Video Saved the Radio Star

Duncan Campbell

At 12:01am on August 1st, 1981, Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles (released in 1979) was the first music video ever played on MTV and on February 27th 2000, it became the one millionth video broadcast on MTV. So did Video Kill the Radio Star? Not literally, but the song is a memorable metaphor for how new media reshapes attention and cultural status,  but radio survived and adapted and video, especially music video and later streaming video, transformed the ecosystem rather than killing the ratio star and forty four years on from that first play, as the industry continues to adapt and evolve the irony is that it just might help save the radio star.

Radio still remains relevant today albeit with its challenges ,however one could argue that the industry hasn’t evolved fast enough. I said in a previous post that you can’t save yourself into prosperity and when it comes to evolving and future proofing you do need to invest.

The next ten years will be critical for radio as further consolidation looms and we’re going to have to invest if we want to still be relevant in 2035.  Australia’s commercial radio industry is holding strong during its shift to digital. The Infinite Dial Australia 2025 report, shows that commercial radio continues to command a substantial audience, reaching 15 million weekly listeners aged 10+, which is four times the reach of ad-supported Spotify and overall radio still leads in-car listening. While there has been investment  in developing multi media content through podcasting, forming strategic partnerships, focusing on data analytics and exploring subscription models, has the level of investment been enough? Are we doing enough with social integrated programming for example, which can go beyond mentioning social media on the air and marketing of shows. You could share user stories and videos, run contests or invite guests via social, and show live comments during shows. The upside is building a community, boosting loyalty, and commercial opportunities through better data. Are we doing enough with voice assistants and personalisation? Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant, or Apple’s Siri can use AI to customise radio based on user likes, habits, and context. Are stations integrating into these systems so listeners can say things like “Play my favourite Australian news podcast” for example. The tech can analyse past usage to suggest content, build playlists, or adjust for time and location for traffic when driving and given radio leads in car listening, and given the recent significant increases to fines for motorists using their mobile phones, creating custom features for these assistants to make hands-free access easier in cars as well as homes makes sense. It  meets consumer needs for convenience, improves satisfaction levels and also increasing usage as well as shifting the perception of radio into a more positive space particularly with younger demos.

Looking towards 2035, something I’ve been passionate about for a while now is the opportunity with video. Getting serious about video would be a smart move for radio and indeed would further shift the perception of radio into a more positive space. We use video on socials now but I’m talking about a whole new level, similar to what some broadcasters do in Europe by filming shows, cutting up segments and story arcs and creating video content from them and selling or streaming them. This lets you make money from the same content in three ways: live radio, podcasts, and video. In the US, companies like iHeartMedia are big on video podcasts and YouTube channels to generate more revenue, where digital audio is growing fast. The UK has BBC Sounds mixing radio with video clips for on-demand viewing, helping fight off streaming competition. Canada sees similar shifts with Bell Media pushing multi-platform content to keep up with online trends.

What I was particularly impressed with was the European broadcasters who have TV style directors sitting outside the studios of their breakfast shows switching cameras as they film the show as if it was going live. I’m not talking about streaming the show live, for that to me undermines the magic of the medium, which is theatre of the mind. They then tag the shows segments to be edited in the future. Any street activity that relates to content on the air is also filmed and tagged and then they create video content from story arcs, interviews, create best of content of key breakfast benchmarks or features and produce these into an hour long special, a six part, thirty minute series or what ever format that they like and then they either sell that to a digital TV operator, run it on their own Youtube channel or stream it on their Netflix style platform. The point is that get to sell the same content three times, on-air, in podcasts and on video and the video content acts as a marketing tool for your brand in helping keep it top of mind and relevant.

I’m not going to go into the commercial upside of getting serious about video in detail but I did pull some stats and digital ads are booming at AUD 17.2 billion this year, with video ads up 21.9%. The radio industry needs to remain relevant and it needs to be perceived more positively with listeners and advertisers and while companies need to protect profits history is littered with brands that didn’t adapt to changing consumer habits quickly enough. I see video very much part of the future and while radio has been such a resilient medium over many decades, we must keep evolving and video, once seen as a threat, highlighted by that 1979 one hit wonder, could help save the radio star if we embrace it and invest in it’s potential, for if we don’t then the prediction by The Buggles might finally become a reality.