It’s exactly a week since I was stepping on
to a plane and waving farewell to Barcelona - Radiodays Europe done for another
year. So, what did we learn? What were the good bits? How has radio in Europe moved
on in the last 12 months?
My sense was of an industry that is
slightly more at ease with itself than last year. There seems an acceptance
that different countries are at different points on the curve of evolution, and
‘a one size fits all’ approach is no longer relevant or even necessary.
There also seems to be a greater acceptance
that a digital future is vital for the medium if it is to remain the cornerstone
of peoples’ lives. There were fewer ‘nay-sayers ‘ or luddites around this year.
Or perhaps they were just keeping quiet!
As always with any conference, there’s hopefully
something for everybody, whether it’s technical innovation, new sales initiatives
or creative programming. Personally, I enjoyed listening to Julian Treasure
talk about the importance of sound, a topic close to my heart... and I found it
fascinating to listen to the ‘in-car entertainment geeks’ map out the future of
how radio might be incorporated into the dashboard of the future. No mention of
a flux capacitor once though! Quite disappointing.
Sometimes radio conferences can be far too
full of ‘PowerPoint’ and data, and graphs, and we lose sight a bit that we’re
meant to be in the entertainment business. So I was really pleased to be able
to pull together a session that had no graphs and no data... but just some fun
pictures, a few music and radio clips... and a great guest.
Those who attended will no doubt tell you that
for around 40 minutes, Pete Waterman chatted about something else close to my
heart... pop music. And if you want to chat about that topic, I can’t think of
anyone else I ‘d rather chat about it with. Some great stories about how some
of the biggest pop hits of the 80s and 90s came together, and some straight
talking about radio and the music industry... all delivered with a sense of fun
and enthusiasm that’s really infectious. I had some great comments from those
who attended (thank you!), and if you couldn’t make it along for whatever
reason... watch this space... there may be some news on that in due course!
Playing a few old clips of Pete on Radio
City in the 1980s reminded me of something that sometimes gets lost in the
obsession with research and fixation on data... and that’s passion.
Passion for
playing great music... passion for telling listeners a story... passion for
life – being passionate on the radio in a genuine and honest way will always
win over a ‘painting by numbers’ approach.
You can hear the passionate
broadcasters a mile off. They stand out. They offer something unique... and in
a constantly homogenising radioscape, where music is ubiquitous,
my feeling is that passion will drive the audiences of the future.
PS - If you want to hear one of the clips that I dug out from my archive and played in the session, here it is...
PS - If you want to hear one of the clips that I dug out from my archive and played in the session, here it is...
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