The Shanghai based Shanghi Media Group has 13 radio outlets and 95% of the market. But it can see changes ahead, according to Director Sun Xiangtong.

“We have already started our media convergence strategy,” he told the recent RadioAsia Conference.

There are both challenges and opportunities according to Xiantong. “The radio audience is declining, audiences and clients have more demands, but SMG Radio has consolidated and optimized our traditional programs and adapted to the changing environment.”

The company has adapted to the new media environment with these strategies:

Change 1

The production process has changed from a linear process to multi processes. “We have changed our backend production to form a new process… a journalist uses Smartphones and then we use multimedia editing to go to many platforms. Presenters source content from social media and the internet and many other new sources. Our transmission now also includes mobile media.

Change 2

Programmers now are all working closely together physically and content and workflow are all coordinated by new integrated systems.

Change 3

Closer links with our clients to find out what they want from new media. we link advertisers with the audience experience.

Change 4

Better audience research through analyzing our audience habits with smart phone and net usage platforms.

Change 5

Change the traditional way of marketing to increase the influence of advertisements, by using mobile solutions for our advertisers not just audio.

Pictured above, KFM 98.1 is SMG’s first bilingual music radio for western music in Shanghai. The station made its first appearance on 5 October 2014, becoming the fourth music radio channel under SMG, after Pop Music 101, Love Radio 103.7 and Classics 947.

The debut of KFM 98.1 makes Shanghai the only city in China to own four music radio channels targeted across listener demographics from 10 to 65. The four channels cover all age groups from all walks of life, and provide a vast variety of songs across all genres ranging from Chinese songs, English songs, pop music to classical music.