Radio Working Group kicks off its activities

In February 3, the first meeting of the new SET Radio Working Group (WG) took place.

This is the first time that SET has organized on its own group dedicated to radio, a vehicle with such relevance and so popular with a large part of the population.

Check out below the interview with one of the coordinators of the Radio WG, , Marco Túlio Nascimento, member of the Deliberative Council of SET.

SET: What is the main objective of the radio group? Can you position radio in the face of such fast-evolving and disruptive technological changes?

Marco Túlio Nascimento: Traditional OTA (over-the-air) AM/FM radio is just one of the means for audio content production and distribution. New online services with different technologies and business models are appearing every day. Music services, OTA radio schedules replicated online, podcasts, audiobooks and other digital forms are redefining how listeners consume radio content, while reinventing ways for interactivity. For SET, this range of possibilities, indistinctly and in a more far-reaching manner, represents what we call Radio.

I believe that the over-the-air radio of today has a good starting point: good content, know-how and branding. The challenge lies in knowing how to use the potential of the technologies and online opportunities to make it, too, a relevant and equally innovative vehicle in this new competitive environment.

The purpose of the Radio Working Group is to firmly establish SET as a benchmark entity for OTA radio technologies and all forms of online audio content production and distribution, bringing together and coordinating the professionals in the field to study and disseminate the corresponding technical knowledge, thereby benefiting all our associates while contributing to promoting this segment of the media industry.

The Radio WG has a two-front approach: one of them dedicated to regulatory aspects, and the other focused on technology aspects, each with its own coordinator. Members can participate in all activities and all subgroups that may be created to address a particular issue.

SET: Who is responsible for the group?

MTN: The regulatory front of the Radio Working Group is coordinated by Eduardo Cappia, a member of the Deliberative Council of SET.

I [Marco Túlio Nascimento] coordinate the technology front.

SET: In case of doubts and for further information, does the WG have an e-mail telephone number for contact?

MTN: All information about the Radio Working Group can be forwarded to the e-mail [email protected]. 

SET: Who can participate in the group?

MTN: Associate members of SET and special guests.

SET: When will the group meet?

MTN: The group will meet by videoconference every last Monday of the month, from 5 until 6 pm.

SET: What was the agenda of the first meeting?

MTN: The first meeting was to introduce the members of the group and the objectives of both SET and the radio groups, as well as the matrix dynamic of how it will function, and to choose the priority topics to create a working agenda.

In this meeting, we brought together the initial group of professionals who work mainly in the OTA radio area. For reasons of logistics, we will have  a second integration meeting with the professionals working primarily in the field of online audio, thereafter bringing together the entire group.

SET: What is your assessment of the first meeting? How do you expect to see the group operating in 2020?

MTN: We brought together a team of high-quality professionals, creating a group that fairly represents the different regions of Brazil.

We achieved a good level of consensus about the more relevant topics at this moment, and we understand that we have to arouse the interest of the other professionals in the field of radio and, at a wider level, the audio media area.

For 2020, we have already scheduled some deliverables, such as webinars and articles for the SET magazine, showing the results of the groups’ studies and analyses.

The issues identified as priorities to be studied are subjected to review under the FM technical regulations, the implementation of the extended band, the coordinated use of RDS in Brazil and the new forms of audio content distribution, including streaming, 5G and digitalization techniques.

As a consequence of the work and the expansion of the agenda to include online audio topics, we will have an even more significant result, both in terms of volume and quality.

SET: How many participants were there at the first meeting and how many members does the group have?

MTN: This first group of professionals, including the coordinators, totals 14 members, plus two more to be confirmed. As we continue the implementation process in the weeks ahead, I believe we will have 25 or more members.

SET: What is the importance of a Radio Working Group dedicated to the technology and regulatory segments?

MTN:  this is currently the only active forum for discussing technology, innovation and their impacts on the radio business models in Brazil.

SET Radio, for example, a special group of radio and online audio panels within the annual SET EXPO conference, with whom the Radio Groups collaborate to prepare the program schedule, is of high quality and is the only event of its kind in Brazil held on a regular basis.

Now, using the more structured approach of the radio groups, we will be in a position to provide the professionals in the area with better results, and contribute to promoting this segment of the media industry.

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