The Evolution and Resilience of the Broadcast Media Industry:

From Dinosaurs to Birds

The Broadcast Radio Industry Isn’t Becoming Extinct: It’s an Evolution, Not an End

The radio industry is in a state of evolution. It’s adapting and changing, not unlike other industries and, of course, nature itself. But this industry is a survivor, with plenty of reinvention after more than 100 years of existence.

Nothing illustrates the tenacity of survival and the beauty of evolution more than the dinosaur DNA that remains present in modern bird populations. Ironically, many have likened the broadcast and media industry to dinosaurs. (Maybe they don’t realize the resiliency of such a species!) This well-suited metaphor tells the story of survival. You can soar, thrive and remain relevant through evolution.

Evolution is an opportunity to reimagine the industry and its relevance to consumers and advertisers. It takes time for such a movement to get traction. After all, the evolution of Tyrannosaurus rexes to modern-day birds took billions of years. We’re moving faster than that because we’re too aware of today’s problems — competition, saturation, diversification of revenue, the need for technology designed for the industry, and the changing expectations of advertisers.

This is a time for growth and modernization. Let’s explore how we’ll navigate this together.

Radio Companies Face Existing and Emerging Challenges

Selling local advertising was once simple; it consisted only of radio OTA (over-the-air) spots. Businesses had the opportunity to reach consumers in their markets with compelling messaging. The world of local media has since become much greater. Now, there are so many options for content with advertising to support it.

As a result, many stations are expanding to O&O (owned and operated) inventory for advertising and third-party digital, including display ads, video, SEM (search engine marketing), social media advertising, streaming audio and OTT/CTV. These areas have provided new streams of revenue. It’s an opportunity, with radio stations still exploring and beginning their journey with sales outside of OTA.

An Omnichannel World: More to Sell, More Competition for Ad Dollars

You have more products available than ever to connect an advertiser with its target audience.

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Much of this omnichannel world is consumer driven. The consumer decides how, when and where they’ll consume content, so businesses want to engage with them across the media ecosystem. As a result, you need to deliver this experience on linear and digital channels.

The broadcast and media sales environment is much more complex now.

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You’re facing competition for advertiser dollars from other sellers and some brands using direct platforms. You’ve also seen traditional revenue shrink (with the exception of political cycles) while advertising investment in digital grows.

Many stations have integrated digital into their offering.

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However, success hasn’t been easy in developing this new revenue stream, initially hampered by inadequate technology, sellers needing training and upskilling, and a lack of support from the top.

These challenges have driven change in many organizations, as many have pivoted to the role of local media strategists and experts (not sellers).

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You need the right tools and technology to achieve this and continue your evolution. Unfortunately, technology providers haven’t been as keen to adapt.

Technology Companies Have Been Slow to Evolve with You

Technology in the broadcast industry has been slower to evolve. Innovation hasn’t been a priority for some providers. You’ve been underserved as your workflows, processes, people, goals and more have changed. As a result, you hobbled together a tech stack to meet your requirements.

So, why has technology for local media companies been slower to evolve? It’s not a lack of desire to innovate and deliver a great product, but the vendors in such a niche industry are few due to the size of the market and depth of expertise needed. Building software is expensive, and with a small market to sell it to, it can be challenging to be profitable.

Progress hasn’t been as fast as in other technology sectors, but it’s improving every day in response to what you really need to be successful.

Modernization of your technology doesn’t have to be a burden, and there are technology providers investing in the industry to deliver modern features and a connected ecosystem. Again, it’s an opportunity to explore new options custom designed for your sales teams, removing hurdles and delivering benefits. You deserve platforms that are intuitive, automated, comprehensive, integrated and built for your future.

How will technology solve your challenges and empower your people to generate more revenue, maximize efficiencies and make data-driven decisions?

Let’s look at how you can remain radio-first while also increasing revenue with digital ad sales.

Radio and Revenue Technology: Meeting Challenges with Consistent Innovation

Radio and revenue technology has come a long way since its debut. Innovation has been steady, fixing the problems that stations struggled with, including:

Enabling traffic systems to integrate with other technology
Delivering new functionality that eliminates workarounds and manual work
Providing a comprehensive payment solution to meet advertiser expectations to pay electronically
Adding production workflow solutions to drive efficiency
Optimizing rates based on data
Enabling more insightful reporting

Updating your radio traffic software may seem cumbersome and complex. However, the cost of not switching is much higher. You’re missing out on the benefits of modern traffic systems that connect, automate and optimize.

A radio and revenue tech stack with these features yields all the benefits you’ve previously struggled with. Technology has met the new era of OTA revenue, and with it, you’ve achieved transformation to:

Streamline workflows with efficient features.

Make data-driven decisions.

Boost revenue.

Empower traffic departments and sales teams with the tools needed to be more productive.

