Radio, a medium that is starting to get a second look from many
PR professionals, has added a feature that may provide new PR
opportunities. The capability, Radio Data System (RDS), allows FM
radio stations to send text and data to properly equipped receivers.
While in its commercial infancy, RDS already is used by more than
250 FM stations nationwide. More than one million radios equipped to
receive RDS have been sold, according to the Consumer Electronics
Manufacturers Association (CEMA). Offering the radios today are at
least three major manufacturers: Denon, Delco and Pioneer Electronics.
The radios are being sold in home sound system receivers as well as in
units for automobiles.
In addition to allowing transmittal of text messages up to 64
characters long which show up on an LED or LCD display, RDS also
allows radios to be tuned by call letters.
Little PR, Ad Use So Far
The technology appears to be so new that few stations have begun
using it for advertising or other promotions, such as public service
announcements (PSAs). KTBZ, a Houston rock station, has begun using
the service to send text messages to a roadside billboard the station
operates.
According to Mike Hudman, chief engineer, use by the station's
advertisers has been "discussed," but no action--even establishment of
pricing--has been taken.
New Networks for Stations?
Allan Hartle, president of The Smart Radio Store, a software and
electronics company in Bellevue, Wash. which makes RDS billboard
equipment, predicts that some radio stations will adopt RDS technology
to create, in effect, new channels. In this scenario, radio stations
would broadcast RDS information--probably new content created for
specific audiences--to small, portable billboards that would be
located in venues such as sports bars. (CEMA, 703/907-7674; KTBZ,
713/968-1000; Smart Radio Store, 206/641-9043)
Radio Holding Its Audience
A study released last week by the Pew Research Center for the
People and the Press, Washington, D.C., shows that radio is holding
onto its news audience, while broadcast television news faces
declining viewership.
Just three years ago, nightly network television news broadcasts
were seen by 60 percent of the public; Pew's 1996 data shows that
figure has dropped to 42 percent. Asked about radio, 44 percent of
poll respondents reported listening to radio news, a proportion that
has stayed the same during the past five years, according to Pew.
The audience stability of radio should lead more PR executives to
take a look at the medium, said Tom Sweeney, president of radio
production and placement firm North American Network Inc., Bethesda,
Md. (Pew, 202;293-3126; North American, 301/654-9810)
You Can't Always Get What You Want
PR folks are supposed to let their bosses get the media shots.
But a Washington Post photographer snapped Joseph Cahalan, Xerox Corp.
[XRX] instead of his boss, Paul Allaire, chairman. In a May 13 story
about a Congressional reception at the Library of Congress in
Washington, Cahalan, director of corporate communications and public
relations, appeared in the paper's "style section, smiling with actor
James Earl Jones and Jones' wife, Cecilia.
Xerox officials attended the reception in recognition of the
company's $1 million gift funding an exhibition of historical
documents housed at the library. (Xerox, 203/968-3000)