Radioday: Focus on DAB+ and quality
Is DAB+ the solution to the FM spectrum shortage? How should radio stations deal with “digital natives”? And is the quality assurance required by the RTVG merely an expensive nuisance, or perhaps a source of support after all? At the 10th Radioday, the radio industry discussed a wide range of topics. Answers weren’t always available.
On October 15, some private radio stations in German-speaking Switzerland will launch into the digital future - with DAB+. In view of developments abroad and the trend toward Internet radio, however, no one at Radioday wanted to talk about a historic moment. "Is the launch of DAB+ more like the Titanic or the moon landing - I don't know," said a skeptical Jürg Bachmann, President of Swiss Private Radio. But there were also confident voices. For example, Walter Rüegg, Director of Radio DRS, who described himself as "optimistic, but not euphoric. After all, his former medium-wave radio station Musikwelle, which has been broadcasting on cable and DAB+ since the end of the Beromünster MW station, now reaches nearly 250,000 listeners. And the youth station Virus, which has always been receivable only via cable and DAB+, has 80,000 listeners. In addition, according to Rüegg, there are 300,000 devices on the market today that can receive DAB+. By the end of the year, there will be 400,000.
Günter Heuberger, President of Swiss Media Cast, a consortium of DAB interested parties (private and SRG), was also hopeful. In German-speaking Switzerland, he said, the DAB+ network, which allows better reception quality and diversity, would be fully developed by the end of 2010. "And even if this standard doesn't catch on - we certainly won't go under with DAB+," he said.
However, the Radioday began with a small provocation: Despite fee-splitting for smaller radio stations, the federal government supports the large stations economically far more than the small ones, claimed Bakom Director Martin Dumermuth in his opening presentation. His reasoning: "If we were to assign radio frequencies to the highest bidder in each case, as in the telecom industry, a large area without fee-splitting would achieve higher revenues than a small area with splitting." But since all licensees now receive their radio frequencies free of charge, it is obvious that broadcasters with large licenses profit more economically, even if they do not receive fee-splitting.
The head of Bakom also explained that his office no longer carries out a large part of the quality control required by the RTVG itself, but has delegated it to the radio stations themselves and to external companies and universities. These would check every two years whether the stations were fulfilling the performance mandate of the federal government. This is done by observing the programs and examining the organizational structures and working conditions. The evaluation offices appointed by Bakom then draw up a report with suggestions for improvement. Within three months, the radio stations must then communicate what they intend to implement and by when. If a broadcaster refuses to do so, in the worst case it could have its license revoked. "But we assume that repressive interventions by Bakom will be the exception," Dumermuth said. Whether the system proves itself can then be discussed at the 20th Radioday.
During the first visits to the radio operations, the radio people met her very skeptically, Magalie Modoux from the evaluation company Certimedia in western Switzerland later reported in a panel discussion. "But our goal is not to control, but to support," she said. The radio representatives on the podium agreed with her and described the visits and talks as "valuable coaching", for which, however, they have to fork out 15,000 francs each. In response to criticism that the checks are merely snapshots for which the radios can dress up, Modoux replied glibly: "No, we don't just take a photo, we also open the cupboards." Whether and how quickly this would translate into perceptible quality - and thus perhaps into higher ratings - was something she could not answer.
Quality was also an issue in another respect: in the question of how radios can keep the so-called digital natives, young people who have grown up with digital technology and the Internet, in line. Professor Urs Gasser from Harvard University advised radio stations to distribute their content on various channels (FM, Internet, podcast) and to build communities. Interactive elements are also important so that listeners can help shape the content. Digital natives, however, have a relatively poorly developed sense of quality when it comes to information. This is precisely where a radio station with an editorial team can step in and provide guidance, as long as it has strong personalities in its team of presenters. But if young people don't question the quality of their information, how can a radio station involve them editorially without losing its own credibility? Gasser didn't know the answer to this question either.
Markus Knöpfli
Günter Heuberger, President of Swiss Media Cast, a consortium of DAB interested parties (private and SRG), was also hopeful. In German-speaking Switzerland, he said, the DAB+ network, which allows better reception quality and diversity, would be fully developed by the end of 2010. "And even if this standard doesn't catch on - we certainly won't go under with DAB+," he said.
However, the Radioday began with a small provocation: Despite fee-splitting for smaller radio stations, the federal government supports the large stations economically far more than the small ones, claimed Bakom Director Martin Dumermuth in his opening presentation. His reasoning: "If we were to assign radio frequencies to the highest bidder in each case, as in the telecom industry, a large area without fee-splitting would achieve higher revenues than a small area with splitting." But since all licensees now receive their radio frequencies free of charge, it is obvious that broadcasters with large licenses profit more economically, even if they do not receive fee-splitting.
The head of Bakom also explained that his office no longer carries out a large part of the quality control required by the RTVG itself, but has delegated it to the radio stations themselves and to external companies and universities. These would check every two years whether the stations were fulfilling the performance mandate of the federal government. This is done by observing the programs and examining the organizational structures and working conditions. The evaluation offices appointed by Bakom then draw up a report with suggestions for improvement. Within three months, the radio stations must then communicate what they intend to implement and by when. If a broadcaster refuses to do so, in the worst case it could have its license revoked. "But we assume that repressive interventions by Bakom will be the exception," Dumermuth said. Whether the system proves itself can then be discussed at the 20th Radioday.
During the first visits to the radio operations, the radio people met her very skeptically, Magalie Modoux from the evaluation company Certimedia in western Switzerland later reported in a panel discussion. "But our goal is not to control, but to support," she said. The radio representatives on the podium agreed with her and described the visits and talks as "valuable coaching", for which, however, they have to fork out 15,000 francs each. In response to criticism that the checks are merely snapshots for which the radios can dress up, Modoux replied glibly: "No, we don't just take a photo, we also open the cupboards." Whether and how quickly this would translate into perceptible quality - and thus perhaps into higher ratings - was something she could not answer.
Quality was also an issue in another respect: in the question of how radios can keep the so-called digital natives, young people who have grown up with digital technology and the Internet, in line. Professor Urs Gasser from Harvard University advised radio stations to distribute their content on various channels (FM, Internet, podcast) and to build communities. Interactive elements are also important so that listeners can help shape the content. Digital natives, however, have a relatively poorly developed sense of quality when it comes to information. This is precisely where a radio station with an editorial team can step in and provide guidance, as long as it has strong personalities in its team of presenters. But if young people don't question the quality of their information, how can a radio station involve them editorially without losing its own credibility? Gasser didn't know the answer to this question either.
Markus Knöpfli
