The R@dio Conference, II
edition: March, 24 – 25 (2011)
iletiim : arat›rmalar› • © 2007 • 5(2): 135-139
Paula Cordeiro
The R@dio Conference is an event produced by the Institute of Political and Social Sciences, in Lisbon, bringing together radio indus-try and radio research in the academy, providing a nexus for repre-sentatives from both areas, where radio is at the centre of discussion, exhibition, experience, debate and trend definition.
It comes from a new broadcasting concept - R@dio - that links the digital strategies of radio, music industry and multimedia conver-gence as a technical and human challenge. Not limited to radio, the R@ dio Conference is about radio, interactive media and music, which bind them to establish new connections and pathways, to trace radio’s identity and future.
The debates present new concepts, ideas and successful case stud-ies. The program, under the idea of new forms of radio and audio consumption, - “from the listener to the e-listener: multimedia radio” - combined workshops, call for papers, roundtables, demonstrations and conferences, focusing on the relevance of the listener and the ways that, today, radio and audio broadcasting is in relation to audiences.
The call for papers sessions gathered radio researchers approach-ing different topics, from the sense of community in music and radio, as well as community radio and radio alternatives, as for the business models, frequencies and regulation; but also online music
communi-ties, innovative online experiences with music and artists, social media and community radio, with an close relation to online radio social networking platforms, microblogging, platforms and audio/music communities. There was also a marketing approach, covering the branding in music and in radio, mostly by analyzing live music and branding opportunities for the brand recall of those who attend sum-mer music festivals in Portugal. Music was also observed in relation to social networks, as for the social gathering through music in relation to advertising and monetizing content. These papers explored the evolu-tion of advertising in radio, analyzing new compelling formats, brand-ed content and user-generatbrand-ed content; focusing on the ideas that product placement and branded content are a global trend in media content. Radio research is going rapidly and we had interesting papers about convergence and online broadcasting, relating public and pri-vate broadcasters, presenting general benchmarking case studies about the relation of broadcasters with social networks, such as Twitter, approaching also the digital challenges that traditional radio broad-casting is facing, with the changes occurring in radio discourse and the implications of digitalization for professional routines. Many research-ers developed the relation of radio stations with the web and their connection to the listener, interactivity and participative radio models, enhancing the importance of listener feedback, as well as the way web radio can relate to mainstream sub-cultures and the structures of eve-ryday life, or the role of music as driver of cross-media practices. Marketing insights related with music formats in radio, branding and online strategies, but most particularly, with online music services, like Spotify were also discussed. The community sense was delivered through papers approaching radio regulation and deregulation and the way community radios are facing the digital broadcasting and on-demand paradigm.
Workshops, with more practical insights, covered also a wide range of themes, from the documentary in radio to the electronic music production, to explain the ways in which documentary can be an appealing radio content. On the other hand, other presentations focused more on the digital tools and features that are today available
for the music production, influencing also the way music is conceived and, in final, the creativity of artists, in straight relation the presenta-tion about the path for success of music and artists, presented by a well-known Portuguese music marketeer, that explained the liaisons in the music industry and new ways, using online tools, services and social networks to drive artists and musicians into developing their own successful marketing strategy, independently from corporations. The workshop about talent management in radio was conceived to understand the proper strategies to relate different kinds of talented people in radio, in order to produce innovative and intelligent pro-gramming. Not only radio broadcasters have to find the best radio hosts in relation to the radio station’s target, but these also have to be able to develop a bond with the audience to bring closer the listeners and make them feel they take part in the radio communication and that they are, somehow, contributing to the radio station, as their own radio station. Troubles in relation to creativity and human resources manage-ment were also approached, in connection to the networked radio and interaction dynamics workshop, that approached some of the best examples of social networking interaction within Portuguese radio sta-tions and, particularly, the way these highly successful networked hosts relate their show, the radio station and the audience, producing relevant content for all of them. Creativity was once again on top of the conference issues, approaching the way radio stations are still achiev-ing successful sales management in a period of economic crisis. Sales managers from the most important Portuguese radio stations (in rela-tion, of course, to advertising investment) explained that traditional advertising is still working, but they all started to develop integrated marketing campaigns, relating the radio station brand to other brands, formerly known as… Advertisers.
The 2nd day of the R@dio Conference as divided in two different approaches: radio in relation to society and creative industries; digital challenges for radio broadcasting. With a more academic and theoreti-cal approach, David Hendy, Peter Lewis and Jacob Bjur presented each, a conference about these relations, exploring, in the first case, the way radio as contributed to the the social consciousness shaping all over
history. Lewis approached the concept of R@dio as defined by Cordeiro (Bournemouth, 2010; Lisbon, 2010) and the way it may represent the multimedia and interactive context of contemporary radio. Bjur also approached radio in relation to technology, explor-ing the visuality of radio, or, more precisely, the lack of visuality of radio in Internet, explaining that, to be recognized and found, radio as not only to be heard, but also to make itself visual in Internet search engines, for instance. ECREA took part in the conference pro-gram, with a roundtable to discuss if online music can be thought as online radio. Gathering researchers and pratitioners, the general idea is that, although radio is in eveolution and there can not be closed concepts on this subject, in fact, radio is in relation to people: Not only those who listen to, but most particularly, to those who produce radio content and establish a relation with the listener that is inexistent in online music playlists of services like Spotify, Last Fm or the Portuguese MyWay that was represented.
In a very close connection to radio industry, other sessions explored the importance of accurate ratings to improve radio man-agement, that is, only when radio managers have very precise defi-nitions of who are their listeners, which platforms they use, for how long they listen to radio, the purposes of radio listening and the duplication, that is, related audio listening, only then, there is a chance of a radio station became successful and reach high levels of profitability. Some speakers presented new rating systems and oth-ers approached innovative systems for audience measurement in online platforms, as well as online music services, competing with traditional radio broadcasters webpages. In this line of though, broadcasting companies managers and programming managers explored the Portuguese strategies to online and the website content for their most successful radio station. A very interesting approach, in relation to electronics was the presentation of the radio of the future, the device that most probably will replace the current radio devices, by Nuno Borges de Carvalho, from the Aveiro University.
The R@dio Conference, gathered different approaches – from aca-demia to radio parctitioners and professionals from related industries – came to be a discussion forum for the radio industry future, approaching also Internet and the music industry. By exploring most successful case studies, we can now draw new trends in radio pro-gramming, radio management and radio advertising, both in tradi-tional and digital platforms. It has been clear that the future of radio is in close relation to Internet and social networks, as for radio content and in relation with brands, by promoting new approaches to adver-tising formats that explore the audience engagement through their lifestyle, defining new strategies in business models, multimedia and interactive tools, programming and formats, branding, audience bonding and digital platforms.
Some R@dio features on the 24th of March
• TSF, news radio broadcasted live João Paulo Meneses show Some R@dio features on the 25th of March
• Radia, European art radio network, delivered an aural perfor-mance
• Universidade de Aveiro presented a prototype of the radio of the future
• Flumotion, presented an innovating streaming software The R@dio Exibits
• ProDJ: electronic music production setup • ESS (European Subscription Service): the best magazines in the world • Radia: six years of radio art • TMN corner • The Radio Wall: interactive radio game
