How radio has held its own in the age of the internet

Radio, that resilient old medium, has mostly benefited from the digital revolution, writes MICK HEANEY

IT WAS a democratic medium capable of giving instantaneous, unfiltered voice to communities overlooked by the traditional media. Within a few years, the new technology had changed the way people consumed information and altered the entire fabric of society.

Nearly a hundred years ago, radio was the internet of its day. The new invention revolutionised communications and – briefly – offered open access to the airwaves via thousands of small outlets across the United States, run by civic organisations, religious groups and early-adapting individuals.

This early, proto-social network phase of radio history was short-lived, lasting less than a decade. By the mid-1920s state and business interests had transformed the freewheeling medium into a regulated industry, with a select few broadcasters dominating each territory.

But if the rapid transformation of the fledgling sector was striking, the durability of the medium that emerged is even more impressive. While it may not have the supremacy it did in the pre-television era, radio has proved a hardy perennial throughout the pivotal communications developments of the past century.

Even as the media landscape is turned on its head by the internet, the winning formula of a voice (or music) heard over an audio receiver retains its potency.

The rise of the web has seen music sales collapse, newspaper circulations fall and television viewership habits change, but radio has maintained its appeal. In Ireland and beyond, the directness, simplicity and convenience of radio have made it less vulnerable than other media to the disruptive technologies of the digital age.

Irish listenership figures show how popular the sector remains. The most recent JNLR results, released in May, showed that the overall audience for radio was unchanged from the previous year, with 85 per cent of the adult population tuning in daily. For all the intense competition within the market, the same shows tend to dominate year in, year out: the numbers tuning into the likes of Morning Ireland, Livelineand Today with Pat Kennymay fluctuate by a few thousand, but there are rarely the kind of catastrophic ratings drop-offs experienced in television.

One of radio’s strengths is that it still provides the cleanest and most direct forum for public discourse, providing a clarity missing from cacophonous web discussions while allowing more immediacy than television.

Recent political controversies surrounding Michael Healy-Rae and David Norris were largely fought out over the radio waves, leaving both figures somewhat bruised. The same holds true in the US, where (mainly right-wing) talk radio hosts such as Rush Limbaugh continue to wield huge political influence, while television pretenders have seen their ratings wax and wane precipitously.

There are other advantages. Radio is generally live, giving presenters more space for dialogue, analysis or frivolous musings. Its aural content is consumed passively, allowing the listener to engage in other activities.

It is no coincidence that drivers and homemakers are two of the medium’s biggest demographics. Broadcast for free, largely in real time, radio is also difficult to commodify in any other form. It is still consumed in essentially the same way it has been for years. Commercial revenue may vary depending on economic conditions, but has not lost a significant amount of consumers – or advertisers — to the web, as is the case with the newspaper and even television industry.

Radio also operates on a level difficult to replicate elsewhere. A speech-based medium, it taps into a deep-seated instinct for company. Shows such as Liveline may feed off controversy, but also rely on the audience's sense of personal connection with the host: Liveline's slogan, after all, is "talk to Joe". For all the popularity of online social networking, radio has an unparallelled ability to be intimate while tapping into a wider community.

That said, radio has mainly benefited from the digital revolution. The internet allows broadcasters to access listeners across the world, an aspect useful for a country with a culture of emigration. Smartphone apps provide a huge variety of stations for users on the move. Web technology lets listeners hear shows they would previously have missed. This is a particular benefit for niche areas such as documentary, which is currently enjoying a boom in Ireland, as shown by RTÉ’s success at the New York Festivals’ Radio Awards last month.

There are problems in the sector, of course. The Irish market is still dominated by the state broadcaster, with RTÉ boasting 19 of the top 20 shows in the last batch of JNLR figures. The flagging economy has hit the already tight commercial sector, with Denis O’Brien’s media group Communicorp, which owns Today FM and NewsTalk, posting pre-tax losses of €5.2 million for 2010.

These, however, are old-fashioned business problems relating to markets and competition, rather than a wholesale paradigm shift as has happened in the music and newspaper industries. Overall, the prospects for radio look good, both as a cultural staple and a viable industry. The web may seem like the way of the future, but it is a fickle environment, as Rupert Murdoch recently discovered when News Corporation sold off social networking site MySpace for $545 million (€383 million) less than he paid six years previously. Radio may lack the sexy allure of the internet, but nearly a century after its tumultuous birth, its continuing popularity seems assured.