don’t think listeners need the big broadcasters to help them make a podcast: the technology is simple, and anyone can get a listing in iTunes. Many have.

If it’s great content and a broadcaster is making it, it belongs on the radio (as well as other platforms, I’d agree). If we start making content for download simply because it’s not good enough for use on-air, then a better plan might be to make that content better.

And of course, anyone can make great radio: from newspaper companies, tv, even banks and restaurants. The only difference with this form of great radio… is that you’ll not hear it on the radio.

Photo by Allen. Used under licence.

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