An article I wrote while being The Pulse’s evening presenter

Once upon a time, in a distant world, I was a radio presenter, broadcasting on a station called The Pulse in Bradford.

I had a great time. For a year I presented the drive time show, and then, when they sacked a certain Chris Moyles, I went and did his show instead (more info in his book, if you’re interested). I interviewed people, opened fetes, wrote articles on the internet, and it cemented my interest in radio, giving me some really useful experience.

I notice that people don’t get the same chance I did any more. Tucked away in this article is the news that my little station no longer appears to have its own evening show, taking a networked show till 1am.

I do understand the benefit of networking to small radio stations; and am very aware of the financial restraints that some of these stations are under. It’s no doubt that networking a ‘better’ show is the right thing to do.

However, it would appear that there are less and less jobs in the industry. I probably wouldn’t be still involved in radio were it not for those two years being a radio presenter. The information I learnt was tremendous, and the experience of being on-air (an experience I had until the middle of 2000) was a great thing: and still stands me in good stead today.

It’s a real shame - albeit an economic inevitability - that “my show” no longer exists any more; and that more and more young people are missing out on the first rung of their radio career.

CC licenced photo by Alan Saunders

Suw Charman writes:

The best station I can find on my DAB radio is bloody Virgin Xtreme. Their playlist is more interesting [than XFM] - in just a few hours yesterday I heard lots of new stuff by bands that I’ve never heard on XFM but which would fit it stylistically, and only one song that made me want to stab the DJ.

The trouble with Virgin Xtreme is that it’s almost like internet radio - almost no DJ interaction at all. I don’t really listen to the radio to discover new music - although a varied and new playlist is important - because if all I wanted was to find new music, well, there’s Last.fm for that.

I listen because I want to be entertained by the DJs, I want to hear people who I think are like me, who talk about things I’m interested in, who care about their listeners. I want my day given shape by the changing of DJ shifts, by the news and weather, by Paul Anderson’s Movie Minute, by the X-List. I want Music: Response to be the signal that 7pm has arrived and that dinner will be late tonight. I want to hear human voices.

While she’s unusual - most of the population do discover new music first on the radio - she’s got a point.

I posted, a little while ago, a short and ill-considered piece titled Google Audio Ads are coming to eat you up. On thinking further, and reading further, I’m not entirely sure that’s the case.

In that post, I linked to lots of screenshots of the Google Audio Ads process in action. (There are also some presentations about Google Audio Ads online). A media purchaser gets almost the same experience as they would buying Google AdWords. Interestingly, they also get no way of purchasing stations directly, thereby leaving stations free to continue to sell ads themselves.

Further, thanks to Jonathan Marks, I’ve been sent a job specification for an Account Manager at Google Audio Ads - which makes interesting reading by itself.

The lucky candidate(s) will be charged with “Selling Google Automation products”, not only AdSense for Audio. This appears to confirm a strong rumour in the industry that Google has developed its own playout system - or, at the very least, has used its purchase of dMarc to also leverage dMarc’s own playout system called Maestro. Is it possible that this playout system may be free for use if Google gets a certain %age of airtime? Does this dramatically change the business of running a small commercial radio station? Will it have APIs and other web services to enable better hook-ins to the playout system itself, therefore enabling better additional metadata and visual elements?

The other interesting element to the job ad is a requirement of “Knowledge of emerging media technologies (Podcasting, Online Streaming media, Digital Radio Broadcasting, etc.)”. This is interesting since it suggests that AdSense for Audio may well also be a solution for podcasters, not just terrestrial radio stations. And why are Google interested in ‘Digital Radio Broadcasting’?

It’s clear that Google AdSense for Audio is going to dramatically lower the costs of radio advertising. If you’re a creative producer, this would appear to massively increase your potential business - far from being ‘afraid’, as I said originally, I think you should be hugely excited. More businesses will want to make radio commercials as a direct result. You should be gearing up now to cope with the additional business.

If you’re a radio station, this would also appear to massively increase your client numbers, particularly if you’re working for a local station. There is real benefit in attracting more advertisers to radio, at lower cost. This is great news.

The only worry is if you’re currently a media sales house. I would see Google AdSense for Audio as cutting out the middleman - and that’s you. Why would you go to a media sales house, who deal with a number of radio stations (and thus have little knowledge of those stations), when you can get almost the same experience from Google AdSense - indeed, probably a better experience given the quality of Google’s planning tools?

The more that emerges from the Google Audio Ads stable, the more I’m convinced it may well single-handedly save smaller commercial radio stations.

Let’s think radically. Anyone can sell spots on your radio station. With the latest RAJAR (or Arbitron) figures, anyone can plan these ads, too. However, only your radio station knows how to sell sponsorship, and how to sell out-of-break promotions, because only people who understand the product can sell it. So if Google AdSense for Audio takes off the way I predict it will, I believe that local radio stations could radically change their business. First, remove your spot-sales team completely. This is a large cost to most local radio stations, and with the advent of Google AdSense for Audio, you simply don’t need them. Cut the amount of spots on the station, too - use this as a way to improve the audio experience, not to grow profit. Double the size of your sponsorship/promotions department - this better-sounding and more relevant commercial content will be the way of the future. Watch your audiences grow, because of the smaller amount of instrusive commercials and the local connections you’ll be making by having your DJs talk about your local businesses out of the break, rather than in it. It’s a bright future indeed.

The commercial radio industry in the UK has a track-record of doing the wrong thing, more often than not: GCap and Emap removed all the localness from their output in the late 1990s and are now wondering why listeners flocked away from local commercial radio and towards national services in the 2000s, for example. The next twelve months will show whether those in charge of commercial radio ‘get it’. It may be a crucial time.

.

Full disclosure: My current employer is a national commercial radio station, who used Maestro as a playout system for a while. Google AdSense funds my sandpit website.