Hey everyone!
So I wanted to do the analysis of the interview pretty much as soon as possible whilst it's still fresh in my mind, i'm just going to apply some innovation theory to explain some of the answers he had given me.
The main point I picked up on from the interview was that he believed that radio almost re-invents itself, instead of falling victim to the 'creative-destruction' Schumpeter describes, he believes radio is an exception to this rule- that instead of being destroyed by new inventions such as the television and computer; people still use the radio but their reasons and the way they go about it have changed, potentially explaing how it has managed to survive over a hundred years when most products have a life cycle of a few years (case in point: how many 'new' iPhones have there been in the past 3 years?!).
Instead of fading away, radio seems to be almost re-inventing itself to fit with todays modern world. People want to hear their local radio stations when driving to and from work, during the day they want music and the industry understands this and has innovated because of that; they have cut back on costs by analysing when their figures are at the lowest, then outsource their programmes to London based radio firms.
John O' Hara, a general manager at Microsoft talks about 'sustainable innovation' being the key to business success and we can definitely see aspects of this in the radio industry. He says: "For many large businesses, real innovation is more likely to be about making day-to-day improvements in how the business operates in terms of people and process" realinnovation [online] accessed 18/1/12 and this seems to be the case for the radio industry. Instead of paragidm shifts, the radio industry try out little steps daily to improve its service; undertaking major innovation changes very rarely, as Pete mentioned in the 3 years he has been working in the radio industry things have not changed much, they are just more aware of their customers wants, needs and listening habbits.
Where radio seems to have survived where others have failed is that radio almost has become part of our culture. We instinctively play it in the car and we become used to having it present in our life. The fact people are downloading apps for their phones so they can specifically listen to the radio backs this up; we are not willing to let the radio die out but instead support it. Customers are what drive innovation changes, as my previous blog has mentioned, the supply chain is influenced by customers spending habbits. If customers demand more, we need to supply more to meet market equilibrium. In an oligopoly market such as radio presenting, competition on who has spent the most on their programmes does not attract more viewers as people are happy enough to listen to their local station.
The global recession has meant many have had to become more innovative in terms of shifting their studios location or outsourcing their work to other companies during quieter times, but in the end the radio industry has been around for over a 100 years and is still going strong. TV stations have channels specifically for radio shows, which seems to prove the proverb: if you can't beat them, join them.
Reference list:
Realinnovation [online], found at: http://www.realinnovation.com/offsite.asp?A=Fr&Url=http://www.busmanagement.com/pastissue/article.asp?art=26868&issue=165, accessed 18/1/12
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