First fully interactive radio station in Canada

Interest tidbit from north of the border (props to NWBroadcasters for the story).

10/17/17 - KiSS RADiO CKKS-FM 104.9 Vancouver (also Chilliwack and Abbotsford) has become the first fully interactive radio station in Canada, giving listeners musical control. The station is now allowing listeners to select the music played, all day, every day, through the KiSS RADiO app and website. Listeners can choose from the station’s playlist, with songs pushed up and down in real time, as listeners vote on what songs to play. PD John Hipper says audience expectations were changing, and the move would help engage listeners on digital platforms.

http://dailyhive.com/vancouver/kiss-radio-complete-musical-control-fully-interactive

I wonder if this could this ever come to Seattle?

Of the many ideas I've come up with if I owned a radio station, this would be one of them. Attempts at this have been tried (think KSKR in Roseburg) but they seem to all fail eventually, not really sure why. Imo the only station that did (or maybe still does) it right is WARH. They call their segment You Call It Live, and it runs every weeknight 7-midnight. They still retain a live jock in the studio as well. That's my complaint about most of these interactive stations, they're all automated.

bobdavcav said:

Of the many ideas I've come up with if I owned a radio station, this would be one of them. Attempts at this have been tried (think KSKR in Roseburg) but they seem to all fail eventually, not really sure why. Imo the only station that did (or maybe still does) it right is WARH. They call their segment You Call It Live, and it runs every weeknight 7-midnight. They still retain a live jock in the studio as well. That's my complaint about most of these interactive stations, they're all automated.

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But to play the devil's advocate, how is this really different from the age-old countdown shows? Isn't this the same as listeners calling in for their favorite songs (KPLZ Hit Election back in the day), and other shows that beat this concept to death. Yes, this is using new technology and expanding the idea, but I don't think this is a great advancement from what radio has been doing for decades. Now get off my lawn!

They can pick any song they want from a list of 200 songs. I don't think this will last long.

Seems to me this was the idea behind Jelli, a user-based programming service. It was syndicated around the country for about 5 years, but was discontinued in the US a couple years ago.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jelli

A reverse Jack-FM type format would be cool with an interactive format. (Playing what you want, instead of what they want). Could have anything from the 60s to today.

Doomed. Simply doesn't work. The options are too available today. Want to listen to your favorite music? Radio doesn't offer it. Another step to the end of over the air broadcasting. While this platform will not die suddenly, it will die eventually. The biggest loss will be the personalities who have added their contributions to the medium. I don't see any replacement of those personalities at this point, and that is sad.

^^^^^^ One harbinger of OTA radio's demise is that apparently -- at least according to one study -- younger people who don't have radios already, increasingly don't listen to online radio streams. To them, the entire broadcast radio system is bypassed. While that trend may change, it is a disturbing one.

"People who don’t own radios are less likely to stream local stations. Many broadcasters assumed that as traditional radios disappeared, listeners would simply use their smartphones as 21st century transistor radios, whether through a station’s own app or aggregators such as TuneIn and iHeartRadio Unfortunately, that’s not happening."

http://www.radioworld.com/tech-and-gear/0003/alexa-and-the-vanishing-amfm-radio/340533

Big A is correct, this was tried with and on-line/automation solution called Jelli on some test stations a couple years ago. From what I've heard, listeners had trouble with either going to the website, making their request, then transitioning back to the radio to hear if it was played. Either the listener transition wasn't made, there simply weren't enough who played along, or there were what amounted to trolls, who (just like in the days of request lines), would spend inordinate amounts of spare time entering in their favorites, over and over, adversely effecting the station sound.

For as much as your radio hobbyist hates to hear it, there is a reason stations play music from safe lists or play music that comes up through research. Those are the most popular stations. Allowing a select few listeners to dictate the playlist, is a recipe for failure.

boombox4 said:

"People who don’t own radios are less likely to stream local stations. Many broadcasters assumed that as traditional radios disappeared, listeners would simply use their smartphones as 21st century transistor radios, whether through a station’s own app or aggregators such as TuneIn and iHeartRadio Unfortunately, that’s not happening."

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And yet 90 million people stream local radio stations on iHeartRadio. Millions more on other apps. This poll may reflect what people say, but not what people do. No surprise.

Come to think of it, isn't WSUN still all interactive? My complaint about them, like just about any other station that has tried this, is that they're all automated. Give me an interactive station like what WLHT, Jelli, or WARH were doing with the same level of personality I'm used to on any other station.

TheBigA said:

And yet 90 million people stream local radio stations on iHeartRadio. Millions more on other apps. This poll may reflect what people say, but not what people do. No surprise.

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But how many of those 90 million are in the younger demographic, as opposed to the one in the study? Looking at the graphs in the article, a lot of people still have radios at work, in their car, and even at home. But according to the article, the younger demographics don't stream local radio stations as much as the population in general. And they're less likely to have a radio. At least that is what I glean from reading it.

boombox4 said:

But how many of those 90 million are in the younger demographic, as opposed to the one in the study?

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They were fairly vague about the 3100 people they spoke to for the study. They didn't share the geographic make up, or the questions asked. I'd suggest the sample size Nielsen uses is more representative, and Nielsen says the younger demos listen to radio in the same percentages as they did 25 years ago. So they may be listening on air or online. The point is they listen.

Radio reaches well over 90% of millennials in Canada.

TheBigA said:

They were fairly vague about the 3100 people they spoke to for the study. They didn't share the geographic make up, or the questions asked. I'd suggest the sample size Nielsen uses is more representative, and Nielsen says the younger demos listen to radio in the same percentages as they did 25 years ago. So they may be listening on air or online. The point is they listen.

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Perhaps that data is in the study itself, which -- unfortunately -- isn't apparently readily available. Point well taken, though.