Think-through 4; a new format isn't going to get it.

I’ve been going through the motions of thinking through a radio station idea for the new multimedia-digital marketplace—a programming vision for the reinvention of a local steel-tower radio station. I’ve identified a target group—high-community-conscious adults. And, I think of the station as in the news and information category—no music.

But I keep getting snagged on the overall problem, one that steel-tower radio has never had to face before: there are new radio-audio distribution systems out there, unique programming flowing through them, and new devices to listen on. Even the word “radio” no longer means just one thing.

“Radio” can now be a “stream” on the Internet, accessed using RealPlayer or WindowsMediaPlayer. “Radio could be a “podcast” downloaded to an Ipod, or other personal digital audio player. And it could be “satellite radio,” exclusive radio programming—that specifically addresses the weaknesses of AM-FM radio—accessed via one of two dedicated receivers, that may or may not receive AM or FM transmissions. And it could be all kinds of audio programming and any music genre, accessed through a broadband cellphone, which doesn’t contain an AM-FM receiver.

AM-FM radio people are still fretting over how they’re going to program early 90s pop music on their “adult contemporary” formats, and other micro-issues from the time when AM and FM were the only distribution channels for radio programming. Well, yes, I guess somebody’s gotta watch the inventory while the store’s foundation are crumbling. But who’s really thinking ahead? And I’m not talking about HD Radio, though most radio people think it’s the key to their futures.

Look what’s happened, guys. The very hottest personal accessory is the cell phone. And every phone network has its own line of phones, and none of them pick up AM or FM. The second hottest personal accessory is the Ipod. It’s got its own exclusive music store, and an FM-only add-on gadget costs extra. And it's got, like, eighty percent of the market.

HD? Until there’s one or more affordable, fantastically designed HD radios, and AM-FM programming that makes itself essential to the radio listener, and doesn’t turn listeners off with too many commercials and overproduced audio clatter-clutter, it isn’t going to matter how you tweak the format. Steel-tower radio’s going to become a real niche medium, a true blast from the past.

I believe what radio needs is its own Apple—a radical radio company that innovates in programming, promotion and technology. That looks at radio programming and radio sets and repackages the radio experience into something effortlessly cool and therefore irresistible.

We need a steel-tower radio think tank. We need reborn programming and great new radios, or phone-radios, or something not yet imagined. Maybe we need new radio guys, too.