Milan: The Evolution of Radio Design at the ADI Design Museum – Our interview with Davide Vercelli

Avatar for Marco Hugo-BarsottiMarco Hugo-Barsotti

The evolution in the world of receivers, from the first valve radios to the most modern equipment, is on display at the ADI Design Museum in Milan: an exhibition that radio enthusiasts simply cannot miss, to discover devices and the rivalry between Italian and German designs, as well as when the first FM radio was produced in Italy. FM-world interviewed the curator of the exhibition, designer Davide Vercelli.

Radio is Queen

Years ago, the phrase Content is King was popular, suggesting that content is what matters in the media world. Perhaps, but we – and we are sure many of our readers—are or have been passionate about the container too, the “Radio” device itself.
After all, if we look at old covers of Radiocorriere (Italian equivalent of UK “Radio Times”), we see that in the past, the receiver often graced the cover, instead of hosts or singers.

Harmony of Line, Purity of Voice

It is less known that, as you will see in Milan, many of these devices bear the signatures of prestigious designers and architects such as Le Corbusier, the Castiglioni brothers, Zanuso, and many others.
The ADI Design Museum in Milan  has therefore decided to host the first leg of the exhibition titled “Radio Design: The Aesthetic Evolution of Radio Devices“, curated by Davide Vercelli.
We couldn’t resist the temptation to speak with him directly: we requested and obtained the contact through the museum’s management. Here is the account of the interview  that took place on Monday, September 2, 2024. For those who prefer, the  original audio (in Italian) is available here .

The Interview

M.H.B.-FMworld: For those who don’t know you, could you give a brief introduction?

Davide Vercelli: I am an engineer deviated towards creativity, meaning I have an engineering background but have never worked as an engineer: instead, I design objects for companies. I also manage part of the collective events for Arte Fiera, always in Bologna. **I am passionate about radio design** and started a collection specifically dedicated to the design of devices connected in some way to music **about 30 years ago**.

M.H.B.-FMworld: We’ve read that the collection of pieces on display is yours, not items found on the market or in other museums…

Davide Vercelli: Yes, that’s right. Over the years, I even had to buy a warehouse to manage the devices I gradually gathered. There is a writer named Walter Benjamin who wrote wonderful things about collecting and compares us to Sisyphus, moving one stone after another to the top of the mountain only to bring it down again. Objects are like that. So, most of the displayed objects are mine, except for two or three for which I involved collector friends.

The Exhibition

M.H.B.-FMworld: Tell us what we can expect in Milan.

D.V.: So, among the many possibilities presented to us, I wanted to tell stories that somehow crossed Italian and European society from the beginnings of radio onwards.

Specifically, there are nine stories covering specific themes. Part of it is an epic of some European companies that have made radio history: **Braun**, which before making toothbrushes, did wonderful things, first with Hans Gugelot, then with the Ulm School, and later with Dieter Rams (read this from CNN), creating beautiful, perhaps unsurpassed, audio products from 1957 onwards.

One of Braun’s most famous creations is the so-called “Snow White’s Coffin” (Braun SK55), a radio-phonograph designed to be placed in the center of a room. It didn’t have a back panel like all other devices, but for the first time used transparent polycarbonate to reveal rather than conceal the turntable, a design element that has since been adopted in all stereo systems still using a turntable.

Ducati

Then there’s **Ducati**, which before becoming famous for motorcycles, produced electromechanical components and  in the 1940s produced a series of three radios in light veneer wood, at a time when everything was dark, walnut, dark wood.

**A perfect line that is still avant-garde today**, and one in particular—one that isn’t mine—is affectionately called the “papal radio.”

It’s a wonderful example of elegance to behold, with a green scale and green knobs, from the 1940s, made of light veneer wood, anticipating Northern European design.

Space Age

Then we tell more intimate stories, not related to big companies but that have crossed society, such as Space Age, the influence that science fiction and space travel had on general design, on radio and device design. Therefore, Sputnik shapes, round forms, or rocket shapes, the use of materials like chrome, glossy plastics—one of the slots is dedicated to Space Age.

 

Giò Ponti

Then we tell the story of Giò Ponti (the architect of the building chosen by Hazan for the headquarters of RMC Italy, Radio 105 and Virgin Radio, now RadioMediaset Ed. Note), who in 1930, thundered in his magazine against radio manufacturers saying that they were only capable of putting an electronic device inside a Tudor or Queen Anne style cabinet suitable only for American cottages, with no need to structure a rationalist architecture.

So he stimulated, with *La voce del padrone* (His Master’s Voice), a manufacturing company, a competition won by Figini and Pollini, two modernist architects who began working with Giò Ponti’s studio and designed this radio called **Domus, a small masterpiece of architecture**.

A Rationalist Building and Variable Geometries

A perfectly squared parallelepiped, white knobs, an extremely basic layout of controls, it looks like a miniature rationalist building with an ebony veneer, making it extremely refined, a total beauty. We are showcasing the January 1933 issue of Domus, where this competition was announced.
We also enjoyed telling stories, there are variable geometries, all those devices like the TS 502, the Radio Cubo, which we deliberately do not represent in the Brionvega slot but in the variable geometries slot because it was the forerunner of these objects that could be modified by the user.


Together with some devices, for example, there’s a stereo system by Wega (designer Werner Panton), a German brand, which also has two portions that rotate on each other to reveal the turntable.

