Page 16 - AdNews May-June 2020

Agenda
call their commercial radio sta- tion with live information, such as a blocked road.
Cassandra Cazzulino, general manager of Southern Cross Austereo Townsville, leads the operations of Southern Cross Austereo’s Hit 103.1FM and Triple M 102.3FM. Her team issued 350 safety messages over the first few days.
“There were crazy stories out there and, using the power of radio, we were able to deliver clear, con- cise, timely, accurate information to help people,” she says.
“When you’re going through extreme events, people rely on us. We’re a friend by their side.
“It’s an incredible level of trust that we’ve built over the years, and we take that seriously. It’s a huge responsibility.
“It’s an incredible level of trust that we’ve built over the years, and we take that seriously.”
Cassandra Cazzulino
“When things are happening they’re ringing us instead of oth- ers who should be their source of information.”
The station had staff from all operational areas taking calls, making sure that information went through a filter before it got to the newsroom or to announcers.
In the evening, the calls inten- sified. People couldn’t get through to emergency services. But the radio station is part of the Disaster Management Group in Townsville with direct access to reliable information.
“It enabled us to have accurate and up-to-date information,” says Cazzulino. “The situation was changing minute-to-minute, espe- cially when the severe f looding was happening.”
At the radio station, water came through the ceiling but the building was not threatened by rising water.
“But just trying to get our team into the studio was difficult,” says Cazzulino. “But we weren’t going to walk away at that time when the community needed us the most.”
One staff member had to wade in waist deep water, passing rescue boats, to get to a high point, jump into a car and drive to the studio.
Another was doing Bureau of Meteorology updates while sand- bagging the front door of his own house.
Cassandra Cazzulino lives in the suburb of Idalia. “That level of flooding was a first for me,” she says. “My suburb was almost com- pletely flooded but I was a lucky one in that I didn’t have a river flowing through.”
The staff of a local radio sta- tion are part of the community. They walk down the road and are accountable for what’s been aired or said.
And during the disaster, some members of the radio team couldn’t be 100% available because they were with their families, try- ing to secure their own home.
“We know the people, we know which parts of the city are going to be in trouble, and so people rely on us for that information,” Cazzulino says.
“They call us, whether it be try- ing to find someone in the commu- nity, a loved one they can’t locate.
“And people are going back to radio instead of social media. The difference is trust.’
The radio station also played a strong role in the cleanup.
Listeners would call asking for help. One, a single mother, needed to move damaged furniture from the house to the side of the road. People, hearing the call out on the airways, turned up to fix it for her.
“We are incredibly fiercely local in all that we do,” says Cazzulino.
Radio by the numbers
260COMMERCIAL RADIO STATIONS
ACROSS AUSTRALIA
12MAIN NETWORKS
ANNUAL AD REVENUE:
$1.19 BILLION
IN CALENDAR 2018 (METRO AND REGIONAL).
METRO AD REVENUE:
$761 MILLION
IN CALENDAR 2019
NEARLY
80%
OF POPULATION AGED 10+ LISTENS TO COMMERCIAL RADIO
10.9 MILLION
LISTENERS TUNE IN TO COMMERCIAL RADIO EACH WEEK IN THE FIVE MAJOR METRO MARKETS
7.8MILLION
TUNE IN TO BREAKFAST EACH WEEK IN THE FIVE MAJOR METRO MARKETS
74%
OF AUSTRALIANS AGREE THEY WOULD TURN TO RADIO IN AN EMERGENCY