Point of View

All the alarm klaxons are blaring: everybody has to brace for the impact of the global meltdown that is certain to hit local business. Around the world, giant banks are folding up, insurance companies are going bankrupt, even the so-called Big Three in car manufacturing in the U.S. — Ford, Chrysler and General Motors — are shaking at their foundations. The threat is the worst ever to confront business and industry.

Against this backdrop, Bombo Radyo Philippines has positioned itself to confront the economic crisis with innovative strategies to cushion its impact for its advertisers, who are certain to reel from the adverse effects of the meltdown with the expected downturn of their businesses. How to keep their market shares from hurtling down to the ground? Go back to the basics: advertise in radio, and as the saying goes, “basta radyo, Bombo!”

This was the centerpiece topic for the week January 5 to 9, 2009 during the Bombo Radyo Philippines Top Level Management Conference (TLMC) held for the network’s top executives at the St. Clement’s Retreat House in Lapaz, Iloilo City. And the confidence that Bombo chief executive Dr. Rogelio Florete exuded during the culmination night, radio has not outlived its relevance, and in fact could make a comeback as the most effective medium for advertising.

Indeed, radio can’t be matched in terms of market penetration. No other media format has the reach and accessibility that radio can offer, especially that its broadcasts have gone beyond the traditional limits of its signal strength and have become worldwide because of the Internet. You can’t really go around lugging a portable TV set and keep tuned to the latest programs. But with the miniaturization of radio, there’s no place on this earth where radio couldn’t be heard.

Radio is not the same as we have known it 20 or 30 years ago. It has become the quickest way to bring the news to a wide audience, and as a form of entertainment, tickles the imagination and induces the listener to expand his or her creative mind. And even in the age of iPods and MP3s, nothing still beats the music brought by disc jockeys who offer not only their choice of songs, but companionship as well for lonely hearts in the middle of the night.

The rapid advances in television technology has allowed the major networks like ABS-CBN and GMA to eat up a huge chunk of the audience share over the last two decades. But advertising rates for TV are outrageously high because the networks also have to invest endlessly in the latest technology and equipment. On the other hand, radio basically has very little overhead. The tools of the trade have changed little, and radio network moguls like Dr. Florete don’t have to change equipment every two or three years. This allows radio networks to keep their costs down, and they could afford to bring down advertising costs.

With this in mind, the global meltdown may pose serious problems for television networks when their advertisers start scaling down on their advertising budgets. And this is the gap that Dr. Florete intends to exploit following the weeklong conference. It is often said that in adversity, there is opportunity. This adage is precisely the guiding philosophy that Bombo Radyo Philippines has embraced at the end of the MTLC.