Nowadays, nearly everyone in Europe owns at least one smartphone. In comparison, the number of people who own a radio set is continuously decreasing and the groups of people having a smart TV (or a tv-stick) is rapidly rising. You have to admit that there definitely is a need for visualising content, even in radio. Because if it’s technically possible to see something, people do want to see something.
The biggest private radio station in Austria is Kronehit. Daniela Linzer joined the team at the beginning and now acts as Programme Director. The station has a different kind of visualisation – Kronehit TV. You can watch on their app or on their website. They show music videos and add videoclips of the presenters, like jingles on the radio. Additionally, they invented “Kronehit Smart” – a digital radio player for smartphones on which you hear the usual programme with the presenter, news, service, jingles and songs – but also, you can swipe to the next songs or segment with this app.
Armin Rogl has been a presenter at Austria’s biggest radio station Ö3 for 9 years. For him the main question is: “Where? You can’t watch it while driving the car, I wouldn’t watch it on the smartphone, so – where do people use it?” Armin considers Facebook Livestreams as Visual Radio too. He thinks Visual Radio will catch attention when something actually happens, like interactions with people or guests in a radio studio.
In 2003 Armin wrote a book, “Radio Future”. Since then, he says, it hasn’t so much happened in the world of digital radio. Armin agrees on the importance of visualisation, but he is sceptical about “Visual Radio”. Often it means you can watch the studio on a webcam and sometimes you may read song titles, the weather or news.
Rüdiger Landgraf of Kronehit will give a talk about their app at Radiodays Europe Vienna 2018. Check out his session if you look for further information.
By Simone Taßler and Carina Pichler from FH Wien
