Why commercial radio is crying out for more diversity
How many industries are still being regulated by gender, race and class? In this guest post, Beth Rep argues that the reason commercial radio is stagnant is because the stations no longer understand their audience.
“Research only tells you what is, not what could be. That’s why we used to refer to it as ‘research and destroy’.
“If you wait for audiences to tell you to change, you will never get change.” This quote from the brilliant Jane Caro is about the most refreshing and exciting comment I’ve ever read in regards to market research.
Just imagine the programming possibilities for commercial radio if a program director took a similar stance?
Commercial radio is screaming out for more diversity and what better way to get more diversity in radio than to have more diverse people making it?
“This isn’t about fulfilling some left-leaning PC pipe-dream” followed by praise for the BBC for literally introducing quotas based on race, gender and sexuality versus talent. and skill.
ROFL.
The big problem for music stations outside Sydney and Melbourne is that the other capitals have only FOUR commercial FM stations. The result is a disaster of narrow music choices for the listener. If you discount AM for music – as listeners do – markets like Brisbane have fewer actual commercial music choices than in the 70s. While FM spectrum is wasted on community and even ABC talk stations, a city of 2.5 million people has FOUR commercial FMs. Major problem – and it’s driving people away from radio.
Forget this Leftie cultural/gender diversity rubbish. It’s a sure way to drive away audiences in droves. If you want that, listen to SBS radio, whose ratings are a blip on the ratings dial. Commercial radio listeners just want local content they can relate to, without the socio-politically correct agendas. Local news/views and local music artists may as well be non-existent if you live and listen to commercial radio outside the capital cities. Networked programming has destroyed radio.
As a washed up announcer… wait I never got washed up, I jumped ship. Having seen Big Brother evictees take the commercial jock spots, there was no path for progression to ensure up and coming ‘Talent’ had a future. Triple J has been defining the palate of youth radio taste where Commercial youth networks react….slowly.
I think the font colour is a shade or two too light. Makes it hard to read. Also there’s a link in the middle of homepage that points to:
https://mumbrella.com.au/hello-world-1 (not sure if intentional)
Otherwise, definitely looks more modern.