The idea of bridging broadcast and digital is not new in the audio space. How can we serve this bridge and increase diversity in roles, experiences, cultures, people, companies, and languages?
One of the things that both big and small companies are all thinking about is how to digitise radio and audio content says Sam Bonham (Podcast Editor at BBC). Vincent Benveniste (CEO of DAVID Systems) points out the Øresund Bridge and how it’s used as a connecting lifeline between two countries. We need to do the same in the audio space. Collaboration and innovation are key to a better future.
One way Marlies Hartendorf (Executive Producer at Qmusic) is bridging the gap is with audio escape rooms. DJs are give audio clues and they’ve got a short time to escape; the experience was live during the day and then re-edited visually. People from diverse places of the organisation came together to make this happen but, as an audience member highlights, that can sometimes come with conflict; the key is to find common ground and work from there.
Having conversations with people on the ground is key to collaboration says Lillian Xu (Director of Strategy and Business Development at New York Public Radio) who’s found that news stories can ‘feed up’ from a local to national level. They created a podcast and then packaged those episodes into a radio format for broadcast.
Albert Menacher’s (Co-founder and producer at Berlin Briefing) wife doesn’t speak German. Her lack of language stopped her from experiencing Berlin as others experience can; the gap in language led to a gap in context. The Berlin Briefing is a German news podcast spoken in English, something that connects people to the community. 1,200 episodes later, bridging languages is still a challenge but is important to shrink borders and culturally unite people.