Analog radio is fading and is afraid to digitalize. It fades precisely because it refuses to digitalize

The island of analog radio is shrinking, fading, while many still resist accepting the need for digitalization.

More and more I see posts that try, almost fiercely, to show that radio is immune to the internet. This is simply not true. Denying this problem is like denying cancer: when you deny the disease, you also deny the possibility of treatment.

It is obvious that radio cannot save itself by trying to kill the internet. And I use the term internet here in a broad sense. The competition does not come only from direct audio services such as Spotify, streaming platforms or YouTube, which offer both audio and video. There is also a much deeper dispute: the battle for people's attention.

This dispute pulls listeners away from the habit of listening to radio. Today radio has almost entrenched itself in cars. Do you doubt it? Do a simple test: is there a radio available in your bedroom? In your living room? Anywhere else in your house?

Digital radio is, in practice, the only real possibility for the survival of the medium. But several leaps still need to be made. It is not enough to transform radio into a system with simply cleaner sound. That is absolutely insufficient to guarantee the survival of digital radio.

Digitalization needs to create an ecosystem far broader than the simple distribution of audio. The digital environment allows countless possibilities. Completely new paths can be explored, something I intend to detail better when my patent is formally released.

Curiously, many of the solutions currently discussed move in the opposite direction of what would be necessary. What we see are digital radio models with low popular adoption, for various and cumulative reasons.

In general, the systems are expensive for broadcasters to deploy. Receivers available in the market are either expensive or extremely basic, with audio quality that often does not excite listeners. In many cases the final experience is still inferior to the streaming audio that comes free with internet access.

There is no mystery behind the low adoption of digital radio around the world. In almost every country that decided to digitalize the dial it has been necessary to invest continuously in campaigns and massive incentives. This alone reveals a structural problem: the product is not naturally attractive to the population.

This is a harsh statement, but it needs to be said clearly: current digital radio models still do not seduce the public.

More than that, many broadcasters themselves do not adopt it spontaneously.

Digitalization usually advances only when there are strong incentives or regulatory pressure from the state. This is strange. It is like forcing everyone to buy a car model that buyers themselves do not trust, a car they believe might stop in the middle of the road.

There is indeed a fascinating world capable of saving radio: its digitalization. But there are deep ecosystem adjustments that have not yet been properly perceived or understood.

This even includes technological adjustments that could greatly simplify the popularization of digital radio, but they continue to go unnoticed.

I observe this issue from a particular perspective. I stand at the base of the audience pyramid, yet at the same time I am able to translate technically what would be necessary for digital radio to truly seduce me as a user.

And I must say honestly: for now, all available models are far from that.

The system that first understands these issues will have a decisive advantage. Its growth will come naturally, driven by the users themselves who will inhabit this new ecosystem, a healthy ecosystem that still does not exist.

Brazil has entered a real crossroads. No digital system arrived in the country accompanied by this healthy ecosystem. In fact, no digital system anywhere has yet reached this level of maturity.

Tests carried out decades ago already showed several problems: high costs, transition difficulties and a complex technical environment.

Did Brazil make a mistake by not digitalizing radio at that time? No.

And it did not make a mistake because although there was initially great enthusiasm among broadcasters, the tests themselves imposed reality. It would not be cheap. It would not be revolutionary. It would simply be a contracted chaos.

Perhaps many broadcasters still do not know exactly what would be necessary to make digital radio truly seductive. But deep down they perceive that the current models are insufficient.

I have spent more than twenty years studying audience behavior, technological adoption and audio distribution models. For me it has become absolutely clear what elements are necessary to turn this game around.

Digitalization is the path

Radio needs to match the brutal forms of competition that have emerged in recent decades. But it is not just any digitalization. Adopting one system or another exactly as they currently exist is still insufficient.

The path is clearly to digitalize. However this requires deep adjustments in the ecosystem. It is not enough to offer only a radio with cleaner sound or something that looks like an improved RDS.

The digital environment allows much more than that. The digital radio ecosystem needs to incorporate many new possibilities that today are still not fully explored.

In fact there are extremely interesting technological shortcuts that could even make current systems cheaper, more efficient and more profitable. The problem is that many of these paths still go unnoticed.

But I also need to be honest: I do not intend to deliver this formula for free.