Radio audiences: Lets get engaged!

Steve Parkinson, managing director of Magic and Kiss, on today’s RAJAR release…

I was honoured yesterday to meet Pudsey the dancing dog (who, if you have been asleep, won Britain’s got Talent and half a million quid at the weekend) in our heat offices. Never has a dog been petted so much – or perhaps worth as much!

There have been many headlines about the battle between BGT and The Voice, whether the audiences were 11 million or 12 million, and how long viewers stuck with each format.

It is great that a couple of shows can garner so many headlines, but in these days of fragmentation and distraction in the media world, lets then celebrate and champion the main RAJAR headline this quarter (Q1 2012). Over 46.5 million adult Brits continue to tune in to their radios every week, for over one billion hours.

Indeed, listening is up again on the quarter and on the year. Not bad for one of the oldest media in the world.

The commercial winning stations this time though, I suspect, are those station teams that religiously and relentlessly ponder over every track and every link. For music stations, it is obviously the music that is paramount, but it is the human time, care and attention given to which tracks get priority, and the order or flow in which they are played – not just what a computer churns out and a script read.

And as definitions of music genres increasingly blur around the edges, it is also more about the premium “glue” in between the music that makes for stand out performances – the brand imaging, what the personalities and DJs say and do, that all contribute towards increased loyalty and ultimately engagement.

In terms of total UK commercial hours spent listening, there will be celebrations for year on year increases at the Heart network, Kiss, the Magic network, LBC, Smooth radio, and not forgetting Absolute Radio and heat radio, which have posted 19% and 42% increases in listening, respectively, year on year. All well defined brands where no doubt they will agree that attention to detail has paid dividends.

Nowadays the successful programme directors are the ones who have realised they are in fact content directors – thinking as much about online, off-air as on-air.

Kiss and Absolute Radio are probably two of the best businesses that constantly remind advertisers and listeners that they are far more than simply radio offerings – it is much more of a 360 media brand offering from on-air to online, and from brand extensions like apps and events.

Andy Roberts led Bauer’s Kiss to a double Gold at the Sony Awards this week, for Best Breakfast (10m plus) with Rickie Melvin and Charlie, and for his own well deserved Station Programmer of the Year award. He continually challenges his team about all aspects of Kiss content – from the music to the competitions to how the station looks visually on kissfmuk.com.

Roberts said: “We’ve seen another good period of growth for Kiss across both the UK and in London – it really is down to understanding the audience and creating engaging content . We’ve worked hard to engage audiences across multiple Kiss touch-points such as social media and really give them content they can push or pull to take away and share.

“You hear Nicki Minaj on Kiss breakfast with Rickie,Melvin and Charlie, you then see the video of her interview and then share it with your mates on social media. This now has to be the standard way of doing everything. Content, conversation and music on all the right platforms.”

Bauer’s Place Portfolio, led by Magic 105.4, continues to command the highest overall listening hours against the networked stations, and the Bauer Passion Portfolio enjoyed a year on year increase. So, whether it’s the oldest entertainment format in the world – variety shows – or the ever evolving music driven radio formats, it’s still ultimately all about great content that will drive better engagement.