PODGORICA 31.10.2018. – “Video killed the radio star” – is a song of The Buggles from 1979, a lament for the golden age of radio, when families gathered round the set to marvel at music and news, brought to their homes through voice and sound alone. Almost forty years later, even though it loses the race with modern technologies, radio survives.
Montenegro was a pioneer in radiotelegraphy in this part of Europe. For the first time in the Balkans, radio signal was emitted from Volujica, the hill near Bar. On 27 November 1944, Radio Cetinje, present-day Radio of Montenegro started broadcasting news and war reports.
In the meantime, however, many things have changed. From the radio waves the statesmen used to address the people, wars were announced, the landing of a man on the Moon was broadcasted, whilst in modern Montenegro radio seems to be increasingly perceived as pastime and entertainment.
Radio audience is likely to be defined by music. It is confirmed by the fact that in Montenegro dominate radio stations broadcasting mostly music. According to the Agency for electronic media data from March 2017, there were 36 commercial radio broadcasters in Montenegro. Four of them have no informative programmes, whilst the rest of them have short news, so short and unnoticeable that we almost cross them. The rest of the programme include advertisements, prize games, service information and some trivialities. On the average, on a weekly basis, the programme of commercial radio broadcasters contains 77% of the music.
Local radio stations, 14 in Montenegro, broadcast nearly 7 hours of different spoken programmes (informative, sports, culture), whilst the rest of the programme includes music.
The informative programme is the dominant feature of the Public Broadcaster, the First Programme of the Radio of Montenegro. The Second Channel of the Radio of Montenegro broadcasts mostly music. The First Channel broadcasts 13,5 hours of different contents (informative, culture and arts, documentary, science and education, sports, radio dramas…). According to the Research of Defacto Agency from August 2017, consumption of radio increases in comparison to 2016. Still, the data show that the National Radio is regularly listened to by 8,4% respondents, periodically by 27%, rarely by 17,8%, never by 46,9% of the interviewees.
The Research did not tackle the issue of trust and number of listeners of the National Radio. It has shown that radio as mass media is more often listened to than a year before.
The oldest electronic media was listened to by the half of the respondents during the last 24 hours, whilst in 2016. 37,3% of the interviewees did so. As expected, 25,6% of the respondents regularly listen to radio in cars, periodically 39,9%. At home, radio is periodically listened to by 37,4%, regularly by 15,9% of the interviewees. There is an interesting datum about online radio consumption. Although many predict that the future of the radio is on the internet, the data show something else, at least in Montenegro. Only 8,2% of the respondents listen to radio online, periodically 16,5%, never do 69,7%. Percents around the world are different, though. According to the biggest British research media agency, RAJAR, 20% of the adult respondents choose the internet radio. Polls say that the numbers tripled up in the United States as well as the number of those getting informed on the internet. That number increased in Montenegro too, but according to Defacto Agency, Montenegrins mostly get information from TV, 62,2%, on the internet 34,1%, in the newspapers 2,7% and the radio is at the bottom – only 0,6% of the interviewees are loyal to radio.
Considering all the available data, radio has been listened to and it puts up with the online competition in a dignified way. But decrease of informativeness and actuality of the speech-based content is worrying.
No doubt that absence of younger audience is a black hole of ours and global radiophony as well. Attracting younger listeners is, according to many, crucial. Just 20 years ago, radio was the main source of new information on the music, but that role was stolen by the internet.
Therefore, radio should use the internet for its own needs. Nowadays, there are podcasts, services on demand, streamings…and they should be used for right purposes. That`s not everything. For example, BBC, whose second channel, despite its tough commercial competition, is the most listened to in Britain, advocates returning to a contact programme hosted by experienced radio journalists. That sounds logical, having in mind that the very format of public debate on actual topics, where a journalist is an active participant, brought popularity of the radio. Return to the old formats or creative use of the modern technologies – it is a matter of choice, but the oldest electronic media should not give up.
This article has been produced as a part of the project Western Balkan’s Regional Platform for advocating media freedom and journalists’ safety with the financial assistance of the European Union. The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia and its authors, and can in no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union.