I’m sorry, but this is brutal! What has the radio industry still not understood about young people’s music consumption?

Perhaps many adults have heard of something called “Discord,” but maybe 95% of people over 35 don’t know what “Discord” is and don’t care about it. Yes, many people in the industry and in the IT field may know what it is, but they are part of the 5% of adults. What if we step outside that 5% exception and try to understand the mindset of the average adult worldwide? Now let’s change the scenario: imagine that 95% of people over 35 care about radio, but 90% of those under 15 don’t care about it at all. So, do you really think this is an absurd hypothesis? Or do you think that even if it were true, it wouldn’t matter? Well, what will become of radio in 15 years when this generation reaches their thirties with no passion for it?

Well, I strongly engage both with audiences who are passionate about radio and with those who disregard it. The industry has only been listening to those who already like radio, and this is a behavior that limits its survival. It becomes mere reproduction within the same “family,” without diversification, and with the risk of several “members” being born with weak defenses. We are making radio receivers that are monophonic and packaged in boxes that look like they’re from 50 years ago, while young people use Spotify and just want to listen on large JBL party speakers. What’s the advantage of having digital radio stations if they’re meant to be heard on something the size of a matchbox? Yes, I’m being very clear: many radio receivers have questionable aesthetics and are monophonic, something that young people will look at and consider extremely outdated.

What is the point of a digital FM station having a 30 km range that can be received in cars, if here in Brazil I can stream multiple FM stations over hundreds of kilometers, following me inside the car with virtually no signal drops (via mobile internet)? What is the point for a broadcaster in Brazil to spend millions on a digital transmitter if its coverage is inferior to its own 128 kbps AAC+ stream, which a listener can follow from Natal, drive 300 km, and arrive in Recife listening uninterrupted and once there, even decide to tune into stations from Paris, especially NRJ?

Yes, this may come as a surprise, but it is already possible to travel hundreds of kilometers across Brazil on major highways with continuous streaming signal. Many stations operate at 128 kbps, and several at 64 kbps AAC+, delivering sound quality superior to what analog FM transmission can achieve. Radio stations in Brazil have been investing in streaming audio quality, and that is what has eliminated the demand for terrestrial digital radio systems, because there was already something in place to “fill that gap.”

Many cars are already leaving the factory equipped with built in 4G and 5G connectivity and dashboards that essentially ask which station you want to listen to. When you answer, the system does not switch to the FM receiver. Instead, it retrieves the station’s streaming link, delivering audio quality superior to many digital radio systems in Europe, while keeping the driver tuned in for hundreds of kilometers. Antena 1, for example, has a very distinct style and has been well known in Brazil for decades due to the reputation it built when it had an extensive FM network in the 1990s. As a result, even in cities that no longer have an affiliate station but once did, listeners are no longer limited by geography. They can listen to Antena 1 from Natal to Salvador, something an FM transmitter simply cannot achieve.

Radio will continue to exist. Stations that maintain a consistent standard and operational philosophy will not be confined to FM, just as they were not confined to AM, which, incidentally, is now a largely underutilized band in Brazil. Today, radio in Brazil operates across FM, YouTube, and audio streaming platforms. And yes, streaming represents both geographic freedom and a technical advantage in sound quality. There is no real demand or urgency for digital terrestrial radio systems that have already been deployed elsewhere in the world.

Well, we will hear the argument that streaming has not replaced FM. But digital radio has not effectively replaced FM even after 30 years. Streaming does not even need to make an effort to quickly take FM’s place. Radio in Brazil is mainly listened to in cars, and cars, even without the buyer’s awareness, are already making that choice on behalf of the user. In fact, in the near future, the user will not even know whether they are listening to FM or streaming.

As I mentioned before, every car will soon have its own “Alexa” as a media hub, and when the driver asks to listen to Jovem Pan, the system will fetch the streaming link instead of tuning into the FM signal. Stations that are seriously investing in the quality of their online transmissions will ride this transition smoothly, and their listeners will not even notice this silent shift.