Lessons for Uganda’s broadcast media
Mar 04, 2010
Of late, I have stopped listening to talk-shows on FM radios in this country. I used to bear listening in and making a few comments but recently when I reunited with my family, I discovered that my son who is six years old had made a choice for all of us. He banned FM radio in the house and car
By Isaiah Mbuga
Of late, I have stopped listening to talk-shows on FM radios in this country. I used to bear listening in and making a few comments but recently when I reunited with my family, I discovered that my son who is six years old had made a choice for all of us. He banned FM radio in the house and car and instead opted for tapes and CDs.
When I inquired, I was told the things he listened in to on my favourite radio spoilt his day. In the past, I would scan the airwaves for a station that could be sensitive to parents riding with their children.
I failed to find it. Even those which claimed to take care of family needs stilled aired some things that cannot pass for family listening.
I knew that my son needed to be exposed to the real world by hearing what was happening out there and around us but it did not work.
Since I train broadcast professionals in this country, I feel that some of our radio managers have greatly let us down on several fronts.
Some of the issues these managers need to consider include:
lAudience segmentation is a process of partitioning mass audiences into smaller segments. The key thing here is that each media house identifies a niche in the market, studies its characteristics and consequently develops programming fit for that specific group.
If there was radio research in Uganda, we would have radio stations broadcasting for particular audiences, but instead the reverse is happening. Stations just broadcast for anyone because they compete for the same market.
It is very difficult to tell a religious radio station from a secular one, a station meant for young adults and that for adults.
When I started analysing the trends in 2005, I was taken aback with the discoveries I made. Even when you see some bit of creativity brought in by Bukedde TV to have local lingua ( voice over) Super FM’s approach of accented Luganda, the trend is that when a radio station does something unique, others are quick to copy it, making the listening experience monotonous.
When it comes to sports news and programmes, similar sound beds, tones and time are used to run the programmes. One, therefore, questions whether media houses understand that they are duplicating other stations programming and are happy to continue that way.
lAnother area radio managers should consider to improve broadcasting is content sensitivity. Here the media house must dedicate itself to recruit, please and retain the targeted audience, by first of all, developing its programming to fit around the ideal listener’s schedule.
This would mean that if the ideal listener for a particular station is a teenager, everything must be seen through the lense of a teenager.
However, in Uganda it is hard to define certain media houses, or to even place them in as far as their audience is concerned.
And this is a problem for those who have specific interests. Media houses care less about the impact of their choices and abuse the freedom to select content for their audiences. The challenge is that this is a social contract and is self-imposed by the media.
What I foresee is that if things continue this way, many people will increasingly lose interest in the specific media channels.
lFeedback is another crucial element in communication. It is the process by which communicators know that the message they delivered had the desired effect.
Sometimes when people do not like something they may tell you. Other times they may simply move away or change to your competitor. In radio business, feedback may take longer to surface, but people do react and pretty much faster these days.
The fiber cable is bound to make the media more competitive. It will be easier to download a movie from the Internet. When an audience does not get what they are looking for at a certain radio, they switch to an mp3 or MP4 player with songs in a play list.
This is a default position. After sometime they may drop the radio station for good and try another.
However, there has also been abuse on the feedback. I feel it is not proper for a programme host to tell the audience the topic to discuss and then five minutes later open the lines for audience members to contribute.
In the traditional approach, the host prepares the script, identifies the resource persons and is in charge of the show, the audience plays the listening role. Now things have changed. The audience is talking back to the show host.
So, the show host is no longer in charge of the show. The audience is. However, not all listeners will be willing to say something. That is why I do not think that one should base on the number of calls they have received to assess their level of success or failure.
I have seen audience power at its greatest thrust when they call in and ask management to retract a statement or recall a show host who has been fired.
The audience has its place, but the ultimate responsibility of what goes on in the show is the responsibility of the host.
Disclaimers cannot exonerate a producer, yet at the sametime no one can tell at what point the caller may say bad things on air. The only trick is to reduce the number of callers on a particular show, restrict them to asking questions and then use experts to respond to the issues raised.