Italy vs. Germany

I would also like to recall the Italy vs. Germany debate on popular radio. While the two regimes needed to spread their ideology and create national unity, in Italy and Germany, the governments moved with very different principles, with effectiveness and extremely opposing aesthetic results, I would say, a significant example of a different design approach between our two peoples that still persists today.

M.H.B.-FMworld: Can you explain better? What do you mean?

D.V.: I mean that at the time, we issued an edict in which we involved 12 companies and gave some general guidelines; the radio had to have these characteristics, receive certain stations, and have this more or less specific shape.

So, what happened? In Italy, everyone made a radio more or less as they wanted, they are distinguishable, recognizable, it’s called a rural radio because of the ornamentation, as the characteristic ornament is a wheat ear in aluminum on the front of the radio, but substantially even from an electrical standpoint, each producer, all 11 or 12 of them, placed inside a device they had slightly modified.


In Germany, being German: the radio must be this, a mold made by Basf in Bakelite, the same for everyone, and the electronic design revolved around a single valve. So, identical housing for everyone, molded in Bakelite, with a single-valve electronic system, and this allowed them, with this extreme rationalization of production, to make a radio that cost very little and distribute millions of them: the Volksempfänger.

So much so that, within a few years, 70% of the German population had a popular German radio in their home.

Our radios, beautiful, are truly wonderful, but with limited production and exclusively dedicated to schools and rural entities, unions, and various things.

So we thought of reaching a young population mainly through schools, while they aimed to mass-distribute the radio.

In terms of effectiveness, we were somewhat on the losing side.

50 kW

M.H.B.-FMworld: So Mussolini was inaugurating “the most powerful transmitter in Europe”, 50 kW in Rome, but in the end, there were no people who could listen to it?
D.V.: Exactly. An interesting thing we did, however, was to direct our radio towards the youth population, so to schools. There was a monthly periodical that scheduled weekly educational broadcasts. The schools followed those broadcasts that aired in the morning, around 10 AM, with topics like Italy’s mission in Ethiopia or the airplane and the aviator. Complete with a magazine and, above all, a huge poster that was hung in schools, graphically illustrating the lesson content.

M.H.B.-FMworld: A fundamentally different philosophy between the two peoples…

D.V.: Exactly. And this different approach to design is also reflected in the comparison between Braun and Brionvega. They are there for that reason: Braun, with Dieter Rams: total minimalism, white colors, total absence of decorative elements, and a production line that, from ’57 until the ’80s, can be easily identified. Brionvega, on the other hand, exploded with vibrant colors, plastics, and identifiable but very different models. This design approach is somehow ours and still belongs to the present times between Italy and Germany.

La La La Radio

D.V.: There’s also a section dedicated to more modern radios, up to the ’80s, with pieces by Philippe Starck, which we placed in the section dedicated to “outsiders”. These are devices that, although important, do not belong to the major groups identified earlier. Starck worked with companies like Alessi and Telefunken, and designed interesting radios like “La La La Radio,” which is essentially a large cone emphasizing the speaker, with very small controls. It was produced in 7,000 numbered units, and we have one on display.

M.H.B.-FMworld: Are these devices operational? Do you run them during the exhibition?

D.V.: Almost all of them are operational because my main interest is to disassemble the devices and restore them conservatively.

However, none of them work here, because they are very old and do not meet current safety standards, so we preferred to consider them as a museum display. But we would like, perhaps at some opening phase, to run one to show how they sounded back then….

M.H.B.-FMworld: …But absolutely! Then in Milan, there are still one or maybe two private stations on OM…

D.V.: Exactly, few stations on OM after RAI stopped broadcasting there on September 11, two years ago, dismantling the antennas. It’s a choice that made many enthusiasts angry.

The First FM Radio

M.H.B.-FMworld: When was FM introduced in Italian devices?
D.V. At the end of 1949, taking advantage of the attention that the frequency modulation sector was attracting (following the emerging development of television), Imca, a company from Alessandria, launched the first series of frequency modulation receiving devices on the market: the radio was called Pangamma, with a very beautiful round mirror scale.

Italian High-Tech Design Today

M.H.B.-FMworld: One last question: devices such as virtual helmets – Metaquest or Apple Vision Pro – are, in a way, the evolution of radio and TV, considering that the “use case” is widely considered to be entertainment. But in these areas, Italy doesn’t seem to have a significant role…
D.V.: Unfortunately, no. There are no Italian, or even European, companies that work significantly in this field. This is also one of the reasons why we don’t get requests to design electronic devices. Since the early ’90s, this crisis has hit all European manufacturing companies, and now everything is in the hands of the large U.S. and Asian tech companies, which often do not approach design as we understand it. It’s sad, but it’s a reality.

M.H.B.-FMworld: To conclude, can you tell us the dates and details of the exhibition in Milan and Bologna? And are there plans to take it abroad?

D.V.: Certainly. The opening in Milan is on September 5th at the ADI Design Museum, running until September 27th. Then we’ll move from October 4th to October 31st to Bologna, at the Fondazione Cirulli. The foundation is a venue that perfectly aligns with the theme, being the former production site of Dino Gavina, designed by the Castiglioni brothers. After that, there are contacts to take the exhibition to other cities, both in Italy and abroad, but I can’t confirm anything yet. We’re looking at 2025 for a third location.

