Radio is fashionable "," Of the traditional media it is the one that has integrated best with digitization: it has not tried to fight it but has exploited it in its favor ". And then, the interaction: radio is an ante litteram social network, after all. "The media are no longer places where one speaks and the other listens - continues the professor - and in this the radio has always been equipped: 70 percent of traditional programs are made up of telephone calls, the presence of listeners". Another element is what in sociology they call interstitiality. "While the TV fights because it no longer knows what the times of its consumption are - just think of a viewer who watches a TV series all night - the radio has them very clear", "Early in the morning, for example, there is a very wide range of audiences. The same goes for that call from the radio 'drive time', from 6 to 8 pm, when people come home. We no longer speak of large blocks such as early evening or Sunday afternoon which are the old segments of traditional society, but of interstices of contemporary society ”. The radio then realized, after years of stubbornness to pass only music, that the word counts. And how. "There has been a considerable rebirth of speech: from Radio Popolare to Radio 24, to Radio Maria or Radio Radicale," explains the professor. Not to mention, with respect to music, that "even in the digital age, radio remains one of the central channels for the diffusion of pop: not even mp3s or social networks have killed it", notes Gianni Sibilla, didactic director of the Master in Communication music at the Cattolica. Finally, we must consider that the years at the turn of the century were wars and a radio in situations of conflict is more easily found than other media: "Above all, the Balkan wars have marked a relaunch of the radio medium", Simonelli tells us. Finally, "there are what I call 'epiphanies': the radios have decided to manifest themselves, they have begun to organize festivals and meetings because a link has been created between user and broadcaster that other media do not have. People say 'my radio'. Nobody says 'my television', except Cairo and Berlusconi, "jokes the professor, however making the point.
"I can listen to the radio while in Melbourne: the delocalization of listening is fundamental. Internet for radio was a boon. In fact, advertising investors continue to spend ". Because? "While on TV listening is increasingly distracted, on radio consumption is attentive, so investments are targeted according to the target. It is what is called the reputational logic, more than the quantitative one, which leads to effective advertising use ". The numbers confirm what Simonelli said: 2016 confirmed the positive trend of advertising investments in the sector. Nielsen data in hand, the growth in December (+15 percent) brought the overall story of the past year to +2.3 percent, equal to over 384 million. "There are two things on which one must never make predictions - he concludes - football and the development of the media".
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