That was the message at the Group PD Super Session during the NAB Radio Show in Philadelphia. Rick Cummings, President of Programming for Emmis Communications said “I see that we have two main issues to address in radio today: First, we have to right-size our business. But second, we must embrace the digital world, because that’s where young people are.” Cummings added “Most of the attendees at this convention, and others I’ve been too in recent years, have all been around my age. I’m not seeing the 20 year olds any more. They’re not coming into our business.”

Reaching listeners through digital media is also a chance to communicate “one to one” says Cummings. “The key is one to one communication with our fans. We have over 100-thousand peole signed up for text alerts from Hot 97 [WQHT] New York. Angie Martinez [PM Driver on Hot] has over 90,000 fans following her on Twitter. 15 minutes before Jay-Z showed up for a live interview on her show, she twittered it, and let them know to tune in. New media is a means for us to communicate with our biggest fans.”

Clear Channel EVP of programming Gene Romano adds radio also needs “to deepen that [one-to-one] relationship. We need to reach out to them more than what we’ve done in the past. And now we have the different ways to reach them, all with unique content.”

Reaching out to more listeners is one advantage of using new media. But also providing more information to the users you already have, is also valuable. Steve Goldstein, Executive VP Saga Communications says “Traditionally, we’ve only been able to touch on 1, 2 or 3 things on the air in an hour. Now, with multiple new media platforms available to us, we can provide multiple messages our users want, all simultaneously.”

Jay Stevens, Sr. VP of programming, Radio One chimed in “Twitter is made for PPM. It creates appointment listening, and it’s ongoing, and in real time … In PPM markets, I wonder why more stations don’t consider doing news every hour—it’s appointment listening.”

On the subject of PPM, Jim Farley VP of news & programming, WTOP, Washington DC, told broadcasters “Don’t teach to the test” which is what we used to do in the diary. “PPM has exposed us to a true realty of what people actually listen to.”

Romano also noted “PPM has really exposed our poor talent management over the years. A lot of what we thought was great, we know now, really isn’t working for the listeners. And that might mean some of the talent we had been using, aren’t the best choice. Now, we can see what does work, and expand on that.”

In order to be “Cool” once again, Cummings says radio needs to be accessible through any mobile device – and that’s why the recent addition of the FM band on Apple’s new iPhone, is good for radio.

Cummings explains Jobs reasons for the addition. “He realized that radio sells records. He also noticed iTunes sales were leveling off. So it made sense to include an FM tuner in the new iPod. It will help him sell music. Radio is still the number one way to expose new music to consumers."

But we know that. Cummings says “The bigger issue is radio is not top of mind for the next generation. There are a number of choices available now for entertainment, all accessed through a mobile device. That’s cool to them. And they have those devices [cell phones, ipods] with them, everywhere. So in order for radio to be cool again, it has to be available through those same mobile devices.”