What is “real radio” in 2022?
And who gets to call itself “radio”?
As radio scrapped for its place on the infinite dial, that latter question used to come up all the time. AM/FM broadcasters would dismiss Sirius/XM Satellite Radio, then Pandora, then ISPs as “not radio.” It allowed broadcasters to reposition those services as siphoning listening from users’ music collections, not from AM/FM radio, or so they alleged.
I hadn’t heard that discussion much lately. The answer, as it turned out, was that services like Spotify and Apple Music had both functionalities: They were taking planet of listening from both radio and other ways of listening to one’s own music. Eventually, broadcasters just didn’t have the time or energy for that argument anymore while trying to stay afloat through COVID-19. Nor did they have the industry conventions where that sort of pep rally could take place.
Also, broadcasters and pureplays were cheerfully both muddling the waters. Broadcast groups began distancing themselves from the word “radio,” but some of its biggest competitors wanted the word “radio,” because it was so easily understood. As iHeartRadio and Audacy began offering not just podcasts but their own multiple non-broadcast streams, the discussion was muted further.
The “what is radio” question remained important, however, when it came to what other stations got to be on streaming radio platforms. Being a licensed broadcast station was a requirement at the outset of the UK Radioplayer a decade ago. In the U.S., TuneIn stopped accepting applications from new IP-only stations before recently reopening to stations that were willing to buy their spot.
Asking readers and Facebook friends for their nominations for “most intriguing stations of 2021” brought forward a wide variety of readers’ own stations, from major-market FMs to small-town AM/FM translator combos to online only. I went back to Facebook this week to ask specifically how many readers had IP-only stations. So far, there have been more than a hundred stations mentioned. There’s an update on a previous-readers’ favorite in this week’s Ross On Radio, but look for many more profiles of your stations, broadcast and online-only in the coming weeks.
Amidst the more than 150 comments, there was also a contentious sidebar among several readers that began when the OM of a small-market AM/FM cluster declared “if it’s online only, there is no ‘radio’ involved.” What emerged from the ensuing scuffle was that the OM felt his stations’ efforts were diminished by the proliferation of online broadcasters, some of whom he felt were dismissive of what he did — broadcasters-turned-webcasters who were now in the “radio is a dinosaur” camp.
Radio has been platform-agnostic for me for a long time. In the ‘80s and early ‘90s, I heard out-of-town radio or monitored my own station by calling “listen lines.” In 1997, being able to hear online radio changed my life, to the point where my future wife, whom I had just met, never had to know I went on radio road trips. This week alone, I’ve streamed dozens of stations, both over-the-air and online.
Of those online radio stations, many have been the work of ex-broadcast-radio people who are their station’s only voice. Some are happily retired by choice and describe the station as a hobby. Others were exiled and indeed hope that they have found their way into radio’s future. But I’ve heard stations that are hosted throughout the day. I’ve heard at least one station where I had to check to be absolutely sure that it was not a broadcast outlet.
The last decade has proven conclusively that not every radio listener needed “real radio” as I define it. From the early-‘10s moments of Pandora’s explosion, it was clear that many listeners were primarily interested in a music service. They didn’t need the radio elements bundled in. But I still do.
“Real Radio” is still defined for me by doing what a playlist cannot do — putting together music in an order that is different each time, but not random; telling me what’s happening in my town, or yours; advocating for the music it introduces to me; being punctuated by people who are funny or thought-provoking. Part of the initial appeal when I began listening, and part of radio’s identifying DNA now, is the shared experience. But I know that AI and voice-tracking have made the day imminent when the deejay wishes you happy birthday over your party playlist.
In its early days, the UK’s Boom Radio was online only. Hosted and elaborately marketed and thought out, it was clearly “real radio” from the day it arrived. Shortly thereafter it arrived on DAB radio. At that moment, it became eligible for RAJAR ratings measurement and Radioplayer, but it was still the same product. Stations like that confound the “real radio” question, if you persist in still asking it.
You are also likely way ahead of me in noting that there are stations with transmitters and broadcast licenses that aren’t able to do much “real radio” themselves these days. The radio station with one or two in-person-hosted shifts can be somebody’s IP-only retirement hobby, but there are also a lot of major-market broadcast stations muddling through under similar circumstances. “Real radio” is, for me, determined by the intent to create real radio, but shaped by the resources to do so.
The people who do want to make real radio — whether employees or entrepreneurs, and regardless of platform — need each other. Both those still working in broadcast radio and those finding a life after it share a concern for the state of the business. I can’t tell the embittered ones that they don’t come by it honestly, but I find many to still be earnest about trying to drive radio forward.
By writing about “real radio” on all its platforms, one of my goals has been to create a community for all of those still devoted to it. Don’t be played against each other, “real radio people.” Be mad at the owners who try to position radio’s homogenization as a choice and diminish its legacy. Save the annoyance for those among the major streamers who have wrested away some of radio’s franchise but have not replaced its magic.
Organizing the Infinite Dial and creating a better streaming experience has been daunting for even our largest broadcasters. At the small-group or entrepreneur-webcaster level, it seems nearly impossible. But I do wonder what could happen if seven of the former major-market programmers now running their own hosted-for-one-daypart stations were to join forces for one great station. In the meantime, I’ve heard a lot of radio — AM, FM, SXM, and IP — that I’ve really enjoyed recently, and you’ll be reading even more about your own best efforts going forward.
