A good face for radio | Frank Hossack | TEDxYouth@NIS

In this talk, Frank Hossack illustrates the strengths of radio and discusses how modern media is developing in ways that can rejuvenate our sense of hearing.

Frank is a four time New York Festivals winner who moved to China in 1993 to assist in the development of the country's popular music radio programming, in the process producing the world's then most listened to radio show.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Great media, I think,
is a bit like a mirror.

It's a reflection of what
is happening in our societies

and in our communities.

But of course nowadays,
our societies are changing.

They're changing faster
than at any other point in history.

And so also our media is changing,
but not just that,

because the way we consume that media

is undergoing fundamental change as well.

And what I'd like to do, if you'll let me,
is to explore some of those changes

and where perhaps we are heading
when it comes to media,

using my vocation of radio as an example.

Because I think that sound

is actually the senior medium,

and that our hearing is our senior sense.

The trouble is that we don't use
our hearing nearly as much as we should.

Because we can always
get a lot more out of it.

Now, when I was young,
my family had a bit of an odd tradition,

because what we would do
each year at Christmas

is we would give our two dogs
Christmas presents,

and they would give us Christmas presents,

which was great because
you'd get lots more Christmas presents.

One year, and I remember it
very, very, very clearly,

I was 14 years, old and these
two little fellas gave me one of these:

It's a clock radio.

Now, for the younger people here,
I'll explain what that is.

It's a clock that's also a radio,

but the clever part is that the clock
also means alarm clock.

So you get to wake up in the morning

hearing the sounds
of your favourite radio station.

That probably doesn't happen much
to most people sitting in this room.

But just think about it,
you know, instead of

(Beeping noises)

what you can have is:

'Well, Good Morning,
this is TEDxYouth@NIS.

It's eight minutes after seven,
and it's time to get up.'

Now, which is the better or the two?

What would you rather have?

Let's look at this.

They don't make them like that anymore.

(Laughter)

But when I was young
and I got that clock radio,

something happened to me
that I didn't expect,

because the purpose of a machine is
to make you get out of bed in the morning,

but what I was doing
was I was listening to the clock radio

when I should have been getting up.

So it was having the exact reverse effect.

And I just wasn't getting
out of bed in the morning,

so what actually happened was that
my mother called the radio station

in desperation, explained the situation,

and asked them if they could
do something about it.

(Laughter)

A few minutes later, this voice
came out of the radio which said:

'Francis Hossack, listening in Nairn,
who won't get out of bed,

young man, it is time to get up!

You can't waste your life away like this.'

(Laughter)

Needless to say,

from that point,

my future fate was sealed,

because I was thrilled by this,
absolutely thrilled.

So I'm going to be the number one person

to say that hey, radio
is better than television,

because it is.

But let's explore just why that is.

So firstly,

working in radio,

well, we get to go to work
in our underwear.

Secondly, there's still no shame
associated with working in radio.

(Laughter)

No, but seriously, let's think about
the nature of sound

and what it's doing to us.

Have you ever watched a television
with the sound turned down?

Couldn't hear the audio.

Of course you have!

Could you understand it?

Nope, almost nothing.

Likewise, have you ever heard a television
that's been on in the next room?

You can't see the pictures,
but you can hear the audio.

Understand it?

Sure, most of it. Easy.

For this very reason,
many TV stations in China

rebroadcast or simulcast on the radio.

It's okay, you understand it.
It's close enough.

That happens a lot in China.

So that, I think, is just
one of the main reasons why

radio is such a poweful medium.

Intimacy is the next reason.

Because when you're
listening to the radio,

you're having an intimate relationship

between you and the person
doing the broadcast,

because most radio is still consumed
between two people;

one of them's on the radio
and one of them isn't,

but you can't see each other.

So it's a little like being in the dark
with a friend and having a conversation.

You're missing out on a lot,

but you're using your imagination
to make up for what you can't see.

And it's for this very reason
that working in radio, we say,

that the pictures on radio are better.

Radio is also a fantastically
mobile medium.

Huge amounts, huge proportions
of listening to radio is done in vehicles.

Step into a taxi in China,
and I can virtually guarantee you

the driver is listening
to the local traffic channel,

and with good reason.

There are advantages to a media system
which is owned 100% by the government,

and that is, it gives you
unprecedented access to almost anywhere.

Here in Nanjing, the traffic
channel of Nanjing radio,

their studios are not even
in the radio station.

They're in the headquarters
of the traffic police.

In that building,

there is this big glass box,
which is the radio studio, and from it,

the guys on air at the time, telling
people about the traffic conditions,

can do so because through the glass wall,

they can see a wall of video cameras,
which is the size of this,

which is showing them live coverage

from every single major
traffic intersection in the city.

So they're able to say,
right now, on [Inaudible],

somebody has just made
an illegal left turn.

(Laughter)

Radio is also a champion of music,

and has made the careers
of every single major recording star

of the last 50 years.

And that's another advantage
of working in radio -

we get piles, hundreds of free CDs sent to
us by the record companies every week,

eager for us to play their acts
on the air and make them famous and rich.

Sometimes they even come to see us
as well, and that's the coolest part.

This is the best band ever
to come out of Scotland, Texas.