As long as the audience thinks they can say anything, they will use radio to vent their anger and in the process say things beyond the producer or presenter’s control an act that could affect the station’s credibility.
The writer is a broadcast consultant and lecturer
Of late, I have stopped listening to talk-shows on FM radios in this country. I used to bear listening in and making a few comments but recently when I reunited with my family, I discovered that my son who is six years old had made a choice for all of us. He banned FM radio in the house and car and instead opted for tapes and CDs.
When I inquired, I was told the things he listened in to on my favourite radio spoilt his day. In the past, I would scan the airwaves for a station that could be sensitive to parents riding with their children.
I failed to find it. Even those which claimed to take care of family needs stilled aired some things that cannot pass for family listening.
I knew that my son needed to be exposed to the real world by hearing what was happening out there and around us but it did not work.
Since I train broadcast professionals in this country, I feel that some of our radio managers have greatly let us down on several fronts.
Some of the issues these managers need to consider include:
lAudience segmentation is a process of partitioning mass audiences into smaller segments. The key thing here is that each media house identifies a niche in the market, studies its characteristics and consequently develops programming fit for that specific group.
If there was radio research in Uganda, we would have radio stations broadcasting for particular audiences, but instead the reverse is happening. Stations just broadcast for anyone because they compete for the same market.
It is very difficult to tell a religious radio station from a secular one, a station meant for young adults and that for adults.
When I started analysing the trends in 2005, I was taken aback with the discoveries I made. Even when you see some bit of creativity brought in by Bukedde TV to have local lingua ( voice over) Super FM’s approach of accented Luganda, the trend is that when a radio station does something unique, others are quick to copy it, making the listening experience monotonous.
When it comes to sports news and programmes, similar sound beds, tones and time are used to run the programmes. One, therefore, questions whether media houses understand that they are duplicating other stations programming and are happy to continue that way.
lAnother area radio managers should consider to improve broadcasting is content sensitivity. Here the media house must dedicate itself to recruit, please and retain the targeted audience, by first of all, developing its programming to fit around the ideal listener’s schedule.
This would mean that if the ideal listener for a particular station is a teenager, everything must be seen through the lense of a teenager.
However, in Uganda it is hard to define certain media houses, or to even place them in as far as their audience is concerned.
And this is a problem for those who have specific interests. Media houses care less about the impact of their choices and abuse the freedom to select content for their audiences. The challenge is that this is a social contract and is self-imposed by the media.
What I foresee is that if things continue this way, many people will increasingly lose interest in the specific media channels.
lFeedback is another crucial element in communication. It is the process by which communicators know that the message they delivered had the desired effect.
Sometimes when people do not like something they may tell you. Other times they may simply move away or change to your competitor. In radio business, feedback may take longer to surface, but people do react and pretty much faster these days.
The fiber cable is bound to make the media more competitive. It will be easier to download a movie from the Internet. When an audience does not get what they are looking for at a certain radio, they switch to an mp3 or MP4 player with songs in a play list.
This is a default position. After sometime they may drop the radio station for good and try another.
However, there has also been abuse on the feedback. I feel it is not proper for a programme host to tell the audience the topic to discuss and then five minutes later open the lines for audience members to contribute.
In the traditional approach, the host prepares the script, identifies the resource persons and is in charge of the show, the audience plays the listening role. Now things have changed. The audience is talking back to the show host.
So, the show host is no longer in charge of the show. The audience is. However, not all listeners will be willing to say something. That is why I do not think that one should base on the number of calls they have received to assess their level of success or failure.
I have seen audience power at its greatest thrust when they call in and ask management to retract a statement or recall a show host who has been fired.
The audience has its place, but the ultimate responsibility of what goes on in the show is the responsibility of the host.
Disclaimers cannot exonerate a producer, yet at the sametime no one can tell at what point the caller may say bad things on air. The only trick is to reduce the number of callers on a particular show, restrict them to asking questions and then use experts to respond to the issues raised.
As long as the audience thinks they can say anything, they will use radio to vent their anger and in the process say things beyond the producer or presenter’s control an act that could affect the station’s credibility.
The writer is a broadcast consultant and lecturer