Digital killed the Radio star | Gianluca Busi | TEDxFerrara

With the new generation of Millennials, the market has to face a clearquestion: analog or digital?
For Gianluca Busi the answer is: analog and digital. Broadcasting media such as radio, the emblem of analog communication, seem to have reached the end of the line in a world where on-demand content is predominant. But radio is not at the end, and analogue is not dead. Radio is a point of both beginning and end: radio is always there.

This talk was given at a TEDx event, which uses the TED conference format but was organized independently by a local community.

For more information, visit http://ted.com/tedx

Radio -

(Music)

We all probably know what a radio is,

it's a medium we've always had with us.

Inside our cars, at home,
in the bathroom, everywhere.

But we probably only associate
the radio with music.

The radio is that medium
that is 100 years old today

and is under attack today.

An attack that may be legit,

but maybe,

if we look globally for a moment,

we’ll find the DNA of something

that explains why this medium
stuck around so long

We associate the radio with volume,
with changing stations,

with content.

Radio is not just music.

Radio cannot be compared
to Spotify or YouTube or TikTok.

People tell me all the time:
"Radio is dying".

Well, I think there are some viewpoints

that we are obliged
to take into consideration.

The radio is in real-time,
it broadcasts local content,

the radio broadcasts emotions.

The radio is not
a Spotify playlist or a podcast.

The radio is not on-demand.

Today's radio, I mean

Yesterday's analog radio, instead,

could be turn it off, gave us company,

it gave us content,

it was throwed us a party,
made the party mood,

it was a brand that gave us an identity

But today’s radio is a one-way radio.

It's one of those few media

where we can’t hit like,
where we can't hit share.

Radio doesn't track you today,

it doesn't listen to you.

Lately, Alexa has come out,

a lot of devices came out
besides the phones you have in your hands,

and you often hear that it listens to you.

The radio doesn't listen to you.

That's the difference.

Now, I'd like to tell you
why I'm so attached to the radio:

I was born into it because of my father.

I would like to tell you
about a humanitarian mission

I coordinated a few years ago in Kenya,

about 70 kilometres from Nairobi,

in a...

small village

of about 2,500 people

who was sending messages
to the Radio Maria community in Italy

through a missionary.

Unfortunately this village,
just to give you some context,

their houses are made of mud,
there is no light, a fridge -

They have nothing to store food.

No culture, they speak a local dialect,
they only understand each other;

and we brought a transmitter, an antenna,

to launch the first content.

It was a party for them,
even if it was religious content.

It was a party because they felt
someone close to them, helping them.

This is the radio that saves lives.

And when I say that radio is a medium

that shouldn't probably be
influenced by digital,

it's because it's on a different mission.

Coup on Ivory Coast.

First thing that happens

when there is a change, a movement,
a political change, a state attack,

the first thing they do
is they bomb the radio tower.

Because in doing so
they cut off communications,

then the web if phone lines
are there, and the television.

The first thing to rebuild?

They put together a field radio

because it's cheap, it's fast,
everyone knows how to use it.

This is the radio.

Radio changes a Country’s paradigms.

That's the difference with radio:

it gets where others fail to,

because it doesn't just have
a commercial purpose.

And it doesn't need likes,
it doesn't need competence,

and above all, it doesn't take your data.

The different thing is

that radio gives you a voice,
it gives you something extra

because there's no voice there,
they have no social:

Instagram and Facebook
are not everywhere.

If we only consider Milan, Rome,
New York, London -

everything seems easy.

But you have to travel the world
from Papua New Guinea to Vietnam:

that's where you have to see the medium,
and where a medium changes a Country.

With this.

This is a simple radio.

We've made a few million of them.

We've distributed these

with World Family, this project,

we reach over 70 countries,
more than 50 languages, local dialects -

that's the hard part:

The hard part is getting in touch
with the community.

We helped refugees from South Sudan

to pass through a camp
that was as big as Copparo.

We used this.

Not Instagram or some stories.

But perhaps we don't need it anymore,

because today we have
to give out our data.

I heard it before:

if we don't know where we are,
if we don't use tags,

if we don't say what we're doing,
we are [lost] - that's how it is.

But people are talking about detoxing,

detoxification, removal,
taking back one's identity.

Radio -

People ask me to magine
what radio will look like in the future.

It's changing.

I see a new radio for tomorrow,
a radio with your music

connected to your Spotify, your horoscope,

with your favorite podcast,

your favorite program,
like Cruciani show or lo zoo di 105.

or your favorite podcast.

But it's not yours.

It belongs to others, and you compose it.

But here's the problem:
they ask you for something in return.

Your identity, your preferences,

your emotions,

when you turn up the volume,

probably some keywords

that they will use to sell you something.

Technology supports us, 5G is coming.

Now, this is not a technological problem,
it is not a content problem,

it’s knowing whether
we want to give our identity up.

Everything we have,
we are giving it away for free.

Radio still leaves you free.

Here, in Italy, we are
the founders of the radio.

About 94 years ago this gentleman

(Audio) "from 1895, at the beginning
of my first experiments,

I had the strong intuition,

I would almost say
the clear and sure vision,

that radio-telegraphic transmissions
would be possible

through the greatest distances".

He, Mr. Marconi, in Bologna,

turned the radio on about a century ago.

Help me not to turn it off.

(Applause)