[BC] Facebook virus

[Sid Schweiger]

Scott Bailey opines: "I tend to stay away from sites like facebook, twitter, myspace, etc. To me, they are nothing but kiddie, teenage sites."

Kiddie, teenage sites that radio stations are flocking to like bees swarming their nest.  That's where their listeners are (and no, not just teenagers...adults use these sites too, in ever increasing numbers).  Social networking is clearly not just the flavor of the moment.

Cousin Brucie, who does two shows a week on Sirius-XM 60's on 6, has a Facebook page.  His listeners are hardly teenagers, yet he has thousands of people who have "friended" him.  Three of our stations, active-rock WAAF, all-sports WEEI and all-talk WRKO use a social-networking/text-messaging service called Vibes and integrate what people send them into the shows, in real time, via computer monitors in the studios.  The pages automatically scroll and refresh, and they are doing so continuously, sometimes so much so that the air personalities can't keep up.

Part of the survival of our business is staying relevant to our audiences.  You need to be where your listeners are.  It may not apply to every radio station in the country just yet, but this is a trend that shows no sign of slowing down.  I think some of it may be far too trivial (the entire world does not have to know what I'm doing every second of every day, which is the premise of Twitter), but this is what people are getting into, and radio needs to stay on top of it.

Sid Schweiger
IT Manager, Entercom New England
20 Guest St / 3d Floor
Brighton MA  02135-2040