by Paulo Dias (@therealptp) Radio presenters used to have simple jobs. Tell people what songs are coming up. Tell people what time it is. Tell people the weather. Do the same thing the next day. Sometimes you would hear them doing voice work and the more charismatic ones would get a TV gig here and there but, for the most part, they were very good radio people doing very good radio.
Equal attention
Round about the turn of the decade, though, when stations decided they needed new blood, potential candidates have been evaluated with equal attention being paid to how they are on air compared to what sort of social profile they have and how they look on the small — ie mobile phone — screen. Stations have begun hiring with audio, video and public appearances in mind; a DJ needs to be far more multifaceted.
Today, it’s common for radio personalities, or personalities who just happen to have a radio platform, to have more followers online than they have listeners and, in some cases, more followers than their entire station. We all know that multi-talented individuals like these don’t grow on trees. Which is why those that do make it are in high demand. That alone gives them a power they never had before.
Presenters now come with an on-tap audience and fan base that the radio station ‘loans’ while the presenter is with them. So who owns the audience: the presenter or the station?
One person who understands this more than most and is demonstrating it every day is Gareth Cliff. His departure from 5fm not only started a shift in the way we consume audio but also showed the lengths an audience would go to get content from their favourite ‘radio’ personality. Listening to audio online is not the easiest thing to do and has numerous barriers — price included — yet CliffCentral has shown the power of presenters and their ability to move audience across platforms in pursuit of their content.
Who has the power?
I don’t foresee copycat CliffCentrals starting to pop up but I do see a new wave of radio presenters who don’t need radio stations as much as radio stations need them.
Pre-social media, if you wanted to be on air, you used to send demo after unheard demo to radio stations in the hope that you might get a graveyard shift and, after five years of doing so, that you might get a weekend fill in show. Social media and social audio platforms such as SoundCloud and YouTube allows an aspirant jock to start her own radio show, produce her own podcast and build her own audience. If that person were ever to end up on terrestrial radio and brought her carefully and strategically built audience with her — who has the power over that audience? Who truly understands the audience and who are they loyal to? Does the station really hold sway over such a presenter? Or can she call the shots, knowing that the bulk of her audience will go with her wherever she goes.
As with most things, what is stopping this scenario from happening en masse is money. There is still not a tangible case locally of a person making enough money from such a venture for him to risk his cushy three-hour gig in pursuit of the creative freedom to say, play and do what he wants on air. However, once advertisers see the value of this loyal and highly influenced audience, we’ll start seeing a shift toward DJs managing their own brands and content, or contracting independent management companies to do so.
I’m not talking about a booking agent here. I’m talking about DJs starting to see themselves as content brands in themselves and then employing experts to maximise their brand content: managers, salespeople, PR manager etc.
More loyal to one person
Radio stations tend to boast about the size of their audiences but the next wave of radio will see that audience more fluid and more loyal to one person, as opposed to the whole station.
Paulo Dias (@therealptp) is the head of creative integration at Ultimate Media. He works closely with the programming teams at leading radio stations to help implement commercial messaging into their existing formats.
“Motive” is a by-invitation-only column on MarkLives.com. Contributors are picked by the editors but generally don’t form part of our regular columnist lineup, unless the topic is off-column.
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