TheJakartaPost

Please Update your browser

Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.

Jakarta Post

‘#Radioguemati’ puts limelight back on radio stations

In the middle of a traffic jam on Jl

Dian Septiari (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Wed, December 13, 2017

Share This Article

Change Size

‘#Radioguemati’ puts limelight back on radio stations

I

n the middle of a traffic jam on Jl. Letjen Suprapto in Central Jakarta, sales engineer Maman Permana Sidik was utterly devastated when the radio station he was listening to played only static on Monday morning.

Spending almost four hours a day commuting to and from his office or meeting clients, Maman had always resorted to Hard Rock FM to entertain himself.

However, when the radio went silent at around 8 a.m., he said he thought his car radio was broken.

“The traffic is the worst during these hours and I really need a mood booster,” he said.

He later found out about the #Radioguemati (#Myradioisdead) campaign on Twitter, in which all commercial radio stations in Jakarta stopped broadcasting from 7:45 a.m. to 8 a.m.

At exactly 8 a.m., the sound of static was replaced with the national anthem, Indonesia Raya, followed by a recording of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s voice saying, “Emang enak nggak ada radio. Saya Joko Widodo, pendengar radio.” (“How was it without the radio? I am Joko Widodo, a radio listener.”)

The hashtag #Radioguemati become Monday’s trending topic in the nation, reaching up to 40 million mentions on Twitter.

The campaign was initiated by the Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian National Private Broadcast Radio Association (PRSSNI), which consists of 37 private radio stations on air in the capital. It aimed to increase awareness of the relevance of radio broadcasting in Jakarta.

Jakarta-chapter PRSSNI chairman Muhammad Rafiq said the idea of the campaign was started by radio crews that lamented the decline of listeners and ad revenue.

“This campaign was to say that radio is not a ‘conventional, old school medium’, but a much-needed medium that can adapt to changes,” he said.

Data from Nielsen’s Consumer Media View and Radio Audience Measurement showed that there are currently 62.3 million radio listeners across the country, 9 million of whom are in Greater Jakarta.

Greater Jakarta’s listenership reached 37 percent this year, a slight increase compared to last year’s 36 percent. “But it is far from the 70 percent listenership we garnered 5 years ago,” Muhammad Rafiq said.

More than half of Jakarta’s radio listeners are under 35 years old, according to the research, and typically listen to the radio via their mobile phones.

The driving factor of the radio audience was emotional engagement, something that did not occur in other media, said Nielsen’s executive director of media, Hellen Katherina.

“Most of our respondents said they still listen to the radio because it made them feel less lonely,” she said, adding that broadcasters established a personal connection with their audience — something that cannot be replicated by music streaming services.

Rafiq added that radio should not be categorized as “traditional” media because it has changed with the times.

He said instead of the old-school radio transistor, there were many ways to access the radio, including online streaming through the station’s website, apps or the radio function available on most mobile phones.

Nielsen data showed that radio’s advertising expenditure (ADEX) contributed only Rp 1.2 trillion to national ADEX between January to September this year, or about 1 percent. In comparison, television ADEX amounted to Rp 86 trillion and newspapers Rp 21 trillion.

Of the Rp 1.2 trillion in radio ADEX, Rp 708.8 billion was from Greater Jakarta, according to research, with the top sectors being media promotions, telecommunications, travel and recreation and beverages.

“This year, most networks experienced a 10 to 30 percent decline in total ADEX compared to last year,” Rafiq said.

{

Your Opinion Matters

Share your experiences, suggestions, and any issues you've encountered on The Jakarta Post. We're here to listen.

Enter at least 30 characters
0 / 30

Thank You

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We appreciate your feedback.