Radiodays Europe Day 1: Radio is a “master of reinvention”

Former Assistant Editor

Radiodays Europe has kicked off in Lausanne with the opening session largely focussing on the future of radio.

Industry leaders and representatives from stations across the continent gathered to share their thoughts on the state of the radio industry.

Here are some higlights from Day One:


Paul Keenan, CEO of Bauer UK, spoke about industry’s future being safe due to the nature of radio as a “master of reinvention”.

He accepted that the challenges facing radio are vast as the landscape of the industry changes so rapidly, but at Bauer Media are taking this on with brave new choices including the launch of the UK’s first national Country music station.

Director-General of the European Broadcasting Union Noel Curran spoke about trust in radio being far stronger than news, television and online.

“85% of Europeans have trust in radio,” he said.

“Radio has faced the biggest crisis in audience trust in recent history and reminded us of the hard work ahead of us to maintain the industry’s trust”.

Later in the day, BBC 1’s new Breakfast host Greg James emphasised the importance of having listeners at the core of content decisions in radio.

Greg could not emphasise enough that the listeners are the show. From helping listeners move house, to giving a BRITs ticket away, content comes from the listeners.

“Why would I have funnier stories than the 6 million people listening? So we focus on them”.

Creative Director at Global UK Jo McCrostie spoke about how hearing a brand can be even more powerful than seeing a brand.

TheImagingHouse’s Kelly Doherty outlined the importance of emotional connections in imaging on radio, and that radio stations need to stop running the same promos.

Kelly highlighted the “radio ego”, reminding delegates that there are better ways to say you are number one than to just say it.

Head to Radio Today UK for a full wrap-up of everything that happened on Day 1.

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