This conference is about the future. The Opening session was a loud and lively start to two days of radio as Steve Ahern one of the hosts for Radiodays Asia said, “We are inventing the future of radio every day”. Anders Held, Founder of Radiodays Europe and Radiodays Asia, spoke about how the radio business can work together to meet the future together. He emphasised the collaboration that has brought Radiodays Asia together and he hoped that the participants found the two days useful, informative and fun. AIBD’s Philomena Gnanapragasam called on the audience to ‘show our skills and make radio as relevant as possible’, she spoke about radio in Asia and also felt that we all need to work together to promote and develop radio. She asked the audience to become ‘Radio-active!’ again in a 4th industrial revolution. Ozariazan Mohd Nor, President of Commercial Radio Malaysia, spoke about beautiful Kuala Lumpur and encouraged participants to enjoy all that Malaysia has to offer. He thanked the Government and the Tourist Board of Malaysia for supporting this event. He said we are now in the new media area, he said social media has changed how we listen and that’s impact on traditional media. “How do we want to move forward?” he asked the audience, we need to use radio to augment digital platforms, people still depend on radio. He felt that this conference is an important platform for Asian broadcasters to engage and share best practices and to provide everyone at the conference with useful insights and experiences. Radiodays Asia is being hosted for two days by Malaysian radio hosts, Ezra Zaid (Head of Digital & New Media, BFM 89.9, Malaysia) and Lee Chwi Lynn (Presenter and Editorial Lead & Evening, BFM, 89.9. Lee and Steve discussed on the stage the current radio landscape in Malaysia, Lee said the biggest challenge for all broadcasters was learning how radio fit into the digital landscape. The opening keynotes were given by Abe Thomas, CEO, Big FM he said there are now 1,370,099,333 people in India of these 65% listen to radio but measurement is difficult, but radio is the 2nd most accessed media. He gave a lot of statistics on radio listening – young country who listening more on mobile. He spoke about devices and presenters for example VJs as Bollywood stars and vice versa) – the big news is stars are going to radio! Radio presenters score high on trust in India “if you haven’t heard it on radio it’s probably not true”. Abe called for proper measurement for radio in the future for radio to grow, radio is growing “radio has the content, the talent and the reach” radio needs to enter into meaningful partnerships with streaming apps; spotify, netflix & podcasts. He discussed how can radio amplify the content it produces using multiple touch points for content. Joan Warner brought to the conference the perspective from the Commercial sector, radio gives a 17% return for an advertisers bigger than online and TV. She noted that in times of slow economic growth it is important to remind them advertisers of the power of radio. She spoke about the work of Commercial Radio Advertisings’ new campaigns – interrupting advertisers ads to promote radio advertising. ” “Radio has a significantly positive impact on it’s listeners – radio is alive and growing” The CORA have proven that radio makes people happy. “Listeners are 9 times happier listening to the radio” – you can’t argue with Joan Warner!
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