EBU Director General Noel Curran urged the industry to challenge those who portray radio as ‘legacy media.’

He told the Radiodays Europe conference:

“We need to resist this positioning from others towards us. It doesn’t reflect the dynamism of radio. 84% of Europeans still listen to radio, three quarters of those are young poeple.

“Radio is the most widely consumed and trusted medium… a hard earned relevance that has been hard won, we should protect it.

“We need to emphasise radio’s dynamism. The strongest growing demographic for spoken word audio is 13-24 year olds, so young people are still listening to radio and are listening to spoken word content.

“In a world where young people are increasingly getting news from social media, radio has a unique opportunity to transfer the extraordinary trust it has into the social media space… Podcasts can offer the solution-based journalism that young people can engage with.

“Radio has come into its own in recent years… anyone who forgot this got a daily wake up call from the front lines of covid and Ukraine to remind them of the relevance and trustworthyness of radio.

“It is not a dying medium… yes we have a legacy, but we also have a dynamic future… we can leverage our legacy into the online audio world.

He urged people who work in radio to believe in the ability of radio’s talented presenters, producers and teams to adapt and innovate to ensure that the medium continues successfully into the next 100 years.