Why Local Radio Doesn't Gather Such Popularity Now As It Had In The Nineties?

Sergey Popov was a DJ of Radio Randevu when I was a high-school student. That was the best time of the authentic radio stations of Nizhny Novgorod, and Randevu was the first and most popular. In late 1990s Randevu programmes were so popular that people recognised its DJs in the streets and thanked them. Now all the stations closed but Randevu, and Sergey is its CEO. And I'm, a writer, talking to a star of my nostalgic years.

In 2012 Radio Randevu U-turned to 'hot AC' format, in which it was most popular during its golden era. Since then, popularity of the station had grown up. What's your audience now?

Data by TNS Russia correlate with our own measures, figuring the station's main audience as adults 25+ living in Nizhny Novgorod. Our information and entertainment programmes with emphasis on local news, weather, traffic situation, lots of interactive programmes is what can't be firmly provided by radio networks. That's why the listeners value Radio Randevu.

How have the audience been changing in the past?

I don't have exact numbers, as TNS's reports are practically unaffordable to local radio broadcasters. Besides, my attitude to that data is critical, so is from many broadcasters from other towns. We all know that Moscow and Petersburg are the only cities that are measured by TNS with satisficial accuracy. Their methods of measuring for other Russian towns, even with a population of 1 million people and more, allows to analyze the situation in Russia as a whole, and obviously has highly arguable precision for the shares of local stations.

For example, our gender data differ a bit from the third-party's audience measurements. They say that we have equal number of men and women, while we see that men's share is larger.

Describe your marketing methods in more details

We run quizzes and games with prizes 2-3 times a day, winners are asked some questions about their preferences. When they come in our office to pick their prizes, we ask them to fill a small questionnaire.

That is, you investigate 700 to 800 people a year?

Yes, we talk about hundreds. For example, our last analysis included 500 filled forms.

Tell about your new web site

It is radiorandevu.ru. There is an option of receiving Radio Randevu online there, highly demanded tool amongst people out of the region of Nizhny Novgorod. Besides, it helps our loyal listeners to fine tune their day routines, thanks to the announces of city events on the radio. We run short news, focused on what happens in Nizhny Novgorod and the region. We give major culture, sports and politics news in town to our listeners.
And, the web site became another useful tool in the set of instruments for multi-modal or interactive specials.

In the nineties, Randevu collaborated with Radio Freedom and the Voice of America. Is there anything in today's work of the station that reminds of that time?

The collaboration that you mentioned lasted for several years. Thanks to it, we had the best equipment in the town – broadcast consoles, microphones, programming features and other new things. Now it sounds ridiculous but then we were proud having very advanced professional ReVox reel-to-reel tape decks and CD players with an option of playing fragments of tracks connected to the mixing consoles. We were first in Nizhny Novgorod who got professional Denon minidisc recorders, using them to broadcast ad tracks and for self-production programmes.

Thanks to the American partners, we gathered the best-in-town music collection and a library of sample sounds, which helped a lot in establishing our ad production service. The best production studios of Nizhny Novgorod were founded by ex-Randevu people.

Nowadays, Randevu again is the only one FM station in the town that has its own production?

No. Stations NN Radio, Dinamit Nizhny Novgorod, Dobrye Pesni (kind songs in English – RN) and Christian oriented secular Radio Obraz make their own content themselves, too. The last one started broadcasting most recently.

In late 1990s Randevu programmes were so popular that people recognised its DJs in the streets and thanked them. Why don't contemporary products gather such popularity?

Large scale production projects encounter financial issues. What was made by enthusiasts in the 1990s, nowadays must be done on commercial basis. If there's a necessity, Randevu will manage tasks with any level of complexity.

Do you think that hot topics – city news, traffic jams, weather – are the main advantage of a local station?

Yes, you can get current information about town only from a local station. Network stations are limited to periods scheduled by their contracts.

From our experience I can say that this is just one reason of many for people to listen to local stations. Take town's festivities, events of all kinds, concerts: in such days, we cover events in real time, run contests and lotteries with tickets as prizes, we unite people from different parts of the town.

Besides, the basis of radio – I mean music itself – can be more interesting at a local station, even with no local performers. If a station is listened to in hundreds of towns, it must pay scrupulous attention to differencies in mentality while making playlists, to be sure that listeners won't abrupt it. Often they refine the playlists to a degree of boredom. At a regional station, we can dare more experiments in programming.

(Abridged. Full version of the interview was published in Media News in February, 2015).