Newcastle-based Metro Radio has handed control of its news content to the station’s audience for the day in what’s thought to be a UK radio first.
Wednesday became ‘News You Choose Day’, with listeners voting via Facebook for what should be in bulletin running orders as well as suggesting their own content ideas.
The morning news prospects meeting was available to watch on-line and contributions invited via Twitter. A number of listeners put forward their own ideas which were taken forward and others suggested questions for interviews.
Metro’s Deputy News Editor, Joel Goldman, also ran a live blog through the day on the station’s website to get feedback and input from listeners.
Head of News, Justin Kings said it was an attempt by the news team to get closer to listeners. “We strive to put out news on air and on line which is relevant to Metro’s listeners and “News You Choose Day” gave us a unique insight into what the audience cares about,” he said. “We know many listeners use Facebook and Twitter as part of their everyday lives and this was a chance to use social media to help us broadcast news from the North East to the North East.”
We’re told the day went so well, that the Bauer station has decided to run the idea regularly on the first Tuesday (Choose-day) of each month.
Posted on Friday, August 12th, 2011 at 9:53 am by RadioToday UK