New Media is now friends with Old Media.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I believe that radio needs social media.  It can be used as an amazing extension of what most radio listeners look for; interaction with show hosts and personalities.  There are challenges that social and new media give to radio, but I still feel that radio and social media can be best friends through it all.

In order to show how radio and new media can be best friends, I think it is important to first talk about what is taking shots at radio.  Radio is surviving iTunes/iPods/iPhones better than I expected, even after all the accessories that you can buy to put in your cars or home in order to listen to your favorite music or podcasts.  Radio started feeling better about things, and then WHAMMY!! Pandora.   Confession time: I love radio, and want to be a part of it for the rest of my life, but I also love Pandora.  Pandora is so easy to listen to at work, and now you can listen to it on your phone or iPod too!  I think Pandora hits radio in the gut a little, but in most markets, I think radio will survive.

Now, when you add in Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and websites you continue to get some more challenges.  Earlier this year, The John Curley Center for Sport Journalism at Penn State released a blog post stating that the use of Twitter and Facebook allows athletes to do all their press releases and say all their thoughts without talking to reporters.   They gave the example of Tiger Woods who repeatedly tells reporters to go to his website and denies them interviews.

With all of these challenges, new media is an amazing compliment to radio.  Radio must be proactive in using it to keep their head above water.  One of my favorite things that I’ve seen radio stations do is develop applications for iPods/iPhones and smartphones.  One of my favorite radio apps is from the nation-wide syndicate K-Love.  They have developed the app, and added neat features to it, but the main use for it is to listen to K-Love via your little device.  This is in addition to the online feed that they already have!

Social Media also complements radio in that, it allows hosts and personalities the opportunity to interact with the listeners in more ways than just calling in.  I love to listen to ESPN.  ESPN loves when people use Twitter for feedback.  Nearly every show has a Twitter account and nearly every host has a Twitter account as well.  When a host asks for opinions, they still use the ole’ phone system but they also read off Tweets from fans like they get paid per tweet read.  I think this helps ESPN monitor comments, as well as allowing more fans get their input in.    You also keep comments to less than 120 characters and no one can ramble on.

Also, after every show, ESPN puts up podcasts of the show on espnradio.com and also links things to the shows Facebook page.  Many shows use Facebook to let you know what is coming up on the show, and also as a recap of what the show talked about.  My friends at NPR’s Weekend Edition are really good at doing stuff like that.

Social Media can also give hosts and personalities leads on stories, but they must do their research before they open their mouth and release the story.  While it is good to be first, it is better to be right.

For so many reasons, new media will keep radio alive despite what some might think.  Many people think radio will soon die because of the services like iTunes and pirated music.  Finally, nothing compares to hearing your Radio Buddy in my opinion.  iTunes and Pandora can’t give you that.