Trends in Radio

The readings for the week of April 16th were focused a lot on upcoming trends in radio or lack there of. I really related to the interview with Richard Laermer about 'trend spotting'. I liked how he commented about a lot of the industry being one-sided. It is important for people to know a little bit about a lot of things. Although each station has their 'stereotypical' listener, in order to gain more listeners stations should experiment with diversifying. I think Bearcast can really take something from this. Most music played is focused between a few genres, this is so because the DJ of each show is playing what they are interested in and for the most part many members of Bearcast share the same taste in music. A possible solution... scout new talent. Find incoming freshman or even students entering their senior year that have different tastes and likes and encourage them not only to get involved with Bearcast but to put a considerable amount to time into producing a show that is uniquely their own. He also states that radio does not take advantage of reaching out and becoming involved in the local community. At Bearcast I feel that efforts are becoming more focused on getting out into the community; everyone has their head in the right place, it will just take not only time but continued effort through the members to maintain and expand our reach into the community. In order to create a name/ a brand if you will for our station, we have to know what consumers want, what they are into and what they like to do. This will take time but it will also take a good amount of in-depth research, not just paper questionnaires but real discussion. I think it would be a great idea for every management member to bring in two to three or maybe even more friends that are completely different, everyone would pick a few friends that are polar opposites and we could conduct a focus group with them. Although the responses and input would be extremely varied it would serve as a starting point and give some initial answers to the question of what is is that UC students really want to hear, know about an ultimately what do they really care about?