A free Radio World ebook explores “Recipes for Visual Display.” This is an excerpt. Jeff Detweiler is senior director, broadcast business development for Xperi Inc.
Radio World: How well do you think the message has sunk in for radio broadcasters about the importance of good metadata management?
Jeff Detweiler: In today’s automotive dashboards, with their visually impactful screens, metadata plays a critical role in creating a new face for radio. As radio broadcasters recognize the importance of these immersive displays to consumers, they are increasingly moving towards adopting platforms that provide a more enhanced experience. And it is essential as the automotive entertainment landscape becomes more competitive.
Broadcasters must adopt advanced metadata solutions. This will encourage consumers to gravitate to stations that offer rich images, album art, station logos, and more, all made possible by well-curated metadata. Without metadata, stations will look unfinished by comparison.
RW: What’s a good example of a feature or capability that metadata makes possible but that broadcasters may not be taking full advantage of?
Detweiler: There are three that come to mind: discovery, engagement and revenue generation.
The first is discovery. The simple addition of a station logo makes it much easier for broadcasters to build brand equity, familiarity and recall with the audience and for that audience to continue to discover their station. When a consumer gets into their car, turns on the radio and sees the station logo, they will know immediately that they are tuned to their favorite station.
The second example is engagement. Radio stations that leverage synchronized metadata with their audio programming can establish a deeper, more engaging experience for listeners. Metadata helps audiences connect with that programming whether it’s music, talk, live sports or even advertisements.
Revenue generation is the third example. Synchronizing ad images and text with audio is a powerful and valuable new monetization capability for the industry. Quu Inc. reports that radio stations are now realizing a 10–15% premium for including synchronized text with audio ads and a 25–30% premium for including synchronized text and images with audio ads. This represents significant revenue opportunities that shouldn’t be overlooked.
RW: You have talked about the possible use of scan codes. How can a station go about doing that?
Detweiler: Scan codes are nothing more than a QR code image, sent synchronously with commercial content or asynchronously as a station promotion that runs unattached to a specific audio segment.
RW: What resources would you recommend to learn about best practices?
Detweiler: As vehicle dashboards and the digital landscape have evolved, so too have industry recommendations and best practices and, more critically, legal, IP and copyright obligations. It is important for broadcasters to look at metadata not as an engineering challenge but rather as an integrated editorial opportunity to help their station stand out among an increasingly crowded digital environment.
Broadcasters should make sure that whatever they do with metadata is done with clear intent, understanding and commercial justification. Metadata should be treated with the same care and protections as core audio productions. There are an increasing number of bad actors in the digital space who leverage and exploit content produced by others, for their own benefit. The very metadata that helps enhance your programming can also be used against you if you are not judicious with where it is published, who it is shared with and how it is technically protected. Artificial intelligence introduces an entirely new level of risk, especially with AI training models running rampant on internet content.
Protect your metadata, defend against scraping and do not share it without contractual protections and trusted business partners. Additionally, ensure that any metadata is published with full consent and license from the appropriate copyright holder — examples include record labels, photographers, on-air talent and professional and college sports teams.
With any new platform or partner, ask yourself a few simple questions: Why should I support this platform? How will it benefit my listeners? Are they a credible and scalable partner with a sustainable business model? Does their operation introduce legal risk or jeopardy for my organization?
When it comes to copyright ownership of images and use rights demanded by OEMs, the broadcast world of Radio Data System (RDS) and HD Radio are much simpler than the complexities of the IP landscape and the challenges introduced in the connected car.
Having operated for well over 20 years, HD Radio has supported thousands of radio stations and is familiar with existing platforms and content suppliers that provide the technology and fully licensed imagery and album art for this critical use case.
Despite these intricacies, all broadcasters should consider embracing broadcast metadata immediately, while at the same time, being judicious in the IP and connected car ecosystems.
The following are great resources to assist you in this journey:
The NAB Digital Dashboard Best Practices Report will assist you in this journey.
Also, standards and guidelines documents from the National Radio Systems Committee including the ones listed below are available at this link. Look for:
- IEC-62106-9, Radio data system (RDS) – VHF/FM sound broadcasting in the frequency range from 64.0 MHz to 108.0 MHz – Part 9: RBDS – RDS variant used in North America, IEC, May 2021
- NRSC-5-E, IBOC Digital Radio Broadcasting Standard, NRSC, January 2023
- NRSC-G300-C, RDS Usage Guideline, NRSC, April 2018
- NRSC-G302, Harmonization of Radio Metadata Across Transports Guideline, NRSC, January 2020
- NRSC-G303, Best Practices for Delivering Emergency Alerts and Information for FM Radio Broadcasters, NRSC, April 2022
- NRSC-G304, Metadata for Streaming Audio Handbook, October 2023
RW: What’s the most common mistake or error broadcasters make in managing metadata?
Detweiler: Number one is not providing consistent metadata on RDS, HD Radio and streaming services. The second is ignoring the pedigree of image content. Copyright compliance and enforcement are big topics at the moment, and liability is weighing on proactive compliance. Previously, the copyright owner would have to illustrate a violation; now, the service provider must confirm compliance with the OEM.
RW: Do you have a favorite trick or best practice that you’d like to call attention to?
Detweiler: Broadcasters should develop and nurture relationships with local auto dealerships. Doing so creates opportunities for broadcasters to experience the latest infotainment developments in new vehicles as well as provides the opportunity to educate the dealers on HD Radio and hybrid radio offerings. Of course, broadcasters can also use the opportunity to put their station on the vehicle presets.
RW: What else should we know?
Detweiler: FM stations should, at a minimum, adopt static RDS tools to enhance listener experience and, ideally, provide static and dynamic metadata to listeners using RDS. Radio stations should also strongly consider adopting HD Radio hybrid IBOC mode. Additionally, AM stations with established FM translators should consider MA3 all-digital operation supporting logos and synchronous images. Broadcasters should adopt best practices in using metadata per the resource documents I listed above.