ADI Design Museum The ADI Design Museum is in Piazza Compasso d’Oro, in the Paolo Sarpi area of Milan. The museum is open from 10:30 AM to 8:00 PM; access to this particular exhibition is free. Inside, the museum houses the historical collection of the Compasso d’Oro. (M.H.B. for FM-world)

Tune into Summer: FM-world’s New Beach Radio Bundle

Avatar for Marco Hugo-BarsottiMarco Hugo-Barsotti

FM-world has just launched an exciting new feature: a curated bundle of “beach radios” from around the world, easily accessible through a dedicated icon at the top of the FM-world aggregator. This collection is designed to bring the essence of summer right to your ears, no matter where you are.

Nostalgia for Summer Past

A recent post on Talkmedia featuring footage from RSI (Swiss Radio and Television) sparked a wave of nostalgia. The video showcased scenes from Rimini, Italy, in the summer of 1979 – a tableau straight out of Umberto Eco’s “Diario Minimo.”

For radio enthusiasts, the soundtrack was particularly evocative, featuring a mix of beach loudspeaker announcements and broadcasts from the era’s pioneering italian private radio stations, including the iconic Radio Capodistria from Jugoslavia (of all places).

Rimini was, of course, the ‘low/middle-class’ beach destination of choice in the ’60s and later. Then Italians became richer and preferred Sardinia, but that is another story.

The Evolution of Beach Soundtracks

Anyway, the perfect beach relaxation has always been accompanied by a fitting musical backdrop. In the past, this came from traditional radios. Today, we have apps connected to Bluetooth speakers or wireless headphones.
But what made the old-school radio experience special was the element of discovery – tuning into unfamiliar stations while on holiday, hearing new voices, and breaking away from the predictable.

FM-world’s Summer Bundle

To recreate that spirit of discovery, FM-world has curated a “Summer Radio Bundle.” This selection of “beach radios” is easily accessible from our app’s homepage or your car’s dashboard by selecting “Estate”

Featured Stations

Our bundle includes an eclectic mix of stations that capture the essence of summer from various corners of the globe:

  • Miami Beach Radio
  • Radio Italo Disco Croatia
  • Zucca Radio Greece
  • Turquesa Cancún
  • Turquesa Yucatan
  • Ke Buena Campeche
  • Los 40 España
  • Los 40 Merida
  • Revolution 93.5 Miami
  • Café del Mar Radio Ibiza
  • Studio+ Ibiza
  • FG Chic Ibiza

Your Beach, Your Choice

We’ve kept the list concise, echoing the limited but exciting choices of yestery that encouraged listeners to step out of their comfort zones. Is there an essential summer station we’ve missed? Let us know at [email protected].

This summer, let FM-world be your passport to beaches around the world, one radio station at a time.

(M.H.B. for FM-world)

Xperi: “With us, Radio maintains a central role in connected cars”

Avatar for Marco Hugo-BarsottiMarco Hugo-Barsotti

During the European Digital Forum in Lucca (Italy) we’ve had the opportunity to interview George Cernat, Sr. Dir. Automotive Connected Media / DTS AutoStage for Xperi. The key role of the car entertainment systems for the future of Radio Broadcasting, if and how can radio survive in a “big screen equipped cars” era and the specific of Xperi Solution were among the topics of the discussion.

The interview took place on Friday 7 june 2024.

The Interview

FM-World: First of all, please two words on who  you are and what is your area of interest at Xperi.

Xperi: Sure, my name is George Cernat and I am responsible for DTS AutoStage at Xperi, responsible for broadcast integration worldwide. DTS Autostage is our automotive media platform that puts radio at its center and is designed to help radio stay relevant and be more discoverable in the connected cars of today and the future.

FM-World: There seems to be two different points of view about car entertainment systems: those who prefer standard systems like Apple CarPlay, Google Automotive, and those like General Motors that commit to use their own proprietary OS’s. What’s your opinion on where the market is going?

Xperi: I cannot really comment on the OEM preference or whatever their strategy is, but you observe these two different points of view correctly. As technology advanced and screen size increased, primarily due to safety regulations, car companies looked for ways to leverage these new platforms to extend the media, entertainment and vehicle systems they offered their drivers.

 

Mirroring solutions

Let’s look at Android Automotive and Apple CarPlay, they are mirroring solutions for smartphones which presented an easy, interim, solution to extend media offerings in the car with little direct development or integration

However, the danger is that the software maker, the operating system owner becomes the most important or valuable provider of services to the consumer in the car.

And those vendors can takeover  their relationship with the consumer.

Realignment

I think there is a realignment here: they’ve now changed their view, they want to be more in control of their destiny so that’s why you saw a lot of automakers investing heavily into really owning their operating system. Or at least owning the infotainment experience themselves.

So that’s what’s going on in this space and it is exactly where we as Xperi DTS AutoStage have a lot of experience, working with more  than 20 automakers to help them deliver the infotainment solutions they need.

In the entertainment space in automotive, we started with HD Radio and the United States and we now work with all the major automakers.

FM-World: Can you give more details about how you help automakers with radio and entertainment in cars?

Xperi:

Absolutely. While automakers have a long history of innovation around broadcast radio integration, their real innovation and investments are focused on the drive-train, power systems and operational safety, not media and entertainment integration.

Here Xperi has a lot of experience specifically with the radio industry and more broadly with the entertainment space.  Right now you see a lot of video and gaming coming into the car as the technology gets more diversified: so we help them first understand this space and then we act on behalf of the broadcasters.

When it comes to the radio industry, Xperi is recognized as a good steward and trusted partner of the industry. We believe that broadcast radio is incredibly important for cars, and through our involvement with HD Radio and as active members of WorldDAB, NAB, and other global organizations, we help because the radio industry is regionally fragmented and distributed and  our role is providing a solution that works for the automakers globally, across all markets, large and small.  This global harmonization is critical to radio stay relevant in the cars.

