Calling Out Around The World
I got a call from Alistair Gray at the Scotland on Sunday newspaper this afternoon. He's writing a piece about thse new that are selling like hot cakes in the run-up to Christmas. Did I think these devices would threaten stations like ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Scotland?
So what was my answer?
Well, these sexy little gadgets offers the choice of 5,000 audio streams, but the trouble is, as I said to Alistair, we listeners have only so many hours in a day. It's a bit like multi-channel television. You spend a lot of time surfing through the various choices and then you settle down with maybe a dozen or so channels that suit your own interests.
The expansion of choice in radio, however, does present existing stations with a challenge: to offer something that's different enough to attract a critical mass of of listeners.
All the research that we've been looking at tells us that audiences demand programmes that are relevant to their own lives. That's not to say they don't care about other people or the rest of the world, but any mix of programming has to offer something they can't find elsewhere.
´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Scotland is, of course, available to listeners throughout the world via the internet and it's Scottish sport and music that appeals most strongly to that international audience. Scottish pipe music, for example, draws big hits on our Listen Again service. It's something that's not easily available from stations in other countries.
Likewise, many listeners in Scotland tell us they can get their international news and mainstream pop music from dozens of different suppliers. They come to us because we mix that with Scottish news, sport, culture and comedy.
Striving to balance relevance against charges of parochialism creates a tension as does our efforts to provide specialist programming without backing ourselves into such a tight niche that only a few devotees would know we exist.
So back to the original question. Are wifi-internet radios a threat?
Of course they are.
But not to anyone who loves radio.
