Side Channels? You Want Side Channels???

If HD Radio doesn’t go the way of Quadraphonic or AM Stereo, FM stations will be multicasting several audio programs on a single frequency. Some already are. Which is cool, but, at this point, most of the HD receivers in use are in general managers’ offices.

Smart stations and on-air talent already create ancillary audio programming, which people ARE consuming, via archived and streaming audio. And much of what those-people-you-see-EVERYWHERE-wearing-iPods are listening to is non-music content. Podcasting and streaming are the dress rehearsal for HD multicasting. In the meantime...

Live streaming and archived audio:

Takes AM radio programming where it otherwise doesn’t go, i.e., listen-at-work.

Provides a platform for things-worth-doing-but-not-worth-doing-on-air. Example: When Justice Alito was Judge Alito, being vetted by the Senate Judiciary Committee, neither of New York’s all-news stations took the hearings live. But they invited you to listen live, gavel-to-gavel, online.

Provides a platform for things-advertisers-will-pay-for-that-you-don’t-want-to-do-on-air. Another example from the legal realm was recently reported in the Wall Street Journal: California attorney J. Craig Williams says podcasts have given his 6-lawyer shop “the same marketing reach as multinational firms.” He figures “if you like the style of writing and speaking, they you’re getting to know me. Then you might call me. It’s not a hard sell.” Talk radio and lawyers already use each other well. Podcasting/streaming deepens the relationship. Why confine the attorney’s ask-me-a-question shtick to early Saturday morning on-air? Be the advertiser’s gatekeeper to new media.

Accordingly:

At least do re-runs, as streams available online, or WXXX-to-go downloads. Otherwise, if it is only available as live on-air programming, most of your listeners don’t hear most of your work. Tim Russert still signs-off, “IF IT’S SUNDAY, IT’S MEET THE PRESS.” But now, if it’s Monday morning, and you go for a run before breakfast, and listen to iPod, it’s Meet The Press. Or if it’s Tuesday, or Wednesday, or any other time, it’s Meet The Press. The voiceover accompanying an iPod graphic at the end of Meet The Press offers “THE ENTIRE SHOW, READY TO SYNC-AND-GO, ON YOUR PORTABLE MP3 PLAYER.” Other than time-sensitive content (i.e., newscasts) radio should do this. Portability and convenience have always been radio hallmarks. Extend the usefulness of your programming content beyond real-time. Make it available to folks who can’t hear it live.

Break free from the confines of radio. On-air, things have to be in neat 30 or 60 second or 30 or 60 minute packages. Online, something can be any length.

Turn airchecks into souvenirs. Example: High school sports is big money in small market radio. You’re broadcasting the game, and airchecking the broadcast. Then what? How about the-game-on-CD, with your station’s logo, and a sponsor’s logo. To us, it’s “an aircheck.” To doting grandparents far away, it’s a timeless memento. Ka-ching.

Go slightly, usefully, off-topic. My client, the syndicated Money Pit Home Improvement Radio Show, broadcast live from the recent International Homebuilders Show. Ridgid, exhibiting there, manufactures professional-grade power tools. You don’t own any. Hire a contractor, and he’ll have some. Ridgid asked if we could remote from their booth, and we did. But, because Ridgid’s message was off-topic from the Money Pit’s caller-level Q+A, we did a separate show, titled “Jobcast,” which was uploaded to Ridgid’s web site, and Emailed to The Home Depot’s professional database. We’re already renewed for next year.