One of the problems facing the radio industry in the UK is where the next generation of producers and content developers are going to come from, and more importantly, what are they going to do that is different from the way that the radio industry has been run up to now? The introduction of new forms of on-line media in recent years has meant that the radio industry is facing a whole series of challenges that impacting on the business model that grew to service mass audiences in the past. The question is, what are the creative ideas that will fuel radio as an innovative medium for the future?
In the past the radio industry has been defined as a set of companies that deliver content to an audience. This is usually originated with a group of professionals who are very protective about their status, as either a producer or a journalist on a radio station, with all the marks of professional integrity that this entails. Radio industry professionals have often spent long years building up their qualifications and their contact books so that they are able to offer something invaluable to the station, either in the form of tried and tested knowledge, or in the form of access to otherwise closed worlds be it sport, politics or entertainment.
Likewise, the people who run the industry spend a long time developing their management techniques, either by attending business school where they learn a lot about marketing and branding, or by playing the political game of self-promotion so that they climb the ladder faster than many of their colleagues. The management ladder in radio can be very nose-to-tail, so beware of who is in front of you, and don’t get stuck at the bottom rung.
The overall question is in what way will new groups of people challenge the closed-shop ethos or even break through the glass ceiling that holds back many people with interesting ideas and the ability to undertake them.
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