The Facebookization Of Radio

[DToTheJ]

On this Independence Day, it pains me to realize just how much Ice Station Zuckerberg has taken over a great deal of the way radio stations interact with their listeners.

It's like, OK, there may be no need for a "request line" anymore since playlists aren't dictated by listeners, anyway. And yes, a large percentage of people who may be listening to a given radio station most likely has a Facebook account.

But... I mean... We have more radio stations taking advantage of Facebook to interact with listeners than there is using phone lines. By comparison, do you recall how many radio stations circa 2005 were using Myspace to interact with listeners? And given what Myspace is today - a music-oriented social networking website owned by one of CHR's top artists, Justin Timberlake - the fact that radio is not embracing Myspace for any means of listener interaction at all is sobering.

True, Facebook has boatloads more members than Myspace, and so who would blame Big Radio for not utilizing Myspace in 2014. But we all remember how Myspace was once the go-to social networking website around a decade ago.

Take a spin around your local radio dial. You'll find more than just your basic Facebook tie-in contests. In Connecticut, an alternative rock station's midday jock - whose shift is clearly voicetracked, to begin with - every afternoon during lunch hour prompts listeners to "hit me up on Facebook" and chime in on whatever inane topic is up for dissection.

Remember when the 12 o'clock lunch hour used to be dictated by listener interaction via telephone? How soon before the phone option is dissolved altogether? Currently, there are at least a couple of stations in Atlantic City that utilize both Facebook and the phones for listener interaction, and yes, they'll actually play a few folks back on the air when warranted.

It will be interesting to see if any stations will be inviting listeners to "hit me up on Facebook" nine years from now.

 

[TheBigA]

To be honest, radio is just adapting to the environment. Radio uses Facebook because that's where the people are. It's more efficient to engage with listeners on Facebook than taking phone requests. Fewer missed callers, you have a record of who called and what they said, and it's all done in public on a platform that's friendly. No downside.

And if Facebook falls out of favor the way MySpace did, the station can simply move the party to the next social interaction site, whatever it may be. Radio has no investment in Facebook, so it has nothing to lose by walking away from it.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

There are some things to like about Facebook. No waiting on hold. No busy signals. Some amount of "accountability". Phone calls can be totally anonymous. You can have a Facebook ID that only reveals who you are in a limited way, but the radio station soon learns whether you are regular and legitimate, or if you are troublesome and destructive.

Facebook is a sign of our times, and I readily admit that the transition to Facebook for PERSONAL COMMUNICATION and for carrying on structured communication with your lodge, your country club, your church, your political party just does not flow smoothly for me. But it appears to be a fact-of-life for the time being. What ever comes next may make you wish you could go back to the comfort of Facebook.... even though it doesn't seem to comfortable now.

 

[Groove1670]

Our phone never rings (unless it is a business call) . In fact we just took one line out, and converted the other to a fax line (we get more faxes than calls - go figure) we get most interaction from facebook or email (and texts). It is just a sign of the times. The day of Hello WTEL this is Bob what can I play for you (for the most part), are over. It was 2% of your audience and the same callers everyday. As the late Neil Rogers at WIOD in Miami would say "The same chronic callers"

 

[Small Market Guy]

The one problem with social media is that everyone thinks they're an expert and thinks they can use your page to tell you how to do your show or run your station.

 

[RedStateTalkRadio]

The one problem with social media is that everyone thinks they're an expert and thinks they can use your page to tell you how to do your show or run your station.

I think that problem existing before social media.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

I think that problem existing before social media.

But 40 years ago you could take that letter and stuff it in the public correspondence folder in the public file and forget about it. No one other than the complainer had to know about it.

 

[Small Market Guy]

But 40 years ago you could take that letter and stuff it in the public correspondence folder in the public file and forget about it. No one other than the complainer had to know about it.

And those people didn't have the power to get people fired.

 

[firepoint525]

What I find disconcerting is that some stations promote their Facebook page more than they do their own website, as if Facebook were more important to them than having their own website. (This is not just limited to radio--you can watch TV commercials and see Facebook urls at the end of them, where you used to see websites, www.whatever.com, and that url will probably link to something! )

By the way, we DIDN'T go directly from phone interaction with listeners, straight to Facebook. As far back as the '80s, I remember stations encouraging faxed in requests (for the all-request lunch hour), evidently straight from your workplace, as most of us did not have fax machines at home back then. (I have one, but rarely use it.) Then I remember, "email your requests to us at [email protected], or through our website at whatever.com."

 

[TheBigA]

What I find disconcerting is that some stations promote their Facebook page more than they do their own website, as if Facebook were more important to them than having their own website.

