This may come as a shock, but we’re almost halfway through the 2020s. So far in this decade, radio has fought a pandemic, massive inflation, labor shortages, and countless competitors springing up every day. Ahead of October’s Radio Ink issue crowning the best managers of 2024, we asked these venerable leaders about the biggest industry challenges.
Here a sampler of what they told us:
“Ourselves. Too often, we limit our own importance and effectiveness. We allow other media to define radio’s impact on our advertisers’ business. The result is that we don’t develop a relationship with the actual decision-maker. I worked for years in a television/radio building, and while both were successful, the television reps often had relationships that were at a higher level than the radio sellers. We talked about it all the time. We need to keep limiting ourselves. There is no media better than radio for attracting qualified customers for our partners.”
“One of the biggest, in my opinion, is educating younger decision-makers on the continued power and value of radio. We get results and deliver the best return on investment for the advertising dollar. Fostering and mentoring younger talent and professionals to join the workforce is equally as important.”
“Our biggest challenge in the Radio Industry is the perception that we are a dying industry. We don’t have a consumption problem. We have a perception problem. Our platforms have an incredible reach that is growing every day as we expand through streaming, social media, and podcasting. We are far more than our on-air signal, and we must do a better job of communicating that as we look forward.”
Who said what? Radio Ink‘s Best Managers in Radio issue comes out on Monday, October 14. Subscribe to our revamped print edition, digital edition, or both – click here. For a limited time, subscription prices are cut in half to celebrate our new look!
