Like the other electronic media, there are 2 characteristics which dominate the radio market: unlimited competition and relentless technological development!

A natural fall out is rapid innovation, leading to continuous & brisk evolution. Along with a shorter learning curve, thanks to the experience of television. Today, in addition to commercial FM Radio stations, the Indian Govt has licensed FM Radio bands for "Community Radio Stations". With limited radius, each can serve as an economically viable model for "distance" learning.

The U.A.E. has already got its first community radio run by the American University of Dubai. And the U.S.A. has radio stations dedicated to the "truckers" community for decades. To date however, no corporate brand has used radio for building their "client communities". (Is there an interesting opportunity here for a Radio Pepsi or a Radio Coke?)

Community radio stations are examples of focussed, niche channels - channels that target a sub-section of the audience and attempt to carve out a unique position. The community may be created on the basis of occupation (e.g. University radio). Or it may address afficionados of a genre of music (e.g. Classic FM - the radio station dedicated to classical music).

Meanwhile, technological developments race onward! Superior technology for broadcasting digital FM signals races neck to neck with satellite platforms for global distribution of digital radio signals (like Worldspace).

Glocalization of Radio
The radio medium is essentially a local phenomenon. However, technological developments coupled with innovative ideas have enabled live distribution of local FM radio to distant regions. For example, take the news-heavy BBC Radio. Today, the audio feed is uplinked on the BBC TV satellite transponder. This feed can be downloaded by local cable operators and what the TV viewer finally sees (or rather hears) is BBC Radio live on his TV set! Similarly, Indian radio station Kolkata FM uplinks its audio signal to DD-7's satellite transponder for local cable operators to distribute on a realtime basis.

And soon, we may see Dubai based Radio Asia's local, India-centric audio content being 'broadcast live' along with Kairali TV Channel - giving expat Indians a chance to 'communicate' with their relatives in India!

Recently the Indian Railways has licensed Sahara Group to set up a radio service for select trains via the Worldspace satellite radio platform. Sahara is to uplink its radio feed to the Worldspace satellite. A receiver in each train receives the audio signal to re-distribute over the train's internal public address system.

Future Revenue Trends
Radio revenue is pre-dominantly an advertiser-driven model. To date, there is no sign of Pay Radio stations. Among new sources of revenue, local (retail) business is expected to contribute significantly. (This is in line with developments in television.) In fact, the low spot cost is expected to pit radio spots against classified display press ads - both of which cater to the retail segment.

Radio-on-the-Internet may lead to another interesting revenue model: sales & distribution of music titles via the Internet. This will become practicable with the stabilisation of copy control techniques for digital audio files. Radio stations hosted on the Internet are ideally suited for the 'hear & buy' model.

And finally, re-distribution of local FM signals to other regions of the globe via television gives rise to another interesting (though small) revenue - display of 'silent' visual (local) promos on the TV screen while the 'viewer' hears the radio feed.