A dangerous moment for the Radio industry

FM-World: Is this more of a consulting or product approach?

Xperi: We’ve developed a platform it’s called the DTS AutoStage that is integrated in the infotainment system of the automakers and it’s really a hybrid radio solution. This is absolutely a product approach.

We want radio to stay central to the infotainment system in the car because for the foreseeable future radio will be the most important entertainment option in vehicles.

But Google, Apple, everybody wants a piece of the on board screen real estate.

This is a dangerous moment for radio because it could be very well be replaced or marginalized in the dash and this is where we come in.

We complement a radio station in the car by adding basic information like visual elements. So you transition to a digital experience, in line with today’s consumer, who expect a certain level of interactivity and a certain design from  their apps. We add lyrics to songs so radio is going to look amazing,

AI

Xperi has done a lot of AI and machine learning work in this space, and the user interface in the cars is getting smarter and will learn from the user choices and present similar content by genre, by music type, by artist type. If you are a radio station that produces on-demand audio and broadcasts video from the studio, that can also be included as part of the in-car radio experience

That’s what we do.

Control to broadcasters

The second objective is to give radio stations control of how they look, how their content looks in the car so we give them access to an interface that allows just that.

And third we want radio stations to understand what their audience looks like in vehicles, so we’ve launched for the first time in this industry an analytics platform. We call that the DTS AutoStage.

Broadcasters can join at no cost and then if they send us the live metadata from their programming we can then give them analytics data about their listeners who are tuning into their radio station in DTS AutoStage equipped vehicles, so they’ll be able to see things like the number of sessions on any given day.  They’ll be able to see the hourly fruition of their content,  on a 24-hour basis

They’ll be able to see a geographical heat map of where their listeners are when tuning in to a station

I mean, without divulging any personal personally identifiable data, we cannot disclose those…

But we can make some good projections and analytics for our customers to see. And not only geographic data: we can provide statistics about single titles, single songs, in any given period of time.

Aggregators

FM-World: Tune-in it probably the most famous aggregator. I’m wondering how from your point of view the aggregators will play a role in this whole stack, from the broadcaster to the end user.

Xperi: We don’t deal with the IP side of the equation right now. These are essentially Internet aggregators, but what we are interested in is actually the broadcast radio experience in the car.

FM-World: Yes, but you’re saying you switch to IP when needed…

Xperi: To us the IP component is a fallback when broadcast radio is not available.

There is a feature we call “station following” that allows us to offer a seamless listening experience for when a car goes out of FM / DAB reception range – we switch to IP-listening – but this is a small edge case that is an excellent example of how DTS AutoStage enhances traditional FM / DAB+ listening in vehicles.

FM-World: Back to Radio. The DTS  name of course is a reference for audio. I’m wondering if there’s any interest in bringing multi-channel audio much like the old Quadraphonic Stereo 8 Track, some 40 years ago when…

Xperi: Is this a question?

FM-World: Yes, I come to it. Forty years ago, when the classic Cytroën DS came standard with discrete quadraphonic sound. Does the brand DTS mean your’re bringing back high definition, real multi-channel sound in the car?

Xperi: We have a separate business unit at Xperi that deals with the premium audio part of our portfolio, like DTS audio, and we do offer that in the car as a separate solution from DTS AutoStage. DTS AutoStage is a hybrid radio solution for connected vehicles

FM-World: Anything else you think it’s important for our listeners and readers to know?

Xperi: If you’re a radio broadcaster  and you haven’t joined the DTS AutoStage system yet please reach out to us : it’s a very beneficial and very easy way of getting onto the platform and getting access to the valuable analytics and control over your content. (M.H.B. per FM-World).

Audiradio, in charge of measuring radio audiences in Italy, will measure “Total Audience”: Interview with President Antonio Martusciello

Avatar for Marco Hugo-BarsottiMarco Hugo-Barsotti

Audiradio is the official body in charge of measuring radio audiences in Italy that, beginning January 2025 will replace TER. So many questions arise: will the JIT structure really benefit the radio industry? Will the new methodology provide audience data consistent with TER, or should we expect another disruption? What will change with an assessment that considers all modes of consumption? And what is the role of the legendary SDK? To learn more, FM-world interviewed the president of Audiradio, Antonio Martusciello.

Antonio Martusciello

Born in Naples in 1962 and graduated in Public Administration, he has always worked in the field of media and communication. From 2010 to 2020, Martusciello was Commissioner of Agcom.

He is the author of numerous articles and scientific contributions on communication: in February 2019, he published the essay “The Chaos of Information” (La Dante Alighieri publisher). In September 2019, he published the essay “The Network: Manipulation or Pluralism” (Armando publisher). In 2020, he authored a study for IULM titled “The Evolution of Political Communication from Traditional Models to New Formats in the New Digital Context,” while in 2021, he published “The Audience Measurement and Its Impact on Public Opinion Formation.”

Martusciello is a professor of “Media Law” at Luiss Rome and, since December 2022, President of the Supervisory Body of Tim’s access network. He was appointed President of Audiradio in April 2024.

The Interview

FM-World (Marco H. Barsotti): We read that ambitions of the new Audiradio are significant: measuring every device, introducing the “total audience,” the idea of shifting the focus from measuring individual stations to a “user-centric” approach. How much of this can we expect from the publication of your first surveys, and how much will take more time?

Antonio Martusciello: The new Audiradio survey will start on January 1, 2025, and to be ready for this appointment, our goal is to adopt the Request for Proposal (RFP) as soon as possible.

