A new Radio Committee was elected for a two-year term on the second day of the 23^rd Radio Assembly hosted by Czech Radio in Pilsen on 5 May.

Graham Ellis, Deputy Director of BBC Radio, was re-elected for a third term in the post saying it was “a great pleasure, an honour and privilege to serve all Members.”

“We live in tricky times,” he continued. “The more we hang together, the better off we shall be.”

Marius Lillelien (NRK), Serge Schick (SRF) and Rene Zavoral (CR) were all elected Vice Chairs.

The other committee members elected for the two-year term are: Angelika Bierbaum (ARD/HR), Andrea Borgnino (RAI), Francis Goffin (RTBF), Jose Gabriel Herrero (RTVE), Miha Lampreht (RTVSLO), Gustav Lutzhoft (DR), Zoran Mihajlovic (HRT) Marianna Mucsanyi (MTVA), Albena Milanova (BNR) and Marc Savary (SRG SSR).

The challenges for radio in a multi-platform world were also tackled on the Assembly’s second day.

Francis Goffin, General Director of Radio at Belgian French Member RTBF, spoke about his experience of the growth of radio aggregators such as Tunein.

“These aggregators are all commercial and they are becoming more and more powerful on the internet and are now behaving as real gatekeepers; they’ve taken possession of the relationship we have traditionally had with our listeners which has risks of for all the radio industry,” he told the Assembly.

Goffin showcased how RTBF joined with the private radio sector in French speaking Belgium to counter the threat by creating “radioplayer.be” a platform where stations “compete with content rather than technology. We have full control over our brands, visuals, advertising revenues and, importantly, our data.”

Radioplayer.be is now part of a worldwide alliance with a goal to be in all cars

“Instead of developing on our own we can share what we do and we can become the gatekeepers once again,” Goffin concluded.

Third party devices, aggregation and new platforms were also discussed by the EBU’s new Head of Digital Ezra Eeman who told the Assembly his role was to work transversally across the EBU to create Member services that help them to reach out to their audiences. This includes creating frameworks that help Members have better partnerships with online players such as Facebook, Google and Amazon.

With this in mind, Tomas Granryd Head of the Innovation Team Swedish Radio demonstrated some of the work his team are doing at finding ways of distributing and producing radio for the future to meet listener demands.

These included an atomised news service that allows listeners to skip stories that they don’t like and hear more detail about those they do. Another experiment allows the audience to be their own scheduler – switching between music, news and travel as and when they want it.

“Everything we do right now aims towards one thing", Granryd said. “We think that the new devices like Amazon Echo and Google Home are the future. These voice controlled devices are perfect for radio.”

Making sound more shareable on social media as well is one of the focuses of the EBU’s New Radio Group. John Paul Coakley, Director of Operations for RTE Radio who sits on it, said social media provides opportunities for the radio community to grow.

“94 percent of 16 to 24 year olds own a smartphone,” he said. “It becomes the primal port to their media experience; to be on these devices is important – they have visual interfaces so radio should combine with visuals.”

Two projects that do just that and that have benefitted from the EBU’s Radio Innovation Fund were showcased at the Assembly.

RTBF demonstrated Storyboard – an animated way of using audio with pictures to create a bridge between radio and social media. The BBC also used animation for their short form drama in 12 parts “Quake”; designed so the listener can choose individual stand-alone episodes or listen in one go. The drama tells the story of 12 different stories of those caught in an earthquake and is intended to appeal to audiences of all ages on all platforms.

In a quiz, the EBU Media Intelligence Service’s David Fernandez-Quijada tested the Assembly’s knowledge on public service radio in Europe, asking questions on the number of DAB, children’s and international stations among others. The majority of delegates correctly guessed that PSM has a 37% market share across Europe but didn’t know that the UK has the most MW stations in Europe at 93 – over half thought it was Russia.

The newly re-elected Chair of the Radio Committee ended the 23^rd Radio Assembly by thanking hosts Czech Radio as it was announced that next year’s Assembly, held jointly with Television, would be held in Brussels on 19 and 20 April 2018.