This revolution will not be televised

There is an increased trend on the radio towards directing listeners to follow up on an on-the-air scenario online. Competitions, further discussions on topics, or even photographs or Webcams are now used to enrich the radio experience through the station`s Web site.

It`s a clever evolution. I don`t know the statistics, but I don`t think radio was ever in any danger of being sidelined by more modern media. However, I do think it is a dated form of communication, and most listeners didn`t really feel their radio listening formed a relevant part of their daily lives.

This is partly because radio is the most passive of media. It`s the one way we can be entertained while completely absorbed in something else.

Driving, working or eating food in a restaurant, we can tune the radio in or out at will. In fact, its most rapt audience is the commuting masses that go to and from work every day accompanied by the rantings of their favourite DJs, when there really isn`t anything else to hold their focus.

But in a society where our attention is being vied for at every possible opportunity by billboards, magazines, movies, television and, of course, the Internet, this non-visual medium had to find a way to compete. And it did, through the Internet.

It`s the continuity of the Internet that`s important.

Georgina Guedes, editor, Brainstorm

Yesterday`s 5FM valentine`s show was a great example of this union. A bloody ox heart was presented as a valentine`s gift from Danger Boy to Mark Gillman. The entirely grossed-out studio erupted into protestations and howls of laughter as the realisation dawned that the box did not contain a great glob of melting chocolate.

The general mayhem was a break down of the usually eloquent Gillman Show team`s utterances, but the listener was comforted by the team`s undertaking to photograph the heart and put it on the Internet, for all to see.

Somehow, this extra level of interaction makes the radio more accessible. Being able to pop in and look at the DJ on the Webcam makes me more confident that he is a real person, and not some naked hairy lunatic spinning tunes while I drive to work.

It`s the continuity of the Internet that`s important. Most people don`t have a pen in the car, and even if they do, shouldn`t be scrabbling for it while driving.

If they hear something they`d like to follow up on while walking through a shopping centre, they`re less likely to kill themselves in trying to record it, but still unlikely to get it down in time.

But with the single hold-all of one Web address to remember, a world of possibilities is opened up for listener participation.

This is where the Internet is its most effective. The virtual world it offers is not yet as compelling as movies like The Net or even Total Recall made it out to be. But it`s a fantastic mechanism for expanding a marketing offering.