We are indeed working diligently in this direction. The company has just been established, but in these days a technical analysis is already underway to prepare the RFP, necessary for choosing the institutes that will conduct the survey.

A Mixed Survey

It will be a “mixed” survey, both quantitative and census-based, through the SDK, a tool that already represents a significant step forward compared to a purely declarative model.

This “hybrid” survey will better capture the increasingly pronounced trend of multi-device and multi-platform radio listening.

Listening will be measured on all devices, across all distribution platforms, and in all modes of consumption (live and on-demand). After all, today the potential audience pool expands significantly, not only thanks to technology but also due to structural changes in content consumption behaviors. In this sense, we will be called upon to choose and define the most appropriate methodologies and technologies to conduct these surveys, considering their economic sustainability. Our goal is to make radio audience research increasingly in step with market evolution.

As for timing, it is premature to estimate today; however, I believe that the commitment and intense teamwork from these early days of activity constitute an excellent start to achieving that result, which I am sure we will be able to concretely realize with timeliness and determination.

The European Context

FM-World: In the past, we have analyzed measurement systems used in other countries considered (at least at the time) more advanced: Netherlands, UK, etc… The question is whether Audiradio and its European counterparts work together in some way (formally or even just technically) to have what is fashionable to call “uniform currency” at the European level, which I imagine would be or would be appreciated by multinational investors.

A.M.: Audiradio was born on April 22 this year and is taking its first steps in organizing a survey that will see, after many years, radio broadcasters and the market working together again. It is clear that it will be in both parties’ interest to also engage technically with European experiences.

If we look at reports such as the Radio Audience Measurement by EGTA (Association of television and radio sales houses) and EMRO (European Media Research Organization), even today, at the European level, declarative methodologies are still the most commonly used, while passive systems are still being experimented with.

European Media Freedom Act

Then there is the recognition of the centrality of audience measurement systems in the complex ecosystem of digital media, which falls within the scope of the new TUSMA regulations and is attested by the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) regulation. This provides for greater transparency and comparability of the methodologies used in measurements, as well as the reference to shared standards and techniques, possibly within JIC.

The JIC and Listeners

FM-World: The advantages of the JIC structure for market operators, who are all represented, are clear. I wondered if any association of public representatives could bring additional value to your organization.

A.M.: The JIC, in the model approved by Agcom, constitutes the prevalent form of entities dealing with audience measurement and already indirectly represents the interests of listeners. This is because the system is based on what we might call a sort of “convention” between publishers and the market. In this scenario, it is the market that performs a function of guaranteeing the correct allocation of advertising where the highest audience ratings are recorded.

The SDK Issue

FM-World: Let’s move on to a point considered essential, the famous SDK. In many interviews and articles, it has been discussed, giving the impression that it is a ready-made system that you will use. But as we know, “SDK” is instead a Nielsen toolkit that allows app developers to record user behaviors and send them to Nielsen.

This implies – I believe – modifying client applications to integrate SDK libraries and activate their functionalities, potentially providing a type of reporting worthy of Google Analytics.

Two questions: first, if it is a completed process (and if so, with which operators), or if it is in progress or activation phase.

A.M.: The SDK (Software Development Kit) system is an analytical marker already used in audience measurement systems, which provides census data on the volume of online content consumption distributed through different platforms.

The system, therefore, allows for integrating measurement tools into digital content regardless of the device used for content consumption.

As I mentioned, the RFP is under analysis, and Audiradio will be called upon to make a choice on defining the most appropriate methodologies and technologies to conduct the aforementioned census surveys.

Transparency and Certification

FM-World: Second question about SDK. Since by definition what is created through SDK is an invasive system: will the libraries be embedded only in the clients of your sample or will they be included in the general tools used for listening by the general public?

A.M.: The RFP – as I mentioned – is still under analysis and I find it quite premature to define these aspects.

What I can say, however, is that transparency in the measurement processes and the guarantee of an objective, third-party-certified system are indispensable elements to ensure the credibility and reliability of the data collected.

 

Discontinuity?

FM-World: Last question, when  the transition from the old researches (Audiradio and GFK Eurisko) to TER took place there was a discontinuity in the data regarding the top positions, which saw for the first time Rai Radio 1 lose a historical record that it had held since forever.

It could have been a change in listeners’ tastes during that gap, but it could also have been the result of the change in sample and methodology.

  Will the data collected and presented by Audiradio be comparable to TER data or should we expect new discontinuities (or perhaps non-comparable universes?)

A.M.: TER had the advantage of continuously providing radio audience data during the period following the liquidation of the first Audiradio. The greatest criticality of TER, which led to the need for its evolution, was the MOC model, no longer compliance, as indicated by AGCom. In this regard, I would like to remind you that the TUSMA, in art. 71 paragraph 5, letter. b), provided “(…) that the surveys of the audience and readership rates of the various means of communication, on any distribution and diffusion platform, conform to criteria of methodological correctness, transparency, verifiability and certification by independent entities and are carried out by bodies with maximum representativeness of the entire reference sector (…)”.

Similarly, the EMFA, in art. 24, in particular, requires that suppliers of audience measurement systems guarantee a survey and a methodology that respects the principles of transparency, impartiality, inclusiveness, proportionality, non-discrimination, comparability and verifiability.

Today, the JIC that was formed highlights the centrality of the publishers’ front, representatives of radio pluralism in all its components (national and local, private and public). The entry of the market (UPA and UNA) marks the expansion of the corporate structure and makes it representative of the entire reference sector. A union that allows – once again – the concrete implementation of the principle of correctness of audience survey, already typical of TER’s experience.

