Food for thought

I love pizza. Some people are really into making their own from scratch, getting their hands into the dough, throwing it about their head etc. I'd rather go to the local Village Pizza. And that's why radio will never die. Let me explain ...

We've been having a debate recently about how many interviews that are broadcast on air should also be available online.

The first, gut reaction was VERY FEW. After all if listeners can go to their PC and listen to the interviews whenever they like, why would they listen to the radio station? Lots of reasons actually, including laziness.

The radio station has music, world news, and various features as well as interviews, and mixes these into a smooth, rich, day long listening experience. The radio station does all the work for you.

Last weekend I was doing some work in the office. There was no one else about, so I opened the studio door, turned up the speakers and started blasting out some favourite songs. I soon got tired of having to stop what I was doing every 3 or 4 minutes to change tracks. Yes I could have turned the studio into a giant iPod and opened up our playout software, inserted some songs, put them into a suitable order and hit play. But I've already done that for the radio station. So I just turned up the radio instead.

Every now and then some techie type predicts radio will die out as increasingly sophisticated gizmos empower the audience, allowing them to create a bespoke audio experience from downloaded bits and pieces. Which is great for the few who are really into that. But, like me and gathering all the component parts to make pizza from scratch, most of us just can't be arsed.

That's not to say radio won't change. It has to. It has to embrace new technology and pursue innovation. That's certainly what we're doing. That's why we'll be adding more and more on demand interviews to the website in the near future. Sure that service uses components of the radio station, but it's not the radio station. After all, just because I've bought tomatoes, peppers and aubergines from the market in Croydon doesn't mean I'm going to stop nipping into Village Pizza.