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Georgia Beasley is the Director of Digital Sales for Beasley Media Group. (update: Georgia has left her job at Beasley and as of July 17, 2017 is now the Director of Topic Pulse Strategic Initiatives) She recently started a series of articles in Radio Ink magazine called "My Life in Radio as a Millennial". You can read the first article here, and her latest here. Over the next few years, you will be hearing more about Millennials as they now occupy the entire 25-34 demo. You would have thought that radio would have prepared better for this, but the perverbial attitude around radio circles has been that Millennials will come around, conform or adapt to what radio has always done. Now it is apparent that will never happen.
If your radio conference of event needs some strong millennial insight - reach out to her via e-mail.
It can be a confusing world. Audiences are not what they used to be. There is more choice, more fragmentation and pretty much more of everything than ever before. Traditional ways of thinking are being challenged. New platforms and technologies are emerging and merging, and buckets of data are being produced. How do you go beyond the data to something you can actually use? How do you make sense of it all? How do you get out of the weeds to focus on the big picture? Well, NLOGIC, the sponsors of this podcast, can help. They offer strategic insights, customizable modern products, market perspectives and their personal commitment to help you make sense of your Canadian radio and television audiences. ultimately, they can help you grow your business. Talk to NLogic today and be better positioned for tomorrow.
We also round out the episode with Matt Abra who help edit and produce our episode with Pat Holiday. Matt travelled to Las Vegas for the National Association of Broadcasters a few weeks ago and filed a report on what he saw. Matt has just graduated from Red River College with a degree in Creative Communications and you can reach out to him here and hire him.
Finally, Rebecca Henderson is a comedian and also Creative Communications graduate. I asked her to contribute to this episode by writing a review of the newly released Radio Player Canada. Her review is as follows and you can reach her here.
The Radio Player Canada is a nifty app, but still needs a little TLC. (And no, that’s not a music pun)
The Radio Player Canada app’s layout is convenient enough to easily find stations through an alphabetical list without having to scroll mindlessly through your phone. But the real benefits lie in its features like the “Favourites” tab, where users can curate a list of stations they like. For those you’ve moved away from home, this feature may help alleviate the pains of missing listening to your favourite local radio stations and/or DJs.
I like this feature a lot because one of my main criticisms of modern radio is the saturation of top 40 stations that usually don’t play local or indie artists. With the ability to search other stations throughout the country, I can find the variety of music I want that my car radio can’t.
Apps like Spotify and Google Play (which are often radio’s main competition in the vehicle) gives users the opportunity to listen to artists who don’t necessarily transcend the same way artists like Katy Perry or Rihanna do. With this app, users can tune into smaller or college radio stations that don’t command the airways like Virgin or Corus.
For those who want to catch-up on radio programming, there’s an aptly named “Catch-up” tab, which sorts stations by Dance and Rnb; News, Sports and Talk; Rock and Indie — to name a few. However, not all of these sub-categories are filled in yet.
As with any new app, there are also bugs. Users mention texting interruptions, the inability to sort by station format or genre and the location feature doesn’t work as accurately as some users would like. Finally, not all stations are included in this app — but that doesn’t mean they won’t. Luckily, you can share feedback or suggestions right on it when you register. - Rebecca Henderson