From the Corner Office

I want all of you to be aware of the latest efforts by the leadership of our industry - including the NAB, the RAB and the HD Radio Alliance – called "Radio Heard Here." This effort, part of the Radio 2020 project, is designed to begin the process of changing the perception of our much-used and much-loved medium. 

Those of us who work, live and breathe radio know all too clearly how many passionate people work every day to produce great radio, and just how many people actively respond to those efforts. If you've ever answered the phone lines at a radio station or screened the callers to a talk show, you've experienced this engagement first hand. It's immediate, passionate, thoughtful and personal.

Now, we want to share that experience first hand with a broader audience. At this week's NAB, we've launched a resource site for the media,
http://www.radioheardhere.com,  with an interactive newsroom, blogs, forums, and video clips. This is not just a gathering place for lovers of radio, but it is designed to be an online window into the involvement of the 10,755 radio stations in our country and the people who make them vibrant and exciting. We are going to allow radio professionals and fans alike to tell their own stories and share them with a wide diversity of audiences through postings on YouTube and other social networks. In addition, http://www.radiocreativeland.com/ is an online exchange between radio creative types, ad agencies and academics designed to inspire the industry to be more innovative, creative and fun.

This is a recognition by radio's leadership that for too long, we've kept to ourselves the great secret of radio: its personal, emotional involvement with our listeners. As a result, too many writers, observers and commentators have been far too easily swayed by the competing interests of new media and others vying for the advertising dollar.  Simply put, we allowed radio to be de-positioned; now we are prepared to do for ourselves what radio does so well for our advertisers:  tell a clear, compelling story.

In addition, I will be joining with other radio CEOs and executives to begin a sustained series of visits to major advertisers and ad associations nationwide to personally tell radio's story and invite them to make radio a fundamental part of their marketing solution. We must take the time to explain that radio is moving aggressively and quickly through investment in new technology to become a premier platform for integrated, accountable marketing solutions that are cost-effective and produce measurable results. We are moving forward with significant investments in new technology because radio has to make itself available wherever and whenever our listeners desire it. More than 3,500+ stations nationwide are now available via web stream, making it more convenient than ever to multitask with your favorite local station. We continue to work with software and hardware producers to integrate radio into mobile phones, MP3 players and other handheld devices. We continue our investment in HD Radio and are focusing on the data delivery capabilities of HD, which will bring new, multidimensional services to our listeners. 

We will be completely re-thinking how we program our stations as the deployment of electronic measurement gives our programmers new, concrete insights into audience behaviors that previously were not available to us. The mandate to redouble our energies to provide new and different program elements and entertainment is clearly before us. We will answer that challenge and respond to the critics of homogenized play lists.

Did you know that, while media consumption is fragmenting across dozens of new media options, consumers of radio have actually increased? More than 235 million listeners – 93% of the country – tune in to their favorite station each week; and local radio stations dominate the 33 million listeners who listen online weekly. 

These are all powerful and compelling facts that make the efforts of Radio 2020 not just another slogan but a real step forward to allow our medium to be recognized as the most imaginative and impactful connection with our local communities.  We've all known and lived this connection for our entire careers; now it's time to share our convictions with the rest of the world.

Please feel free to e-mail me by clicking on the "Ask Peter" icon posted below. I would love to hear your feedback or answer any questions you may have.