… or continuity?

As I explained before, the need for innovation led to the choice of a new format, that of hybrid research based on a combination of sampling and census.

Our objective, therefore, is not continuity or discontinuity with the TER data, but research that, starting from the experience gained, is able to grasp the degree of innovation of the radio market. (M.H.B. for FM-World)

Radio Veneto24: “An original format with content different from other Italian radio offering”

Avatar for Marco Hugo-BarsottiMarco Hugo-Barsotti

Featured on the italian radio aggregator FM-World, Veneto24 represents a local all-news radio format of great interest. To learn more, we interviewed the station manager of Veneto24, Costantino da Tos.

Costantino da Tos

Station Manager of Radio Veneto24, he has a long and proven experience in the radio and television media sector. He conducted the design of Radio Veneto24 and oversees its implementation and development.

The Interview

Marco Hugo Barsotti (FM-World): Let’s start with a few words about you and the history of this station.

Costantino da Tos: Veneto24 was born from an idea, in a way, of many radio consultants: the lack of an all-news format, even at a local level in Italy. It has always been talked about, but in the end, the problem has always been being able to achieve it. Personally, two years ago, I met Giuseppe Bergantin, who is a print publisher. A free press with an enormous capillary distribution in Veneto. He brought a passion for radio, but above all, thirty years of concrete experience with journalists, information, local reality, and capillary distribution.

Print Splitting

Furthermore, he had borrowed the concept of splitting from local radio. He has a huge number of editions that, in a capillary way, much like radio splits, cover the Veneto territory. So there were many points in common. These points in common had as a common denominator the fact of working with journalists, which is difficult for radio broadcasters, as we were not used to it. We had dealt with the territory in a capillary way and had a focus on information. Putting these things together, the Veneto24 project was born.

FM-World: For those who don’t know… the publication is called La Piazza?

C.D.T.: The Free Press is called La Piazza, and that’s the split one. They have about thirty editions for Veneto, and this is the interesting thing. So it’s even more than at the municipal level, it’s at the provincial level.

FM-World: Perhaps more, in Veneto there are only seven provinces, if I’m not mistaken…

C.D.T.: Indeed, the editions are capillary and reach the level of sub-provincial subsets.

FM-World: So he has journalistic experience, print media, and perhaps advertising. Yours, on the other hand, is more radio-oriented?

C.D.T.: Yes, the publisher’s experience is journalistic and in print media. In reality, it started thirty years ago with a first experience as a radio publisher. A small local station that he later sold, but which remained a suspended desire in a way.

My experience, on the other hand, comes from local radio stations since I was 18 years old, so it’s been 35-40 years now. I continued as the director of Radio Venezia, then I joined SpheraHolding, the holding company of Company, Radio 80, Radio Padova, Easy Network as CMO, then director of Radio Padova, Easy Network. After my collaboration with SpheraHolding ended, I dedicated myself to radio consulting. I am a consultant for LagoUno, Radio Nostalgia, and Radio NumberOne, a series of stations for a Swiss publisher, and finally for Veneto24. That is my background.

Veneto24 News

FM-World: When did the radio start broadcasting?

C.D.T.: Six months ago. We started in September of last year, 2023. The entire technical structure was designed and set up in June-July of last year. In September, we began broadcasting only on streaming. Two months later, we turned on the first experimental MUX in Veneto. Now there’s a second one; the first one only covered the province of Padua, the Padua area. A second one was turned on in Vicenza, and now we’re waiting for the release of the app concessions.

From AudioOne to Zetta

FM-World: Technology platforms?

C.D.T.: The on-air broadcast, Zetta control room. Schedule and scheduling g-Selector. Advertising schedule Aquira. The NewsRoom we chose is NewsBoss for editing, receiving, writing, and managing the news flow, all shared with the newsroom and collaborators. The OpenRadio platform allows us to distribute podcasts and the AD server for asynchronous content. Apps and web are from AudioOne. All Veneto24 signals are processed with Omnia. Finally, streaming distribution happens through Revma.

Content

FM-World: Let’s talk about content. I get the impression that you were inspired by 1010 Wins, with the story of the 20 minutes….

C.D.T.: Exactly. In a way, if you think about it, for an all-news station, the news is not infinite. The amount of news available over time is not infinite.

Every hour you can consider having 10-12 pieces. So the concept of 20 minutes is not so much a choice made out of thin air, but becomes a necessity in the sense that in those 20 minutes, that number of news stories is told. So it is assumed that the listening is constructed during those 20 minutes. It is also a listening linked to news and public utility news.

So in addition to providing everything that has happened in Veneto, you also have the traffic and weather part. The 20 minutes are statistically the duration of commuting to and from work. So it is calibrated for listening in the car. All the data out there says that somehow the preferred place for radio listening at the moment is the car. So the 20 minutes of TenTen Wins is not an artistic choice, but a real necessity for that type of format.


Certainly 1010 Wins has set a precedent, but they probably have 50 years of operation. And in 50 years they have calibrated their product: it’s not an artistic choice, but an element of necessity, of the station’s format.

Delayed Live and Morning Show

FM-World: How much content is produced live and how much is replays of things that have already been broadcast?

