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Is DAB+ the Place For Conversations?

Last Sunday, September 15, WorldDAB’s conference session at IBC 2024 takes place in Amsterdam with the theme Energising radio: global advances and innovations in DAB+.

Today, as I flicked through my local DAB+ options in Canberra I found about 10 more options, including CADA, MMM 90s and Blender Beats, than I had the last time I checked.

With DAB+ on my mind I went through the stations that were surveyed this year in Australia. Melbourne for example had 36 stations that were part of August’s GfK Radio 360 Survey 5.

I found the more I went exploring why certain DAB+ stations came and went, the more frustrated I got. The only stations I found that are not offshoots of a commercial radio station and network in Australia are Disrupt Radio and the two Radio Marias.

It’s a challenging time for Disrupt Radio after its highly publicised launch in June 2023. You may be aware that they are currently only playing repeats of programs, with Libbi Gorr this week removing her Disrupt breakfast hosting role from her public profile, although she does still work there according to LinkedIn.

Disrupt is a mindful digital radio station and not the lock and load music of a certain genre of most of the other alternatives. It isn’t meant to sit in the background. It offers thought starters and provokers for your professional life and development.

But perhaps, by Disrupt Radio being something that does require attention, that could be its DAB+ downfall.

Steve Ahern, the founder of this publication who has worked around the world with talk formats in commercial and non-commercial networks had these thoughts too:

“Talk radio formats need to be thought of in the same way social media ‘influencers’ are now thought of. Talk radio is influential because the audience listens harder than they do to music formats. They are engaged and have high levels of trust with the presenters. It is ‘lean forward’ radio rather than ‘lean back’ radio. Even small talk radio audiences, if targeted correctly, can bring better sales at a more cost-effective price than blanket advertising across multiple networks.

Successful mainstream talk stations do well because their flow programming format uses the same philosophy as music programming: roll through a range of popular topics, repeat the topics that get traction, engage the audience with talkback at regular times in the hour to build an engagement habit, hook forward to celebrity guests or breaking news to lengthen time spent listening.

The other type of talk radio format, block programming, is constructed more like tv, You identify the topics and programs that you like and you turn on the radio at the time they are on. This is not a programming strategy that wins radio ratings. It often has high cume, with lots of people coming to your station at specific times for a short while, but they don’t stay, so there is no significant TSL to build share. So the ratings do not help this format to succeed. RN in Australia is programmed like this, so it will never get high share in the GfK methodology. Bfm in Malaysia and Money FM in Singapore are also programmed in this way, although, like Disrupt Radio, they also have some longer flow format shows in prime time. Despite not having huge numbers, they are influential and they can generate revenue from that influence with their top end of town audience.

RN in Australia has a small total ratings share, but it has incredible political and social influence. In Malaysia and Singapore, Bfm and Money FM don’t score big in ratings, but they are recognised for their influence on the business and political community, so they can still command a strong ad rate, which is important for profitability.

With the coming of podcasts, the business model for block format stations is changing. People do want to listen to those programs, but they want to listen when and where they choose, to the topics they choose. Podcast platforms have made it possible to search by topic and to time and place shift so you can listen to what you want when you want. Block formats, which seemed obsolete before podcasting, now have a new life. Stations with block programming are inventing new ways to deliver their highly targeted influencer content to their target audience, not just via broadcast radio, but by time shifted podcasts and by cut-down factoids on social media platforms.

Many advertising agencies, who buy on numbers, rather than strategic understanding of audience niches, do not understand this strategy, so it is difficult for stations like Disrupt to convince them to try advertising with them. Stations like Disrupt are outside the traditional radio broadcast sales business model.

Brands that are really interested in selling to a specific target audience are coming to understand that just buying on ratings numbers may not be the only successful strategy in the new media landscape. This is at the heart of the strategy that Disrupt is pursuing. If they can ensure their costs are kept under control and they sell using an influencer strategy, they may become one of the new breed of audio companies that help reinvent the business model for commercial audio into the future.”

Imagine if Melbourne’s top rating talk station 3AW and Disrupt Radio organise to speak to the same guest on their stations.

3AW has seen a significant increase over time in digital listening and streaming to accompany that dominance. What 3AW has, that Steve has also alluded to above, is the live and local capacity to follow breaking news as well as let you know about the car bingle that might interrupt your trip to work.

If you flicked to Disrupt in the car, and caught the start of the same conversation, you might park it in your mind to catch up on later, the podcast version, because you want to make sure you hear the news at 8am or other live local stories that morning.

The Disrupt model, with its recognised names and the associated wages, rent, overheads, production costs, all accruing right from the outset, was a tall order for an immediate and sufficient buy in from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane listeners.

A bit further up the Bruce Highway in Queensland, on the Sunshine Coast, I caught up with Noosa.Radio, a new streaming station that also aims to be commercially viable. But, different to Disrupt, has volunteer presenters, many with personal business centric shows, together aiming to build the station’s community identity and presence from the ground up.

It seems to be working for them, plus they have access to who is listening anytime and anywhere.

The 2023 Infinite Dial Australia report showed that Australia have the highest percentage of digital radio and podcast listening in the world. We love digital audio and podcast conversations.

Just not conversations on our DAB+ channels. Yet.

First published by RadioInfo. Read original here