When it comes to connection, does geography really matter?

Image: ARN

Christian O’Connell is a firm believer that in radio, the really great shows are about the art of connection.

“Listeners want an emotional experience … they want to feel a shared experience,” O’Connell says on LinkedIn. “This is the magic of radio.”

O’Connell says noisy cash giveaways distort this and reduce the relationship to a transactional one.

He argues that thesedays, we need to be “more platform agnostic and connection obsessive.”

Next year, in an Australian radio first, Gold 104.3’s The Christian O’Connell Show will launch nationally via a mixed platform strategy of FM distribution in Melbourne and Sydney and DAB digital radio in Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane.

For O’Connell, former ABC Head of Capital City Radio and Audio Sport Mike Fitzpatrick (pictured above) hits the nail on the head in his latest Substack article.

Suddenly, Fitzpatrick says, everyone’s panicking about geography – but your postcode is probably the least interesting thing about what you do.

He notes that whilst The Christian O’Connell Show will be the first truly national commercial breakfast program in Australia, in the UK and the US, it’s been happening for years.

Fitzpatrick says “But what about local?” is the wrong question to ask.

“We’ve been stuck in the same circular argument for about two decades. Local vs networked. As if it’s binary, as if where the show comes from matters more than what it does for people.”

As Fitzpatrick put its, O’Connell turns the personal into the universal: His show works because it doesn’t solve the “tell me what’s happening down the road” problem. It solves the “lift my mood” problem.

Fitzpatrick argues shows don’t fail because they’re networked – quite simply, they fail because they don’t connect.

“The audience isn’t rewarding geography, they’re rewarding connection.”

He says that while there ARE some cracking shows which DO connect locally and are great at it, the audience has stopped asking “Are you local?” and are now instead asking “Are you for me?”