Radio and New Media Technologies: An Asian Perspective

The major traditional radio broadcast systems in the recent times have comfortably in one way or another embraced the new media technologies. One can see a lot of interest taken by the conventional radio broadcasters in distributing their content over web-related services. Moving away from the conventional “over the air” transmission to web-based content distribution (Spotify and other social media sites for instance) are being seriously contemplated by some radio stations in Asia.

One may argue that it is a natural progression for any industry to upgrade and expand their services. This lecture will discuss the specific aspects of the evolving traditional medium and will consider exploring answers for the following questions. Can this argument be valid for a medium like Radio which is touted as a topical medium? Are the listeners ready for such a transformation? What would be the repercussions of such a shift? Will radio move away from its aural strategy to incorporate visual strategy during its transformation? Will both these strategies work together and prepare the listeners for a new hybrid medium called the Visual Radio? Would radio lose its main characteristic of the “theatre of the mind”?

K. Padmakumar works as Head Dept of Corporate Communication in Mass Communication& Journalism (Manipal University Manipal) handling subjects like Commercial Radio, Community Radio, Media Research, Indian Media, Media Marketing and Research, Strategic Media Planning Corporate Communication.
He also works as Radio Programming /Strategic cum Marketing Consultant for Udayavaani. the no 1 newspaper group in Karnataka, India, for their fm radio ventures in Karnataka, India.

Before, he worked for Radio City 91.1FM as Programming Director, Coimbatore, India, and for Suryan FM (Sun TV network) as a Prime-time RJ cum show producer. Radio City 91.1FM is India's first and leading FM radio brand. Promoted by Music Broadcast Private Limited (MBPL), the private FM network has captured the hearts of millions of listeners across 20 FM stations in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Pune, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Jaipur, Vadodara, Surat, Sholapur, Nagpur, Sangli, Coimbatore, Vizag, Ahmednagar, Akola, Nanded and Jalgaon.

K. Padmakumar has completed a Phil degree in Mass Communication from Bharathiar University, CBE, a Master's degree in Mass Communication from Bharathiar University, CBE and a  Bachelor s degree in Zoology from Government Arts College, Ooty.