There’s good news and bad news in today’s media business. The bad news is the increasing competition for “ears” from new media sources. The good news is that as a result, local market share is falling to radio like loose change from a Ferris wheel.
Challenge
Consider Galesburg Broadcasting Company, a four-station group out of Galesburg, Illinois. “Our market position keeps getting stronger, because the good thing for radio in the small market is that the printed newspaper is losing its influence. Which leaves an opening for us,” says Galesburg Broadcasting’s General Manager Roger Lundeen. While many local newspapers are feeling the pinch of readership decline, by 15 percent in some cases, stations like Galesburg Broadcasting’s WGIL 1400 AM, WAAG 94.9, WKAY 105.3, and WLSR 92.7 are making off with market share by playing more local sports, local news and local content of all kinds.
Solution
The group is linking the operations of all four stations in Galesburg as well as four other stations in Burlington, Iowa, through the Broadcast Electronics AudioVAULT digital media system.
“The AudioVAULT is critical to our operation more so now than ever,” says Lundeen. “We’ve been voice-tracking off the BE system via a WAN for several years, and of course, we’re constantly dropping in local recordings and producing around network delays, that sort of thing.”
The group started using BE’s AudioVAULT originally to replace cart machines, installing one of the then just-introduced redundant hard-drive systems as a failsafe against losing its entire music library. Over the years, the group added networking prowess to its AudioVAULT system.
More recently, Galesburg Broadcasting added BE’s The Radio Experience solution for RDS and HD Radio Messagecasting.
Results
Its stations have been broadcasting song title and artist text to RDS receivers, with the occasional promotional text from local events interleaved for readout on the radio.
