It is almost 100 years since Radio was first introduced to wirelesses, living rooms, cars and ears around Australia in November 1923. Today, radio content no longer lives in the simple, linear capacity of the AM and FM bands. With people increasingly turning to digital platforms and podcasts for their audio content, radio stations have the challenge of keeping up with their audiences. While the audience pool may have become exponentially bigger, they have never been harder to find.
Unlike their commercial counterparts, community radio stations do not have deep pockets to fund the evolution of their digital selves. Often staffed by volunteers and funded through memberships, scant government grants and donations, they sit in the middle of a Venn diagram of scarcity. When money is tight, keeping the lights on and the signal powering can become the priority, eclipsing time for lateral thinking and innovation on every level.
Introducing Radio Promo, a project designed in partnership with City of Sydney and the Community Media Training Organisation (CMTO), designed to help community radio stations in Sydney retool with digital skills and best practice to thrive in this disruptive media landscape.
We turned to some of Australia’s best digital, marketing and content minds to develop an 8-part online program, delivered through the CMTO, to help Sydney’s community radio stations turn their content into more sustainable revenue streams.
1. Digital Marketing - Greg Hall, National Marketing Manager for Young Henrys expands on how the digital marketing realm is now completely interwoven with real-life.
2. Content Marketing - Angela Stengel, head of Content Ideas Lab at ABC, shows us how to leverage radios wealth of content and storytelling to a wider audience.
3. Owned: Your Channels - Lena Nahlous, Executive Director of Diversity Arts Australia and host of The Colour Cycle podcast, shows us how community radio has the power to affect real change.
4. Earned: Shares - Elaine Lalchand, Digital Marketing at The Digital Picnic, dissects the best ways to get your content onto these platforms and how to keep your audience engaged and hanging for more.
5. Paid: Advertising - Tiani Chillemi, Audience Development Specialist at Pubblico!, demonstrates the different ways you can grow your audience and convert people who already like what you do into paying subscribers.
6. Analytics - Tiani Chillemi, Audience Development Specialist at Pubblico! walks you through the two most important metrics you should be following in a practical guided tour.
7. Membership and Donation - Rebecca McLean Chan, Donor Executive & Joshua Forward, Digital Marketing Manager at Sydney Theatre Company, believe there’s always room to kick your donor strategies up a notch.
8. Sponsorship - Molly Condon, Partnerships Manager at Frankie magazine, suggests lateral thinking to create the best sponsorship deals.
Radio is a content-rich medium and converting this wealth into cold hard cash is where the true skills come into play.
Connect with us and Turn up the Dial!
By Rabia Lockwood