C.D.T.: We have 50 news editions, three every hour, for every 20 minutes. Those are made in a delayed fashion, three minutes before broadcast. So all the newscasts go on air, they are closed three minutes before going on air. The in-depth features are updated every day and are done three or four hours before going on air. At the moment there is no morning show: a news morning show with interviews and guests is planned, and it will be the live part of the station, from 7 am to 11 am. However, the content is recorded just before, so it’s as if it were live. It’s recorded up to three minutes before the news bulletin is generated.

FM-World: Why this choice, an operational choice or a fine-tuning one?

C.D.T.: It’s a step-by-step approach strategy, which is also correct in a way because, in reality, those who work at Veneto 24 have never done radio before.

They are journalists who used to write for print media rather than the web, but without radio experience for the most part. So in a way, the language of radio is something different, something new, and the format is equally new, so you need some time to get everything running smoothly.

Veneto 24’s current operations are at 60%, everything is there, but something is still missing, there’s still some
Here’s the continuation:

Veneto 24’s current operations are at 60%, everything is there, but something is still missing, there’s still some fine-tuning to be done, but then again, having been born only six months ago, it’s also justified.

The Newsroom

FM-World: What is the structure? Is there a connection with La Piazza or are you separate?

C.D.T.: In reality, it’s a hybrid system. Three editor journalists are on staff at Veneto 24 and are the people who build the newscasts, write and read the newscasts. Then there are six contributors in the territory, also journalists, these are employed by La Piazza, so they are the journalists who work for La Piazza, who send two or three reports each day to Veneto 24 from their respective provinces.

So for each province there is a La Piazza correspondent who also collaborates with Veneto 24. Together with the contributors there are then ten commentators who deal with the in-depth features, they are all journalists, some on loan from local newspapers, a couple also collaborate with national newspapers. So that’s the team in the end.

There are 27 features in total that Veneto 24 produces, covering politics, culture, society, economics, sports of course, and commentary on current events, always however with a close connection to topics relating to Veneto. We are fortunate because Veneto is a region that generates a lot of news and many points to report on or comment on.

FM Concession

FM-World: I also heard a lot of advertising on air, which is unusual for a web radio.

C.D.T.: No, no, no, it’s not a web radio because in reality the concession is an FM concession. So this one for Veneto 24 is an FM concession, with a frequency in the province of Padua.

FM-World: So you have an active FM frequency?

C.D.T.: We have an active FM frequency.

FM-World: But this wasn’t clear from the website! And I didn’t hear it on air. Not even on the brochure: DAB, online yes, FM nothing.

C.D.T.: Let’s say that our vision at the moment is more towards DAB than FM.

FM-World: Yet it’s hard to emerge in a region like Veneto which has so many strong brands and some are even historic: Radio Padova was born among the first in Italy, if I remember correctly.

C.D.T.: Yes, perhaps the second, but the question of who was first or second is always…

FM-World: ….Radio Parma, Radio Milano International and then maybe Radio Padova, who remembers…. But I always hear that without FM you can’t break through.

A Unique Format to Break Through

C.D.T.: If we had thought of a station with a “classic” format, let’s say similar to another available station’s format, it would have been really difficult. An original format that brings content that is completely different from the current radio offering, that deals with local information with the possibility of also being listened to through podcasts, that offers the possibility for institutions and entities in Veneto to have a voice, should have an easier life even on DAB. In our case, we are certain that it will be the product that will find its listeners.

It’s true that the historic FM publisher carries over an important listener base due to its longevity and also the spread of FM. The publisher who instead approaches DAB will probably have to invest not so much in networks, but in communication and marketing. Or a presence on the territory: which we have.

Think Local, Act Local

FM-World: GR News is the closest thing to you, but at a national level. How do you view the fact of being… the right question might be: what is the right balance between local and national?

C.D.T.: Well, the right balance could be syndication, because if you create a national network that recounts local realities one by one, you risk always doing an injustice to someone. If instead you focus on a very large area like the Veneto region, in a way you can represent it, recount it from all points of view.

National news or information already exists, through television, the web, national radio stations. Perhaps Radio 24… but Radio 24 is more than just an all-news station, it’s a station that recounts the news and expresses opinions, so it’s not an all-news station.

FM-World: I meant GiornaleRadio News, their second network. The first is somehow similar to Radio 24, but the second one I believe is set up like yours.

C.D.T.: You see, the national dimension is almost a commodity, you have it everywhere, the local dimension in my opinion is a strength, it has always been indicated as a strength by those who talk about and recount radio. Local news is a difficult element to deal with, to find, to recount and focusing on this element is another of the things that differentiates us, but on a broad basin that is the Veneto region. Then it’s also true that you can’t ignore national news.

The right dimension for an all-news station could in itself be syndication, now that in a way DAB gives this possibility, perhaps the most correct path would be to have many Veneto 24 radios around Italy, each tied to its own local reality and finding a common point for national news.

No Clusters, We’re Venetian

FM-World: We’ve talked about many topics. Did I forget anything?

C.D.T.: To return to the topic of advertising and how the ads are inserted: even in this case it has a slightly different interpretation from the usual practices of radio formats. We don’t have advertising clusters, but only single spots that function as punctuation between one content element and another, so even in that we tried to differentiate ourselves from other stations.