The latest radio revenue technology solved the common challenges in radio. If your existing system doesn’t deliver these benefits and features, it’s time to upgrade.

Third-Party Digital: A Revenue Lifeline, but Profits Aren’t Promised

Many stations have jumped into selling digital to expand revenue and capture 100% of a company’s digital budget, something you can’t do on the OTA side alone. With digital included in your product offerings, you can provide advertisers with an integrated, multichannel campaign. There is great promise here, as digital ad sales accounted for 22% of radio station revenue in 2023. However, profitability has been somewhat elusive due to challenges with technology, strategy, sales staff training and business models.

There is energy and momentum around third-party digital, but most ad ops solution providers didn’t design their products for local media sales. They also can’t combine linear and digital proposals and orders, which means the industry overspends and wastes time. Most also lack integration capabilities with other platforms like CRM, billing, or data and analytics applications.

These platforms also don’t align with your workflows and needs in creating proposals and orders. Many have inept reporting capabilities or only offer them at a staggering price. Billing is often not part of this, so you must use multiple systems or take on an integration project.

Few technology companies have taken the time to invest in and build a platform for you. Some that have solutions available fall short of your expectations. There are tactic limitations, inventory is low quality, and it doesn’t guide you in creating a smart ad mix. There’s minimal training, support and collaboration, leaving you with a system and relationship that’s purely transactional.

We understand this complex landscape. We’ve got a team of experts, we listen to our customers, and we are constantly innovating. As a result, we built a digital sales platform that can deliver on the promise of this revenue stream with technology and support to empower sellers.

Marketron and Radio: Partners in the Evolution of Media Sales

We’ve dissected the challenges media companies face in radio and digital sales, and we’ve alluded to the fact that solutions exist right now for you to implement. There is a clear path to optimizing technology to meet your goals. So, what should you expect from a technology partner in this new era of media sales?

How does the technology provide new revenue streams to drive profitability?

Our solutions are all revenue focused, with support for increasing it reliably and consistently. We’re delivering solutions that meet radio company revenue needs in multiple places, including making it seamless and less expensive to receive payments, optimizing inventory, and facilitating an easy way to sell, propose and order digital products.

Can the technology minimize wasted time, money and resources? How does it really streamline processes and enable consolidation?

Waste in any process isn’t good for efficiency or profitability. Sellers shouldn’t be in the weeds with admin or busy work all day. We studied the sales process intently and received valuable feedback from the industry. As a result, our solutions were designed with efficiency in mind, using automation, integrations and better usability to accelerate and streamline every aspect of the local media sales ecosystem. With these workflows, people work smarter, not harder, and the difference can boost revenue.

Does the technology simplify the sales process?

Local media sellers deserve technology that helps them rather than complicating things. Simplification comes from consolidation, reducing waste in processes and improving usability. Our solutions also cover the entire life cycle of the sale, from proposal to payment. We’re introducing business process changes that promote efficiency, eliminate redundancy and accelerate growth.

Does the company deliver more than software?

We are a software company, but one of our brand promises is to be more than that. Our technology enables and empowers its users. We don’t stop there. We consistently deliver training and learning opportunities for the software itself and for selling digital advertising via the NXT Training Academy. We provide sales enablement resources in many ways, including our blog Aspire, exclusive webinars, and the Marketron Learning Center’s on-demand training videos, guides and how-to content.

We go even further by providing digital advertising expert-as-a-service solutions via our client development managers acting as digital gurus and our Integrated Media Specialist program, where local digital professionals become an extension of your sales team.

Is the technology ready now, or will it be years before it launches?

Our technology platforms are live and in use by local media companies. We’re the only technology company with a working and proven integration between radio traffic systems and third-party digital.

Others in the market claim these connections exist, but when you peel back the layers, there are extreme gaps, which create manual work. Marketron Traffic and Marketron NXT weave together tightly, syncing and covering the entire life cycle of an ad sale for OTA and digital.

Further, we are innovating and investing in all our products, with more features and enhancements added regularly.

Is the technology flexible?

Our solutions use cloud-based open architecture. As a result, integrations are easier, and there’s more agility to develop new features based on changes in the market.

All these questions are critical for the media industry to grow and be future-forward, and vendors in the space should be ready to answer them. Marketron is, and that’s why we’re powering the future of all media sales.

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We’re Evolving with You So We Can All Soar

We are powering the future of all media sales.

Explore our solutions to optimize, modernize and evolve your business.

Drive revenue growth with the only digital advertising platform for radio.

Amplify linear revenue with digital.
Sell more, faster, with seller-centric software.
Gain efficiency with one solution for proposals, orders, reporting and invoicing.
Win trust with simple, transparent reporting.
Ramp up fast with training, resources, on-demand digital experts and more.

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