Under the title Present and Future of Audio, the event brought together more than 100 speakers from a dozen countries, including journalists, communicators, researchers, managers, publicists and teachers. The presentations focused on areas such as new consumption models, the evolution of narratives and audience measurement.
Francesc Robert-Agell, associate lecturer and researcher at the Faculty of Communication Sciences at UIC Barcelona, took part as a speaker in the session entitled Sustainability of current broadcast business models. Future scenarios. “Unlike other traditional media outlets that have lost audience with digitalisation, radio has found new ways to attract new listeners,” says Agell. The UIC Barcelona lecturer adds that radio continues to be a space for professionalisation that “enables students to become entrepreneurs in the future”. He also warned that the low barriers to entry in podcasting make it a difficult field to “stand out” in.
It should be noted that in 2023 Francesc Robert-Agell presented his doctoral thesis at UIC Barcelona: “El futuro de la industria de la radio privada en España. Una aplicación de la metodología prospectiva de escenarios. Prisa Radio, Ábside Media y Atresmedia Radio ante la transformación digital y el reto del envejecimiento de la población”. [The future of the private radio industry in Spain. An application of the prospective scenario methodology. Prisa Radio, Ábside Media and Atresmedia Radio in the face of digital transformation and the challenge of an ageing population.] Agell is the current director of Atresmedia Radio in Catalonia and associate lecturer in the subjects of Business in the Bachelor's Degree of Journalism and Structure of the Audiovisual System in the Bachelor's Degree of Audiovisual Communication.
Maria Fitó, PhD in Communication and lecturer in the Faculty of Communication Sciences of UIC Barcelona, participated in the presentation of the 50th issue of Quaderns del CAC to celebrate the 100th anniversary of radio in Spain. “When I start the first day of class, I ask the students if they listen to the radio; very few raise their hands,” Fitó explains. Against this backdrop, her presentation focused on Generation Z's perception of linear radio. “Young people want to control the content they consume, to be their own programmers, and to decide what, where and on what device they listen to new narratives,” she added.
The congress was held on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the first radio licence in Spain, EAJ-1 Radio Barcelona, the embryo of what would later become Cadena SER.
