How many times have you heard it: “Adapt or die”? It sounds heartless, yet it poses the essential question of radio’s survival. Is radio dying? Nope, but it is going somewhere else, and not by itself.
Take the recurring news of disappearing stations, like this post from the Dialy Iowan, College Radio Fights for Recognition, Funding. To summarize the article, it provides some color about what is happening at many campuses — funding is being cut for the radio station or that the school is selling off its terrestrial radio frequency. In these economic times, it must be difficult for an administration to pass up millions of dollars for an FM station that continues to be worth less as Internet radio starts to become dominant.
So, that raises the question of whether a school that agrees to sell off its terrestrial radio signal can actually support a broadcast journalism program. Well, it’s not only schools. All media are facing similar challenges and looking for the best ways to respond.
Throughout the industry, you can see signs of a growing creative trend: integrated media. For example, one of our newest member schools, Lehman College, has integrated its Internet radio station presence into its online newspaper, the Bronx Journal. Media integration such as this was a persistent theme we heard at the CMA conference in New York last month.
We are also seeing mixed modalities in the mainstream media. None other than the esteemed Wall Street Journal has integrated video into its site. The Boston Globe has its Globe 10.0 video. Sports radio powerhouse WEEI in Boston now has both an online presence and video on its site.
We first wrote about this in our white paper, The New Breed of College (and High School) Internet Radio-Surviving the Dinosaur. It is more apparent now. Journalism isn’t dying, either. It is transitioning to a new paradigm as radio becomes a big part of it. With evolving convergence occurring on the Internet, a college, university or high school can reach a much larger audience than it has in the past, using a truly integrated media strategy. It is the path to the future. Embrace it.