- Sounding Off
- Posts
- Radio's Is Not Dead, But It Has a UX Problem
Radio's Is Not Dead, But It Has a UX Problem
Radio has done little to make the experience better over time
Matt Cundill
July 30, 2025
Steve Jones had an excellent post on LinkedIn about the Myths and Realities behind Radio in 2025. It is far from Dead. The post is 100! Radio is listened to by 85% of Canadians every week. Podcasts are 27%; and Gen Z encounters radio more than Facebook. However, once we get beyond that, what ails radio is its User Experience.
What's Below
We Need to Discuss Radio’s UX.
It’s not that radio shares space on your phone with other apps.
It’s not that you might not have AM radio in your car.
It’s not that the iHeart app has music, podcasts, and more.
It’s not podcasts.
It’s also not satellite radio.
It’s not that smart speaker usage is in decline, after we all thought radio was making a comeback in the kitchen.
👉 It’s what’s on the radio itself.
Overserved Markets
Many North American markets are overserved.
Most major markets have anywhere from 15 to 25 FM stations—many playing non-stop music.
I’m sorry, but no one needs that.
What people want is:
A station they can love
A few they can like
And a couple worth checking out
Also—does anyone else find it odd that we can count the number of urban radio stations in Canada on one finger?
The Missing Connection
The reasons people connect to radio have been cut.
This includes your favourite show host. Chances are, the people you used to connect with—even as recently as five years ago—are no longer in radio or have moved on.
The sports radio station that gave you wall-to-wall discussion about the fourth line of your local NHL team? Probably gone.
I can count the number of English-language sports radio stations on one hand.
Radio Doesn’t Brag Enough
Radio can’t afford any days off when it comes to promoting the great things it does.
At the very least, telling the world something awesome—weekly— helps re-establish that radio is alive and active in the community.
Radio Didn’t Innovate Radio
I was listening to satellite radio the other day. The programming paused while I took a call. When the call ended, the song picked up right where it left off.
🎧 (Why can’t we buffer content like a PVR?)
In 2013, I was driving with my kids. We caught the tail end of The Offspring’s Gotta Get Away. One of them asked me to replay it…
I explained I couldn’t—because it’s the radio.
Years later, they couldn’t understand why some stations didn’t even use the RDS feature to show what song was playing.
Where Did the Talent Go?
Every time a former radio broadcaster creates a hit podcast or video, it reinforces that radio is no longer the place.
And radio no longer gets the top talent from broadcast schools.
New grads come equipped with:
Video production skills
Social media savvy
The ability to build their own audiences
Remote work expectations
Many go straight to brands or freelance careers that pay better and offer more freedom.
Not All Radio Feels the Same
There are great radio stories out there—in Montreal and Toronto, for example.
Some stations sound alive, vibrant, and local.
But then there’s this:
🏢 Corus has an empty building in market #4, running 24/7 voice tracks on two FMs.
📻 In Edmonton, only two people are live on air in the evening. It might be down to 1 now.
Sure, that saves money.
But to the listener, it sounds like… drip... drip... drip.
A 20-Year Drip Drip Drip
These might seem like small things.
But added up over two decades, they’ve let audiences believe that radio is an inferior medium.
If 85% of Canadians listened to the radio last week, that means nothing—unless they can remember:
What they listened to
And how it made them feel
That’s a problem newer media does not have right now.
A Podcast Canadian Radio Should Listen To
On the heels of what radio has been doing wrong with its user experience, here is someone who is doing it well. Jon Pole is the President of My Broadcasting Corporation, and is optimistic about the future of radio.
Connie Thiessen from Broadcast Dialogue, spoke to Jon about the challenges facing the industry — from Canadian content rules to regulatory red tape — and explore how MBC is managing to grow revenue while others are seeing declines. The show is part of the Sound Off Podcast Network but you can listen on any app here.
The Sound Off Survey Takes 5 Minutes
Editing for Video vs. Audio
One of our top editors here at the Sound Off Media Company thought it would be a good idea to edit the video and then the audio and video experiences would be the same. I let them try it. To do so, they would need to use a cloud based tool like Descript. We could just use the audio from the edited video.
They found the experience to be clunky.
They could not do what the could using Adobe.
They become frustrated and gave up
Today being Tuesday as I type this, I spent 2/3’s of my time uploading and downloading video files, whether they are full length videos of podcasts, reels, YouTube Shorts etc. It is bizarre to spend 2/3’s of my time on media that is getting 10% of the views that our audio does. Long live audio. With that said, here is this week’s podcast episode with Norma Jean Belenky - the host of the Podbiz,. We didn't get a chance to finish our conversation we started at the Podcast Show in London - so we did so on a podcast.
The Best Thing I Listened To This Week
I met Shannon Cason in 2017 at Podcast Movement in Anaheim. We were going to share a ride to the airport but we were headed to different terminals. He was on his way back to Detroit. He is an awesome storyteller. This week he is talking about taking Roadtrips.
I have been meaning to have Shannon on the Sound Off Podcast… I’ll try to make this happen by the end of the year.
Here I am sitting inside a beautiful voice studio and waiting to voice something wonderful for you. There’s a camera in the studio and we can literally record it together. The same way you get a sandwich built at Subway.
Reply