Heard it on the radio

The voices are familiar but not the faces. At five o’clock every morning, Gerry Baja and Anthony Taberna are now being simultaneously heard on the radio program, ‘Dos por Dos’ and on cable TV’s "Gising Pinoy".

"Radio is evolving in an effort to widen its market base. In Southeast Asia, there is cable radio, with up to 100 channels. In the United States, the trend is to use the internet. Here in the Philippines, we are experimenting with radio straddling two platforms and the new sales opportunities that come with it," said Peter Musngi, vice-president for the Manila radio division of ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. and concurrent managing director of ABS-CBN News Channel or ANC. "The challenge is to make whatever is said on radio more visually exciting for the TV audience. That means placing more than one TV camera inside the radio booth and coming up with graphics support."

The Manila radio division, which directly supervises AM station, DZMM, and FM station, DWRR, has 17 reporters of its own. It also has access to 20 correspondents from the company’s regional network group, which supervises two other AM stations and 15 FM stations elsewhere in the country, as well as to 35 reporters from ABS-CBN-Channel 2’s news division.

Ratings

Just like TV, radio is driven by ratings. In Metro Manila, where 91% of households own radios compared to 97% who have access to TV, 80% of the AM radio business is divided among only three of the 25 existing radio stations.

"A few years back, 10 of the most popular AM stations were making money; now, only three are earning. Advertisers are looking for media value. They no longer buy 20-seconders that will drive sales," said Musngi.

To a large extent, globalization has changed the entertainment patterns of Metro Manila households. Ten years ago, between 20% and 30% of households relied on radio, particularly AM radio, for entertainment. Today, AM radio has an average 5% household base in Metro Manila while FM has 8%. In other urban centers such as Cebu and Davao, radio’s base is still at double-digit levels.

"The downside is radio must compete with TV in terms of household entertainment. The upside is radio’s increased usage among mobile listeners or those on the road. For example, Forbes Park residents listen to radio an average of 2.5 hours a day because they are caught in traffic going to and from work. Taxi drivers tune in for traffic updates," said Musngi.

Picking Winners

In the first quarter of 2005, ABS-CBN posted a net loss of P114 million, in spite of stable revenues from Channel 2 and the Manila radio division.

In efforts to bring in more revenues, the Manila radio division regularly evaluates its programming and comes up with promotions and contests to give advertisers additional media value. It has also asked AC Nielsen to conduct quarterly surveys this year, a first since 2001, on what radio listeners want and to validate its own findings from internally conducted focus discussion groups.

"We know, for example, that AM is personality driven and programs need credible anchors. What we want to find out is whether we are using our talents effectively. People are looking for mouthpieces who could start discussion on an issue and follow through. We are strong on breaking news and public service, which go well with our corporate imaging. Our emotional take is that we care and are one with our listeners. We want to know whether that comes across to in all our programming," said Musngi.

In Metro Manila, that message is clearly heard on the radio.