Interep Mid-year 2005 Radio Symposium ‘Radio’s Reinvention’.

Interep held its second Mid-year Radio Symposium at the Grand Hyatt in New York City. The symposium, which addressed the current opportunities and challenges facing the radio industry, drew over 250 attendees from the financial and media sectors. Victor Miller, Sr. Managing Director, Radio/TV Broadcast Analyst, Bear Stearns, and Drew Marcus, Vice Chairman, Media & Telecom Group, Deutsche Bank Securities, were co-moderators of the day’s event.

The day-long symposium featured speakers and panel discussions, and included representatives from the broadcasting, advertising agency, research and financial sectors. Advertising executives from major agencies including Horizon, Mediaedge:CIA, Mindshare, MPG/Arnold, Mediacom, Mediavest, OMD, and PHD USA participated, as well as broadcasting executives from ABC Radio, Clear Channel, Cox, Emmis Broadcasting, Infinity Broadcasting, Inner City Broadcasting, Saga, Spanish Broadcasting System, Westwood One and WBEB.

Ralph Guild, Interep Chairman and CEO, welcomed the attendees, saying, “Clearly, those working within the radio industry and in complementary fields recognize that our medium is at a crossroads. We are all eager to discuss how to take radio to its next phase of growth — which could be our greatest growth period yet.”

Miller opened the event by stating that radio stock performance over the past 4 years has been exhibiting “Jekyll and Hyde” behavior with consecutive double-digit swings up and down every few months. He dubbed the theme of the day, “Will the real radio please stand up?” and guided subsequent panelists through discussion of the major factors impacting radio: inventory and clutter reduction, emerging formats, the impact of competing technologies, and advances in research and technology.

Joel Hollander, Chairman and CEO, Infinity Broadcasting, participated in the first one-to-one conversation of the day. Mr. Hollander touched on a wide range of topics, stressing the importance of content in an increasingly competitive media environment. He said that Infinity would continue to be aggressive in developing new formats, and investing in new delivery technologies such as streaming and HD Radio conversion. In closing, Hollander added, “(in the near future) consumers will have more choices than ever before and that will have an impact. It is very important that all radio companies invest in their properties and invest in their companies. If we do this, we can get back to solid growth.”

The luncheon session featured the day’s second one-to-one interview with John Hogan, CEO of Clear Channel Radio. Hogan discussed the challenges of implementing “Less is More,” saying that LIM is an organic, evolutionary process and that the company did not expect to get it right “out of the box.” He added that overall, LIM “has been a catalyst for positive momentum for the radio industry.”

The third and final one-to-one interview of the day featured Bill Koenisberg, CEO of Horizon Media. Koenisberg emphasized his clients’ growing demand for accountability, adding, “Radio needs to do a better job in proving ROI. There is an enormous opportunity to take dollars from traditional broadcast media and other sources if only radio invested more time in demonstrating to the ad community that if we put this dollar in radio, this is the return we are going to get. The money would flock to radio … we are waiting for reasons to invest more.”

The roll out of HD Radio was a reoccurring topic on many panels. Pat Walsh, CFO, ibiquity Digital, outlined the capabilities of HD Radio and its potential impact on the industry, particularly as a way to match the services of new technologies such as Satellite radio and iPods. HD Radio also offers added value services such as real-time traffic datacasts and “Tivo-like” record and pause capabilities. Walsh said that broadcasters across the country are currently converting stations to digital at a rate of one to two stations per day.

After moderating a panel on radio’s competition, Drew Marcus summarized his thoughts on the industry, saying “I have never seen the industry more focused on creating programming, developing research that will change advertisers’ perceptions of radio, and on inventory control to improve pricing…new technology threats do not always eat away at the pie, they can expand the pie. I believe radio’s future is much brighter than the naysayers would have you think.”

On a similar note, Natalie Swed Stone, Director National Radio, OMD, praised the initiatives that radio has recently embarked upon, stating “I haven’t been to a meeting recently … internal or external … where people haven’t been amazed at how much radio has accomplished in the past 6 months, in research, programming, technology … the medium truly is reinventing itself.”

For more information at http://www.radiosymposium.com