Some smaller stations don't have the personnel to do much with the website. If they do, it's often strictly a sales platform, not a programming platform. So the Facebook page is a way to interact without spending money.

 

[firepoint525]

And those people didn't have the power to get people fired.

Some routine commenter on Facebook has that authority? Would love to see a real-life example of that!

Where Facebook creates problems for stations is when Facebookers post negative comments, whether deserved or not, on a station's Facebook page. Does the station censor or delete the comment, or try to bury it, or deal with it some other way? I am not in favor of censorship, but have noticed that sometimes even constructive criticisms are deleted. I remember when Mix 92.9 here in Nashville dropped Delilah, they had negative comments for weeks, and even months, (if not years!) afterward. I remember one particularly nasty comment from a poster named Jessica. Rather than deleting her comment, they addressed it directly, something like, "Jessica, was that really necessary..." or words to that effect, and then went on from there to explain their programming decisions.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Maybe the lesson to be learned is this: Stations that are too financially weak to have a full-blown website CAN turn to Facebook because such stations tend to not get into the kinds of controversy that would result in a lot of destructive comments being posted.

If you are a Metropolitan station carrying a nationall syndicated program and you choose to drop it, you ARE NOT the station that should rely of the "cheap space" of Facebook.

If you are a hometown station out in some county seat and you cannot afford a real website, you shouldn't be generating controversy in the first place. Sometimes it takes a lot of money and advertising and legal fees to erase controversy. Leave it alone if you are among the "poor folks" of broadcasting.

 

[firepoint525]

But 40 years ago you could take that letter and stuff it in the public correspondence folder in the public file and forget about it. No one other than the complainer had to know about it.

Brings up an interesting side issue, slightly OT here, but I will bring it up anyway: do stations have an obligation to be "open for business" during what could normally be construed as "normal business hours"? (Not counting lunch hour, of course.) I remember visiting a station where I had once worked (or trying to visit!) at about 2:00 one weekday afternoon. The place was locked up and there was no one in there. I was NOT trying to look at their files or anything like that; just dropping by to say "hi" to whoever happened to be there, which turned out to be nobody. I was aware that the station had become automated since I had worked there a decade or so earlier, but I still expected to find SOMEONE at the front desk. This was in 2000. Back in 1990, I had similarly walked through the front door of that station to inquire about getting a job there. If I had tried to do the same thing after Y2K, the results obviously would have been much different. (I was aware that the station had gone through management/ownership/format changes, and that it was highly unlikely that there would have still been anyone there who knew me.)

 

[firepoint525]

Maybe the lesson to be learned is this: Stations that are too financially weak to have a full-blown website CAN turn to Facebook because such stations tend to not get into the kinds of controversy that would result in a lot of destructive comments being posted.
If you are a Metropolitan station carrying a nationall syndicated program and you choose to drop it, you ARE NOT the station that should rely of the "cheap space" of Facebook.
If you are a hometown station out in some county seat and you cannot afford a real website, you shouldn't be generating controversy in the first place. Sometimes it takes a lot of money and advertising and legal fees to erase controversy. Leave it alone if you are among the "poor folks" of broadcasting.

Would love to put you in touch with the owner of a local station here, which recently returned to the air after being off for a year. I still hear announcements promoting their website, which has NOT (at last check) been reactivated since their return to the air. He has a Facebook page, but I would call it a personal FB page, even though his page also includes his station's calls.

But it gets better. One morning last week, he gave away tickets to something, but didn't even give out his station's phone number, at least not at that time!

Small-town radio!

 

[Small Market Guy]

Some routine commenter on Facebook has that authority? Would love to see a real-life example of that!

How about Twitter instead? Google Anthony Cumia.

 

[Groove1670]

What I find disconcerting is that some stations promote their Facebook page more than they do their own website, as if Facebook were more important to them than having their own website. (This is not just limited to radio--you can watch TV commercials and see Facebook urls at the end of them, where you used to see websites, www.whatever.com, and that url will probably link to something! )

By the way, we DIDN'T go directly from phone interaction with listeners, straight to Facebook. As far back as the '80s, I remember stations encouraging faxed in requests (for the all-request lunch hour), evidently straight from your workplace, as most of us did not have fax machines at home back then. (I have one, but rarely use it.) Then I remember, "email your requests to us at [email protected], or through our website at whatever.com."

Most websites are not engaging. However Facebook is constantly changing. We currently use another facebook page to list items to buy sell or trade, and read the items on the air on Wednesday morning. It actually works well. The get radio and Facebook coverage as a free community service.