If you plan to retire in the next couple of years, if you’re already emotionally checked out, please delete this e-mail now. It’s not for you.
If, however, you are passionate about radio, plan to stay in the radio business,and see a bright future, please stay with me for a minute.
My name is Eric Rhoads. I founded Radio Ink magazine about 26 years ago, and today I have the benefit of perspective. I’ve been around the industry long enough to have seen trends and how they impact the future.
You and I are living in the future we created by our past actions. The challenges, the troubles, the opportunities we are experiencing today have everything to do with the past actions of our industry.
In short, we’re living with the decisions we’ve made.
Let me give you an example…
Back in the 1990s, I made predictions and recommendations. I suggested that radio companies and the industry as a whole needed to invest in and own Internet radio stations. The suggestion, made in my editorials and speeches, was considered as radical as the idea that digital cameras would take over the film industry. Kodak went bankrupt, even though they invented digital cameras. They failed because they clung to their past.
The industry thought I was being a traitor for even suggesting that one day Internet radio would make an impact. Yet today, online listening has taken an estimated 20 to 30 percent of all radio listening from terrestrial radio. Even though they have not figured out how to make money because of music rights and streaming fees, we still gave up listeners to something we could have owned and controlled.
I could probably give you three or four other major examples of things our industry had first dibs on but ignored, because it was not “radio” as we know it.
In 2007, Radio Ink made a very bold prediction that American radio listening would be deeply impacted by the Latino market, and that every broadcaster needed to understand, engage, and be ready to be impacted by this Latino marketplace. I predicted that advertisers who at one time ignored Hispanic markets would one day wish they had figured out ways to dominate those markets with their brands. We also predicted that immigration would become the major issue in America based on small clues that were happening 10 years ago.
After that prediction, it made sense to play a leadership role. At the time the Hispanic broadcast industry was made up of a lot of different silos, and, unlike the rest of the industry, there was zero unification in the ranks of Hispanic radio. We set out on a mission to change that, and as a result, made history. We not only created industry unity and got broadcasters talking to broadcasters, we managed, multiple times, to bring the CEOs of Hispanic radio companies together to discuss issues and work on unified industry initiatives. We also created the first awards providing recognition for Hispanic broadcasters.
“So what’s this got to do with me?” you may be asking. Especially if you’re not running a Latino-targeted radio station.
I think it’s safe to say that the impact of the Hispanic community in every market in America will be felt heavily, especially as new immigration policies are implemented and new families arrive in America. This will result in many cultural influences and changes within each of our communities, and a very strong, solid, and important advertising base that advertisers will long to reach.
These issues will impact every radio station in America in one way or another, and, unlike the gradual change over the last decade, we will see accelerated change over the next few years.
Even if you don’t need an excuse to escape the weather where you are and spend a few days by the pool in Miami, it might be a very wise decision for you and your executive team to come to the 10th Hispanic Radio Conference, to listen and learn. You will leave knowing things your competitors don’t and won’t understand, and learn how your stations, your company, should be reacting and responding.
The Hispanic radio industry as a whole has a huge opportunity ahead, and anyone who runs a station programmed in any Spanish-language format should strongly consider being present. One idea may change how you do business, how you sell, how you program.
Join Radio Ink as we proudly present the 10th Hispanic Radio Conference, March 12-13 at the Intercontinental at Doral in Miami. Make your reservations today. We plan our future by learning from the past. This is a time in history where radio will be impacted and your decision about coming may have an influence on your success in the very near time to come.
Sincerely,
Eric Rhoads
Chairman, Streamline Publishing/Radio Ink
Hispanic Radio Conference