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Mike Thompson, WOSU Public Media

Posted on | June 16, 2010 | 1,907 views |

Though many pundits have been sounding the death knell of newspapers because of new technology and people’s reading habits, it hasn’t happened yet. Does radio face a similar situation? While every media organization is in a state of flux due to the changing ways listeners can access our services, radio probably has a little more time than the newspaper industry to adjust and take advantage of the opportunities new technology brings our way. For now nothing beats the convenience of hopping in your car and turning on the car radio to get a combination of music, news, weather, sports and traffic. But the car “radio” is definitely changing. Fairly soon every dashboard will feature a wireless Internet device that offers on-demand streaming audio from around the world. When those devices become ubiquitous and as easy to use as current over-the-air radios, if we don’t offer the unique programming that our listeners want, then we will face what newspapers competing with the web face now. We are already planning for that day by producing unique local content that will cause drivers and passengers to listen to WOSU rather than to web stream a public radio station in, say, Austin, Texas.

Where does radio fit in terms of how people get their news, their music or their unique programming? Radio is still strong but it’s true that the marketplace for “ear drum” time continues to fragment. According to the Arbitron rating service, 93 percent of people still listen to the radio and about 26 percent listen to it for news and or news/talk information. The way in which people access music, news and special programs is migrating to desktop computers, mp3 players and smart phones — but the news and talk information they are listening to remains the same. That’s why it is extremely important for stations like WOSU to find their niche and produce quality news and music programming that cannot be heard anywhere else. We recently won a series of awards from the Associated Press for our investigative news reporting, and that’s important to us because our listeners know they can trust us to deliver accurate news — however they may access that information.

How is radio expected to change over the next 10 to 20 years, and how much does social media and/or technology have an effect on that? TV was supposed to kill radio. Cassettes, CDs and iPods were supposed to kill radio. Radio is still here and will be for quite a while. But clearly, WOSU and other stations must adjust.  We cannot think of ourselves as just a set of radio (or TV) stations; we are a multimedia content provider. Our mission remains the same: Create great unique programming and engage our audience in meaningful ways. But we must deliver that content via the web, social media and probably in ways we haven’t even thought of yet. Content will always be king: A good story is a good story and that has not changed since the day when the town crier was replaced by the printing press. The delivery methods change, but the story — the news — remains of primary importance. So at WOSU, we are committed to making sure that we provide the stories that are important to people in central Ohio — through the radio, through television, through social networking and through any other means we can.

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