Radio Broadcasting in the Digital AI Age: Embracing Today’s Technology

In today’s fragmented media landscape there is the temptation for broadcasters to be, like the title of the Oscar-winning film, ‘Everything Everywhere, All at Once’. Thanks to digitization, content can be made accessible almost anywhere across multiple channels. Adding AI into the mix has only raised the stakes for broadcasters who now wonder what kind of platforms and measurement tools they need in a media landscape increasingly flooded with both digital and AI content. But the same technology that’s raising questions also provides answers, as we discuss below.

Tackling Technology with Intent

While broadcasters should be enthusiastic about the possibilities of technology, they should also be strategic. We’ve seen how larger broadcasters who really leaned into digital and took an often-frenetic approach in trying to reach their audience with latest platforms and content – but without the proper vetting – get burned by their decisions. In these cases, the broadcasters got into the wrong platforms and further fragmented their audience in their rush to get ahead of the competition.

On the flip side, there is danger in being too cautious and moving too slowly. Broadcasters can’t just stand still when technology is moving at the speed of light. A better approach is to be neither passive nor frivolous, but to move with intent. This means having a clear platform strategy, one that will help broadcasters find their audience more efficiently while comprising solid domain expertise that straddles both the technology and content spaces.

Being in the Right Place at the Right Time

There was an adage that broadcasters ‘need to be everywhere.’ That later evolved into ‘broadcasters need to be everywhere their audience is.’ It’s the right thought, but one that is expensive and unnecessary. That’s because with today’s technology-driven fragmentation, audiences are going to be in many different places searching for a multitude of content. Chasing an audience literally everywhere they engage is not an ideal approach. 

A better direction for broadcasters is to ‘be in the place where their audience is when that audience is looking for the content that you are offering.’ It’s a strategy that demands broadcasters be proactive and precise. For example, consider a broadcaster with sports-focused content. Their audience is more than likely to engage with broadcast content when they are out of the home and, more specifically, in the car. If the broadcaster in this example is not engaged with platforms in-vehicle, that content is unavailable and their station is missing a critical audience opportunity.

Finding the Right Platform Fit

When it comes to platforms, the right size matters. The idea of ‘going big’ doesn’t always pay off for broadcasters. In one recent example, a major broadcaster integrated with over 300+ different digital audio platforms, which proved to be a huge resource lift given the need to ensure each platform’s connections were correct and the right metadata was going out, among other considerations. An audit revealed the broadcaster was not finding a groundswell of listeners in those 300+ places. But when the broadcaster reduced the number of platforms by almost 80% in favor of platforms where audiences were clearly raising their hands for their content, the ROI began adding up.

Smaller broadcasters with limited resources make similar mistakes, sometimes falling for the allure of huge popular platforms (e.g. Apple podcasts) where they have little chance of being noticed. A better approach could be to focus on smaller platforms where their core audiences already exist and where they will be noticed.

Today’s religious broadcasters offer a great example of a smaller cohort finding the ‘just right’ platform. These broadcasters operate as an industry subgroup to bring their audiences to the family-friendly environments they want. Instead of trying to be everywhere, they are simply trying to be where they need to be.

Partnering with a Purpose

With the understanding of the importance of finding the right platform, the next issue for broadcasters is whether to build one designed to meet their specific needs. Many broadcasters believe this to be the case, but a better route may be to find a platform partner who is both credible and willing to listen and collaborate. The ideal platform partner serves as a technology provider with experience, efficiency and scale, along with the prominence and the functionality a broadcaster desires.

DTS AutoStage™, for example, is that kind of platform. Built to fit a broadcaster’s needs, DTS AutoStage addresses the key challenges of a modern dashboard with personalized content discovery and platform control for the broadcasters. DTS AutoStage also ensures a comprehensive metadata set based on years of experience. The best part? It comes at no cost to broadcasters.

Whether a broadcaster chooses DTS AutoStage or not, finding a credible platform provider who can build, sustain, evolve and provide content and metadata management is paramount. Broadcasters should also look for partners with an understanding and respect for copyright and content protection, for privacy — and, increasingly, AI management.

Managing AI is Important, Not Impossible

The capacity to manage AI is critical. That’s true for partner platforms or platforms built by the broadcaster themselves. Upcoming AI regulation and legislation include the obligation to inform consumers whenever they encounter or consume AI-generated content, meaning everyone in the ecosystem will be liable. Having controls in place to identify and label AI content is of utmost importance to any broadcaster’s future.

The added level of scrutiny should not make AI feel like a burden because the truth is there is so much opportunity with AI. Consider the example of local advertising where there is a large gap between having personally targeted local ads – for as few as 500 households – and the substantial cost of creating those ads. If, however, AI was used to generate those local ads (with an AI disclaimer, of course), the financial model could make sense. Most consumers are more likely to respond to an ad that’s relevant to them even if it is AI-produced. Looking at it this way makes AI less of a problem and more of a problem solver.

Measuring the Measurements

Finally, considering all the changes happening today, and the rapid pace of those changes, it’s important for broadcasters to ask themselves if they have the right metrics and data sets to analyze how well they are reaching their audience and serving their advertisers. Traditional ratings continue to be an important and accepted protocol for determining ad spend. However, audiences have already shifted, are currently shifting and will continue to shift into spaces where traditional ratings are not penetrating, and, in some cases, even abandoning. 

To keep up, real-time, deeply trackable user data is increasingly important for broadcasters to include in their metrics mix. Sample-based legacy rating systems that are used to represent the market/audience are simply not as precise as digital platforms. These platforms are both precise in their measurement and provide the kind of targeting and attribution that radio needs to deliver. 

The core of the digital revolution is the ability to be far more granular when it comes to tracing listener behavior. As such, moving into a measurement model that blends both traditional and ‘in the moment’ data sets should be part of every broadcaster’s strategy for 2025.

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