And I can tell you that having
this lady, Sharleen Spiteri,

sing to you, and you alone,
in your radio studio,

apart from the 50,000 other people
listening outside,

is the greatest experience in the world.

Go Sharleen!

Radio also has powers
to incite us to action.

And here is an example
from quite some time ago.

Check the dateline on that: 1938.

And in this example,
the sci-fi classic by H.G. Wells,

The War of the Worlds,

was converted into a radio drama
and directed by Orson Welles.

And in what was
brilliant radio scheduling,

they chose to broadcast this
when on a competing channel,

they had a programme
which was very good coming to an end,

and then a programme
which was very boring about to begin.

What happens? People start
channel hopping.

And many of them stumbled upon this.

But they had already missed
the first part of the programme,

the part of the programme that says:
'The following is a dramatisation.'

They thought it was happening.

In the story, aliens come from Mars,
invade Earth, humankind is routed,

the end of the world, essentially.

And many people did flee their homes
and raced to the hills.

Another example, this one
a little bit more up to date

and a little closer to home.

That is downtown Shanghai in 1993.

The horizon's gone up about 400 metres.

But that was my home,
and in a hotel room there,

I helped to produce a radio programme

which went on to be the most popular
radio programme on Earth.

Now, this was at a time
when China was growing and expanding,

and everybody wanted to sell
their products to China, still do.

In this case, it was a coffee company
that has since been credited,

and the radio programme's been credited,

with having helped to start
and be a major influence

behind China's coffee culture.

Now, just how did we do that?

Well, we simply went
on the radio, in China,

and did what we've been doing
in our countries for 50 years,

which was, we played
a piece of pop music and had some fun.

At the time, radio in China
was very, very serious.

And, to be honest, very, very boring.

So when we come in
and have a bit of fun on the radio,

and play this, you know,

terribly, terribly outlandish
Western music -

Perish the word! -

it was like a breath of fresh air!

You know, people responded incredibly.

At one point, at its peak,

this radio programme
had over 100 million listeners,

and that's more than
the BBC World Service.

And it was all from
a hotel room in Shanghai.

There we are.

That's an old photo.

Selling coffee to a nation
of tea drinkers.

(Laughter)

So how do all these
wonderful messages come at us?

Well, still the bulk of radio
is transmitted from something like this,

a nice, big, juicy FM transmitter.

But, of course, that's changing.

More and more listening
is now being done online,

and by satellite.

And these changes are fundamental
to what's happening,

because once a radio station
is available online,

then your whole audience changes.

I started my career in a little
radio station in the north of Scotland

called Moray Firth Radio,

and the joke was they'd had
more sheep than listeners.

And that was pretty true, actually.

But then what happens is,
of course, you put your content online

and now almost every radio station
has its own website,

and you can go online anywhere
around the world and listen to it.

So suddenly, you know,
instead of all those sheep,

you've got the whole world
at your fingertips.

Take that one step further,
introduce apps.

There are apps whereby
you can use as a directory,

search them for what you fancy,
the sort of content you're interested in.

Some radio stations
even make their own app.

Here's a good example.

This is, or was,
the London Broadcasting Company.

LBC, Britain's first commercial
radio station launched in 1973

with a mixture of talk and news and sport;
it was a talk station.

And this is where it gets
really interesting

because if you don't have any music,

then you have a lot
fewer problems with copyright.

So music copyright
is extremely complicated -

it works differently
in different territories,

but if you have a talk radio station,
then the world's your oyster.

And in their case, they were able
to go from being a radio station

that just served London,
to one which serves the whole country,

to the extent that they even changed
the name of the radio station.

So now LBC means
Leading Britain's Conversation.

Now, this is where things
really start getting exciting,

because we're now moving
into really new forms of media.

This is what's called, in China,
a zhíbò, or a live broadcast.

And this is the hot topic.

Essentially what it is,

it's a selfie, which is a video,
which is connected to the internet,

and anyone can watch it.

Okay, great.

This is example is just from last weekend.

In this story,

a Chinese man has been stuck
in India for more than 50 years.

Last weekend he came home.

There's the interesting
figure, at the bottom,

5.264 million people
watched this broadcast.

That's quite impressive.

But what's truly remarkable,
is the fact that for most of the broadcast

there was nothing happening on the screen.

They were camped out at the airport,
waiting for this guy to turn up.

Flights came, flights went, occasionally
somebody walked in front of the camera,

but generally nothing happened.

Except with the audio,
the audio was where it's at.

So what is this new medium?

It's not radio.

It's certainly nothing
like a television station.

So what is it?

A mobile phone live broadcast?

Well, that's not a very catchy name, we're
going to have to do something about that.

I suggest perhaps: 'Teleradio'?

We don't know; this is where
we're going in the future.

So with radio now,

there are so many new ways
for you to be able to enjoy that.

And I believe that radio is having
a bit of a renaissance,

just like good, old-fashioned vinyl
for listening to music,

sales have never been so good.

And that, we have
a second coming of radio,

where there's a whole new world
at your fingertips.

So I encourage you to go online, search
for whatever it is you're interested in.

Could be anything from the latest
hip-hop to some obscure jazz.

I guarantee you're going to find it,
and you'll be happy that you did,

because we can enrich our lives further
just by using our ears.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)