Radiodays Europe Message From Switzerland: 'The World Is Changing, We Need To Keep Up, Radio'

Underway

RADIODAYS EUROPE’s first full day of sessions began at SWISSTECH CONVENTION CENTRE with a performance from the VIGNERON HORNS and VIGNERON SINGERS. The performances filled the main auditorium with harmonies and alpine sounds.

The keynote address was given by BAUER MEDIA UK CEO PAUL KEENAN, who spoke about the promising future of commercial radio. KEENAN said it’s thanks to radio being a “master of reinvention”. In SWEDEN, the sector has seen 77% advertising revenue growth, the U.K. reported record breaking advertising revenues in 2018. KEENAN accepts the challenges facing radio as the landscape of the industry changes so rapidly, but at BAUER, KEENAN said they are taking this on with brave new choices, citing the launch of SCALA RADIO and the U.K.’s first national Country music station launching this FRIDAY.

KELLY DOHERTY (THEIMAGINGHOUSE.COM), fresh from appearing at WWRS in BURBANK CALIFORNIA last week, spoke at RADIODAYS EUROPE about emotional connections in imaging. “Listeners come for the music, but they stay for the connection”. said DOHERTY. “Don’t flood the listener with copy and market like you don’t have to sell it – stop telling the listener you are #1! Instead you must make them feel like you are #1”. The new radio imaging language was defined in terms by KELLY by points including to stop using the term “Radio Dial” and many other now-redundant phrases and radio speak terms that are still heard daily on promos worldwide.

MENNO DE BOER PD RADIO 538 (TALPA MEDIA NL) and MICHEL DUJARDIN (TOMORROWLAND FESTIVAL) spoke about the “Communication and passion” in the EXPAND YOUR BRAND SESSION “The #1 reason people tune in to 538 is ENERGY” DE BOER said as he treated the audience to a case study on the station’s unique partnership with TOMMORROWLAND dance festival “Our number one partner is Tomorrowland.”

Regarding making a lasting partnership between station and client, MENNO said “throw everything you have on the table – you want to make content that is compelling.” DUJARDIN agreed with this statement saying, “it’s all about the content.” 

COMMUNICORP MEDIA/REPUBLIC OF IRELAND NewsTalk (OFF THE BALL) CEO GER GILROY explained earlier in the brand session about the national institution that is “Off the Ball” to IRISH Soccer enthusiasts. “We realized pretty early on that having the headlines the day before the national press put them to print was our winning strategy,” he said, and how taking the radio show on tour around the country reinforced the brand and made it more personal to the show’s loyal listeners.

Understanding future technologies has been a core part of the conference throughout, and it continued with DAVE COPLIN. Previously working with APPLE and MICROSOFT, he set out to describe the “coming storm” of Artificial Intelligence and how it will affect our lives. “As great as technology has become in our personal lives, it has yet to penetrate the way we work. So, change is a must, specifically in how stations and organizations use data." COPLIN’s key takeaway from the most talked about session of the entire day was that humans need to change the way we work drastically and constantly question the reason systems and practices exist in the workplace. PABLO PICASSO said of 1960s computers “they are useless, all they can give me are answers, I need something that asks the right questions.” COPLIN believes this is the unique role of humans as automation comes into our world.

BRENDA SALINAS, from GOOGLE NEWS, eased delegates into her thoughts on the future of bringing audio to audiences with a hilarious and informative presentation. Outlining the three fundamental aspects of radio in the future: on-demand, interactive and data driven. SALINAS left the auditorium with a positive thought, “Radio isn’t going anywhere because the art of telling a great story has stayed the same for thousands of years”. 

iHEARTMEDIA Pres. DARREN DAVIS said, “sound engages the imagination,” and spoke about iHEARTMEDIA’s testing of audio with biometrics. He said that there is better recall after listening to radio over television. He provided the audience with a lot of statistics proving the strength and consistency of radio – from the growth of smart speakers to the endurance of car radios. He said, “trusted voices create deeper bonds with listeners”. DAVIS also talked about podcasting – half of all American’s listen to podcasts every month now. Podcasting fits perfectly in to the radio offering at iHEARTMEDIA, because they want to be everywhere that consumers are. DAVIS said, “podcasting is front and centre of the audio boom.”

ENDA W. CALDWELL is reporting exclusively for ALL ACCESS at RADIODAYS EUROPE. You can follow CALDWELL on INSTAGRAM at enda1975 for updates from LAUSANNE.

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