TORONTO – Faced with an increasing number of streaming audio services and mobile radio apps competing for space on the dashboards of modern cars (not like the one on the right!), traditional radio broadcasters need to aggressively promote their AM/FM stations as the first choice for their listeners’ in-car entertainment.
That was the advice of digital radio experts and one automotive technology planner who spoke about the opportunity that the connected car has for radio broadcasters at last week’s Future of Radio & Audio Symposium, organized by the North American Broadcasters Association and held in downtown Toronto’s Glenn Gould Studio.
“The reality is the days of AM and FM radio ruling the road of in-car listening are changing. The in-car audio system is about to take a huge leap with manufacturers focusing on streaming broadband services and apps which lend themselves to the automotive environment,” said Julie McCambley, director of radio production for CBC/Radio-Canada, who moderated the panel discussion.
While the car continues to be radio’s number one listening location, in-car entertainment technology is going through “tectonic shifts” that will impact all levels of the radio business, said Paul Jacobs, vice-president and general manager of Jacobs Media, a consulting and research company based in Michigan. He is also president of jacApps, a developer of mobile radio apps.
Jacobs said radio broadcasters at the leadership level have been negligent in the past about engaging directly with the automotive industry and connected car developers to promote the interests of traditional AM/FM radio. “We basically ceded that representation to TuneIn and to iHeart,” he said, referring to two of the radio app services that allow users to listen to radio stations’ online streams.
A common complaint among new car buyers is the difficulty of programming the newest in-car audio systems, to the point of not being able to easily pre-set local AM/FM radio stations, Jacob s said. “The tip of the spear for radio is at that moment of training when the consumer buys a car, sits down behind the wheel, and the salesperson comes in, sits next to them and shows them all the great stuff that is available to them.”
“The salesperson is jazzed about Pandora, and the bells and whistles, and the free satellite radio for six months, and all of a sudden, radio is getting short shrift at the dealer level,” he added.
Instead of just thinking about selling radio spots to local car dealers, AM/FM radio stations need to ensure dealership staff can show car buyers how to pre-set their stations and give them a prominent place on the dashboard system. “At the local level, there’s an opportunity for aggressive stations to take your car dealers out to dinner and talk to them, and not about your ratings. Talk to them about the opportunity you have to help them sell more cars and for them to help sell your industry, and then your radio station, in a really constructive way.”
Jacobs Media recently conducted a survey of 41,000 radio listeners across North America and found a little over 60% of respondents said they are able to connect their phone to their car, allowing them to access audio content via their phone. “And while 17% of those with a connected car system report they’re listening to more radio as a result of having that system, 26% report listening less,” Jacobs explained.
Fred Dixon, technology planning manager for GM Canada, said GM has already put people in place to train car dealership staff on the connected technology available in GM vehicles because the company is making a big push into the connected car space, with 100% of GM vehicles to be sold as connected cars starting in 2016.
“Is the mindshare there with the auto industry so that it’s one of the prominent services that you first see when you first get in that car?” – Jeff Jury, iBiquity
“There’s a big learning curve for a lot of people, only because it’s so new, not because it’s difficult to use,” Dixon said. “People just didn’t know where to start, only because it was new. So we’ve actually addressed that as part of our delivery of the technology to our customers.” He explained that GM’s connectivity strategy with its OnStar 4G LTE system is to provide built-in entertainment options such as AM/FM radio, plus support for brought-in devices such as smartphones, iPods and tablets, and beamed-in services such as satellite radio, Wi-Fi and the OnStar system itself.
GM is promoting the idea of the in-car entertainment system being targeted primarily at passengers in the car, Dixon said, acknowledging that driver distraction is a concern.
Making sure AM/FM radio stations are easy to access on the dashboard may still be a challenge, though, said Jeff Jury, executive vice-president and chief operating officer for iBiquity Digital Corp., who is responsible for the global rollout of the HD Radio system. “Radio will exist (in the car). It will be there for a while,” Jury said. “The question is where is it on that dash? Is it three menus down? Is it on the main menu?
“Is the mindshare there with the auto industry so that it’s one of the prominent services that you first see when you first get in that car?” he asked. “That’s really the challenge.”
The connected car is “just part of the evolution of technologies, the evolution of the phone. It’s an opportunity for the broadcasters to embrace that and not treat it with fear. Treat it as an opportunity,” Jury said. “Treat the fact that this car company and this mechanism that they’re using to get to your audience, that’s actually something you can lever and do more with than you could in the past. It’s not just a way to bill more money, but it’s a way to create a closer relationship with a key partner out there.”
Looking even farther into the future, Jacobs said autonomous vehicles (cars that drive themselves) offer an “amazing opportunity” for the radio industry.
“What an opportunity for radio people, for creators of content and entertainment. You’ve got this captive, bored audience,” Jacobs said. “Think about what an amazing opportunity it’s going to be for you to create multidimensional content to entertain people.”
And in the end, it’s great content that will continue to make traditional radio relevant in the car infotainment system, Jacobs said.
“Our industry has the answers: it is compelling, great local content; local hosts that connect; information that is relevant to the sense of place where you exist,” Jacobs said. “And that is what is going to differentiate us from Pandora and from all these other people.”
