Last month I shared to you details about a satellite solution called store and forward that could revolutionize the way your radio, television group or cable head-end operates.
Because of advancements in technology and a recent ruling by the FCC, broadcasters no longer need to main a physical studio in each marketplace in which they operate.
In the fall of 2017, the FCC ruled that broadcasters no longer needed to maintain a studio in each marketplace in which they operate. Instead, they could invest in some of the new technology developed for radio, television and cable that provide localization required by the FCC. Broadcasters can take their operations to an all new level with intelligent technology like Store and Forward.
As a broadcaster, your group faces multiple content challenges…challenges like content, sales, copy split, accountability, interactivity and hardware. The Store and Forward platform can help you streamline your business, and minimize – even eliminate – these challenges.
Yet, we agree – it is an investment. And it requires you and your staff to adapt to a new operational paradigm. So, how do you evaluate if your group really needs to feel comfortable going forward with this venture? Here are some indicators you may notice in your daily operations that could indicate your network needs to advance to Store and Forward:
1. You can’t afford NOT to go to the next level, because the cost of doing business the old fashioned way is killing your financial bottom line.
Currently, you are maintaining and duplicating equipment and key personnel at each downlink location. Because each market must produce their own content, you have duplicate software, software licenses, physical studios – even budget-busting automation systems – at each site. Costly, redundant, and – with store and forward – a thing of the past.
With Store and Forward, the paradigm can be changed. Your reality transitions from multiple studios in multiple locations to delivering content from a centralized studio or hub, and delivering it to all your downlink locations with all appropriate localization tagged at the head-end.
2. You want to sound local, but you don’t.
To maintain a certain level of localization you are currently feeding your automation system all sorts of information – weather, id’s, news, liners and local commercial advertising. Technically, it works, but your content sounds canned – because it is! And it’s difficult – and don’t forget costly – for you to hire appropriate talent within the local community to make the automation system work well and sound local.
With Store and Forward, you are utilizing talent and quality programming produced at the head-end to produce and deliver appropriate local content. You may have all of the state-of-the-art equipment and quality personnel in one strategic location, but the intelligent technology of store and forward allows equal access to excellence at all of your locations.
We have one audio client with Store and Forward who has hundreds of stations across the US. By using the Store and Forward platform, his network is able to seamlessly switch from their main studio to a sister studio at their main location and speak to a region (even a specific community) during a weather disaster, a community crisis, or during share-a-thons. All of the network’s talent and resources can be mobilized and focused from the main studio to a site miles away.
3. Your current equipment at your multiple locations does not work flawlessly with your satellite format, and it drives you – and your audience – nuts.
You have a format coming in by satellite receiver that you are feeding to multiple locations. It could be news, talk radio, entertainment, or a combination of all of these services. You are going back and forth between an automation system and your satellite receiver at your remote locations and it sounds…well, choppy. You either have dead air between the network joins or the joins overlap, Each time that happens, your listeners are reminded that your content is not local. And it make you sound unprofessional. Not cool.
An integrated system that seamlessly combines network and local content in one box is the answer. And it can be found with Store and Forward.
There’s no better time than now to think about consolidating your network’s programming to a single studio location. With Store and Forward, it’s easy for group owners to originate locally relevant programming from afar, and gain options that offer a whole new range of possibilities for your network.