TURN UP THE VOLUME

The death knell for radio was heard decades ago, yet radio continues to not only survive, but thrive.

Radio was first heard through the airwaves in December 1901 when Guglielmo Marconi successfully sent a radio message across the Atlantic Ocean from England to Newfoundland. Radio didn’t have a voice then, its output was a buzzing sound created by a spark gap transmitter sending a signal using Morse Code.

I bet Marconi probably never envisioned the place radio would hold in the hearts of its listeners once it came of age. And, despite it being over one hundred years old, it’s still going strong surviving all of its supposed threats.

Media measurement company GFK releases New Zealand radio listenership results four times a year, and the latest (the first of this year released 3 May) shows radio listenership is holding steady.

According to the results, 3.39 million New Zealanders (10-plus) listen to commercial radio per week, equivalent to 80 percent of New Zealanders (10-plus). Including RNZ’S non-commercial share of listenership, 3.63 million, or 85 percent of Kiwis (10-plus) tune into radio each week.

And breaking that down for the commercial broadcasters, 2.4 million tune into a Mediaworks station while 1.9 million tune into one of NZME’S offerings. And, on average, 80 percent of listeners (10-plus) tune in for 17 hours and nine minutes of commercial radio each week.

The results show an increase in listenership compared to the results released late last year. The last results revealed 3.32 million New Zealanders (10-plus) tuned into commercial radio, with a total listenership of 3.57 million, including RNZ’S listener share.

Moving with the times

Like other media, radio hasn’t just sat idle. It’s a matter of ‘adapt or die’ in today’s digital climate and radio has embraced the future with open arms.

AUT radio curriculum leader Matt Mollgaard says while once television and the internet seemed like threats, now they’re an extension of radio’s ability to give audiences unique, timely and targeted content.

“Radio’s enemy was always time. There was never enough to do everything you wanted to do on-air. Now, you can layer the radio experience by putting stuff online, time shifting content, adding extra bits and incorporating video, pictures and text.”

Radio has also managed to survive the birth (thus far) of streaming juggernauts like Spotify and Apple Music, despite their popularity.

Mediaworks group content director Leon Wratt says streaming platforms like Spotify are merely a replacement for the download or the physical.

“I have that same moment when you want to click off from the world or listen to your favourite artist, but when you want to tune in, that’s when you look at mediums like radio to reconnect with the news or people and what they’re talking about and to feel part of a community.”

At the moment, Spotify is the world’s most popular streaming service and has 170 million monthly active users, including over 75 million paid subscribers, across 65 markets.

Slowly gaining on it is Apple Music with around 36 million paying subscribers, according to

The Verge. Google and Amazon are also investing billions into their own streaming platforms.

But, (albeit on a, much smaller scale) radio brands in New Zealand have their own streaming services and have experimented with a variety of platforms.

NZME has seen its streaming platform iheartradio grow 24 percent year-on-year with over 749,000 registered users. It also has an average of 2.7 million listening hours each month, up 27 percent yearon-year. Its mobile downloads are also increasing and are now over 398,000, which is year-on-year growth of 118 percent. Looking outside of New Zealand, iheartmedia filed for bankruptcy earlier this year with debt worth $20 billion. However, according to

Engadget, it is restructuring the balance sheets and won't be shutting down.

Mediaworks’ equivalent, Rova, has tripled its downloads to 300,000 since May 2017 with 14.9 million streams served. In 2014, the company also launched The Edge TV to replace long-running C4, successfully pushing radio into television.

RNZ has also taken big steps to expand from traditional radio. It’s teamed up with the likes of Te Papa and NZ on Air for podcast series, and regularly posts its

own video online for shows like Checkpoint with John Campbell.

In 2016, the broadcaster also teamed up with Stuff and other publishers, signing a deal allowing them to publish its audio and video. And in regard to streaming, according to its website, in February this year RNZ had 1,478,941 unique audio downloads, up 21 percent on February 2017.

Charisma is key

Of course, radio wouldn’t be the same without its personalities, whether you love them or hate them (or love to hate them).

Wratt says Mediaworks tries to make sure it has brands and personalities people love to listen to.

“You might hate them, love them, cry, whatever. We try to evoke some kind of emotional reaction.”

There are many personalities in New Zealand radio that have been around for a number of years. What happens to listeners when these personalities hang up their headphones?

Wratt says all media needs to continue to look over their shoulder for the next star. “If you compare music a year ago from today, all the artists have changed. The real challenge is to keep bringing new people through that the audience, especially the younger audience, can relate to.”

This is something NZME Radio Hauraki content director Mike Mcclung agrees with, saying it’s a priority to make sure audiences don’t dwindle due to a lack of talent.

“We’re constantly developing and introducing new talent. The majority of shows on our music stations are still very new in terms of their lifecycle, so we don’t envisage issues in the years ahead,” he says.

“My feeling is New Zealand radio content and presenters are right up there with some of the world’s best.”

Converting ears to cash

With a high listenership and ability to reach ears and eyes in a number of places, radio has remained attractive to advertisers, often SMES.

According to the Advertising Standards Authority’s Advertising Revenue Reports, both radio’s revenue and digital platforms’ revenue are growing.

Between 2016 and 2017, radio increased its revenue by $6 million to reach $277 million, while radio digital’s revenue increased $2 million to reach $6 million.

The Radio Bureau general manager Peter Richardson says a benefit of radio advertising is that it can reach further than the intended audience.

“If you have a product and want to reach a particular demographic you might know where to find it down to a couple of stations,” he says. “It's good in terms of finding that niche, but you won’t just get them, you'll get that wider audience as well.”

DDB chief creative officer Damon Stapleton agrees that radio has strong reach, but says advertising on it could be better.

“What I think is amazing about radio is that it’s theatre of the mind. TV can cost thousands of dollars but if I make a radio ad and I want to make it sound like I’m on the moon, all I have to do is change my breathing and I’m an astronaut.”

He says when he started out in advertising there were preproduction meetings for radio.

“That’s because people used to allow effort and time into making a radio spot. I think a lot of it [now] is shouting at people, and no one remembers that. But if you do it well, it’ll stand out because the landscape is not very good."

You can let people imagine things, he says. “Which is far more powerful than visual.”

The crystal ball

Radio might be looking good now, but what about the future?

With increasing listenership and if radio brands keep evolving with the times, it looks like radio won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.

Plus, according to Mollgaard, most New Zealand broadcasters are signed up to their frequency leases until around 2030, and have the right to renew.

“The ease with which you can transmit radio on AM and FM compared to other technologies like WIFI – which is too low power and very costly to run – means predicting the end of broadcast radio is a mug’s game.”

The longevity of radio is perhaps best summed up by a nickname bestowed to it by Mediaworks’ Leon Wratt, who affectionately refers to radio as the “cockroach” of all media.

And it seems like the cockroach will continue to scuttle on, no matter how many people try to step on it.