The other interesting thing about this type of station is the enormous interest that public and private institutions and entities have for a station of this kind. Because if you think about it, often finding a space to recount their own content for institutions and entities is increasingly difficult, in the sense that newspapers now have a limited audience, the web is very scattered, while radio remains an important mass medium, easy to use because it doesn’t need visuals and manages to communicate in a simple way to everyone. (M.H.B. for FM-World)

From Turntables and mixers to AI-based Radio: Some Hypotheses on the Near Future of Radio Media

Avatar for Marco Hugo-BarsottiMarco Hugo-Barsotti

What will radio broadcasting be like in the era of AI? Is it possible that, after the era of mixers with turntables and Revoxes, followed by that of automated control rooms with four screens, we will witness a new mutation of studios and important changes in the operations of radio professionals, perhaps accompanied by a return of receivers in the form of “Rabbit-R1-Style” devices?

ChatGPT

In December 2022, the world discovered Artificial Intelligence (AI) based on large language models (LLMs) with ChatGPT. Globally, the radio industry immediately saw countless attempts to create programs or even stations entirely managed by AI. Not exactly high-impact projects for the moment, or at least that’s how it seems.

Probably, the integration of AI will be slow and profound. It will go hand in hand with the evolution of the capabilities of various LLM models and will require reimagining radio, and not just asking the various AIs to create radio as it has always been done.

Claude 3

Always remembering that the evolution of LLMs is incredibly rapid, to the point that what was true even just a few months ago is no longer true now: anyone with doubts should read, for example, what the potential is in fields such as “Graduate level reasoning” or “Reasoning over text” of the latest arrival, the Claude 3 model from Anthropic.

The Studios

Historically, before the classic console with the famous three turntables, radio corresponded to a large auditorium with musicians performing live: recorders had not yet been substantially invented, and each station relied on live broadcasting with its own autonomous production, alternating written newscasts with live performances, as can also be deduced from old Radio Schedules.

Console and Screens

This was followed by the long era of consoles with turntable virtuosos and then the current one, with studios equipped with many computer screens where music and interventions come from some hard disk, perhaps even hosted “in the cloud”. And where the presenters are often guided (sometimes caged) by clocks, in accordance with management strategies.

Now and Then

The screens will probably remain in future studios as well, although it is now quite certain that the window interfaces (adopted by the various automation software) will be supplanted by text interactions, written or spoken: it’s useless to struggle to find the infinite options of the various programs in the menu structure when you can simply ask the AI to do what you want.

From this point of view, the concept of LAM, Large Action Model, introduced by Jesse Lyu at the Rabbit R1 presentation seems particularly convincing.

AI-Powered device

Our hypothesis, however, is that in AI-powered radio, the center of gravity of radio stations will shift from the current pair of “speaker + automation software” to a model of “Creator + AI + one-to-one interaction”.

Creator, not speaker

We wrote “creator” and not speaker. We mean to say that the human who speaks on the radio will probably be very different from the current figure of the host-logged-by-clock-and-format.

To differentiate themselves from AI, the host will have to be a creator, a person with great analytical, inventive, and – precisely – creative abilities: all qualities necessary to be preferred over an automated broadcast, as well explained in a recent article on Newslinet.

WIP

We mentioned changes in future radio studios. At 22HBG, we are thinking of an innovative device/service, provisionally called WIP (Work In Progress).

One of its features is the automatic recognition of the type of content on air, whether it’s music, advertising, or talk radio programs. This capability allows for the insertion of advertising announcements in a non-invasive manner at the most opportune moments, maximizing their impact without compromising the listener’s experience.

WIP can also act directly on geographically differentiated programming, taking into account location data, weather information, and individual listener preferences. In this way, users can receive real-time traffic updates, notifications of local events, and relevant news correctly interspersed with the normal flow of the broadcast.

Understanding the “mood” of listeners

WIP constantly analyzes data from various sources, including social media, listener feedback via WhatsApp, SMS, and messages.

Through the usual functions of LLMs (see an example of “system” and “user” prompts here above), WIP is able to signal similar viewpoints (in the style of “trending news“) and/or provide a reasoned summary of the most interesting messages received regarding a topic covered in the broadcast. This analysis can allow those responsible to dynamically modify the programming, in order to address the topics of greatest interest on air. Or simply to make listeners aware of the prevailing “mood”.

Personalized interaction

WIP incorporates numerous chatbots capable of directly dialoguing with individual listeners, through a WhatsApp-style interface directly in the radio app or aggregators such as FM-World.

Thanks to these bots, listeners can obtain additional information or participate in surveys during broadcasts. Obvious implications for what is today defined as “engagement”.


And the listeners?

We believe that listeners are ready for the transition towards listening devices inspired by the Rabbit R1. The “OnAir” project of 22HBG foresees for the future the launch of an innovative “multimedia object” equipped with a touchscreen and voice control containing an AI (in the cloud, like the current Peperoni AI, or even locally, a possibility made feasible by recent SLM, Small Language Models).
A gadget capable of reproducing high-quality sound through integrated speakers, hidden from view by a premium matte finish.

But things don’t stop there: within the FM-World system, this device will be in direct communication with the station’s software, receiving data and metadata from it and providing it in turn to the broadcaster.

Privacy & Big Data

In accordance not only with European legislation but also with common sense, the device provides encryption of all uploaded user data, so that it can be transmitted to the station anonymously, but analytically complete. The station will still be able to create a historical “big data repository”, allowing for analysis and segmentation that will become increasingly valuable over time.

Radio 3.0

Infinite are the fields of application of this true Radio 3.0, where – in line with Marc Andreessen’s well-known vision “Software is eating the world” – stations will be able to find their differentiating factor in the conception and realization of personalized software.

From Watt to Python

From the era when whoever had more Watts in the antenna prevailed, to the one where those who are able to have good ideas and realize them in Python will win. And with the support of AI, it won’t even be too difficult (M.H.B. for FM-World)