Take Off the Blindfold and Try This!

Driving blindfolded. That is what a lot of us seem to be doing in the radio broadcast industry these days. Due to the tough economic times and stagnant sales, perceptual research has in most cases, been dropped from the budget ledger. It’s a real Catch 22. With so many media platforms and media choices out there for today’s fractured listening audience, on top of new forms of measurement like PPM, now more than ever radio needs to dust off those perceptual research plans and start that conversation with their listeners again on a regular basis. But how are radio stations suppose to pay for that valuable Intel? The last two years my partners and I have been trying to find a way to bring perceptual research back to the table for a lot of radio stations that is efficient, accurate and cost efficient. We believe we have found a great solution in our new product called Radio DOPLR.

Internet Radio in the Car

The other day while driving my son to school- I turned on my favorite local radio station and heard a song I didn’t like (note to self: call the station to see if they would like to do a music test). Like any button puncher would do, I went to my second favorite – the classic rock station only to hear a deep track that was …let’s just say pretty deep. So rather than go three deep on the local dial….I decided to take the extra step now available to us in the year 2010. I opted for my iPhone which I plug into my satellite radio line in.. I tapped my radio app on my iPhone and in mere seconds my son and I where dashboard jamming to a great track on Icecast's M2 Analog 80’s Channel. For the ride home I did a quick in car monitor of a BOB client 2,000 miles away. My phone is on the 3G network- so the quality of the stream is amazingly good. Better sounding in fact than FM. Internet radio in the car isn’t something that coming- it’s already here.

Five Things I Would Like to Hear More of on the Radio in the Year 2010.

1. Content that’s interesting, entertaining and useful along with my music-I don’t care who provides it either. Could be the jock, could be an audio clip from a pod cast, could be a clip from a newscast. If it’s timely and interesting and it could relate to me, I would like to hear it.

2. Great production and imaging between the songs that has a lot of thought behind it. That’s what keeps radio from being just another faceless audio stream that’s already available the Internet.

3. More information and background on the music I am hearing. If I am listening to your station because of the music you play- Throw me a bone once in a while. You mean Bon Jovi has a new single out?

4. More originality in breakfast-Trivia Contests, Name that song, What’s that Sound?.. Battle of the Sexes…c’mon people we can do better. Google has pretty much relegated the Trivia Contest to the junk pile anyway.

5. Better management of inventory around the music. Two songs followed by two minutes of spots, followed by another two songs followed by another two minutes of songs really means that you are now giving me five chances and hour to leave your station instead of two or three.