Sami Tenkanen’s career mirrors the evolution of Nordic radio, from NRJ morning host to CEO steering two national markets. After a decade on air, he moved into leadership in 2006 and became CEO of Bauer Media Finland in 2017. Since June 2024, he has also led Bauer Media Audio Sweden, guiding both operations through a fast-changing audio landscape. With global streaming platforms reshaping listening and younger audiences shifting to digital, Tenkanen is betting on localization, AI and diversification to keep radio competitive through 2030.
RedTech: How do you balance your dual roles as CEO of Bauer Media Finland and co-CEO of Bauer Media Audio Sweden (alongside Bodil Ehlers), and what insights does this give you into different Nordic market dynamics?
Sami Tenkanen: The key is having the right teams in both markets. I have the luxury of trusted people close to me, and Bodil and I have been able to share key responsibilities based on our individual strengths and experience. From a distance, Finland and Sweden look similar, but there are fundamental differences between the two audio markets and working cultures. Sweden has three national and two semi-national networks, whereas Finland has seven national and 19 semi-national networks. This creates a great learning opportunity that we can build as an advantage for both markets.
RedTech: From your Nordic perspective, what are the biggest challenges facing radio operators today?
Tenkanen: Not surprisingly, I need to start with our challenges with younger audiences, primarily due to the growing number of other audio and entertainment options. This is closely related to the overall challenges posed by global digital operators and the regulatory issues in Nordic markets that create advantages for nonlocal operators. The challenges for the audio business are the same as for almost all other industries: increased competition, audience fragmentation, dispersed marketing budgets, decreased predictability and declining profitability.
RedTech: How do you compete with global audio streaming platforms while maintaining radio’s unique value proposition?
Tenkanen: Radio indeed has a unique value proposition, and it remains valid and vital amid ever-increasing audience options. From a product perspective, let’s focus on our strengths and ensure that we deliver the best content that is easy for listeners to reach and consume. The world will never run out of contacts or inventory for advertisers, so we need to communicate the value of radio and audio as a medium that delivers not only reach but also desired impact. Evidence shows audio grabs attention, triggers emotion and motivates action.
Since most of the new competition is global, we should see localization as a value-adding opportunity.
RedTech: Bauer Media Audio operates across multiple European countries. What lessons from Finland and Sweden can be applied to wider European or global audio strategies?
Tenkanen: The Nordic countries — Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark — are often seen as good markets for piloting new ideas and operations. Sweden is widely known as a frontrunner in digital audio innovation and podcasting, whereas in Finland, we’ve been actively building, piloting and exporting various AI-related development projects. The Finnish business has also been actively fostering greater diversity across both revenue streams and inventory sources through commercial production and retail audio launches. Bauer Media Audio Finland and its retail partners are also working to reach and commercialize customers in stores. We deliver audio content that enhances the shopping experience while playing targeted ads that turn store visitors into valuable contacts for advertisers.
RedTech: How are you attracting and retaining Gen Z audiences and what strategies have proven most effective?
Tenkanen: Gen Z is obviously a huge topic for the industry. Stations targeting younger listeners need to play the social media game, even if it feels like sleeping with the enemy. To win the game, we need to master more than social media. My thesis is that Gen Z differs most from earlier generations in the sheer number of options available to them. Still, we should remember that the hippies of the 1960s became business leaders and the long-haired metalheads of the 1980s eventually became responsible parents. It will be interesting to watch how Gen Z develop as they get older.
RedTech: What role does podcasting play in your overall content strategy?
Tenkanen: Podcasting is a potential inventory source to offset what broadcast radio is losing. However, the business model and value chain are fundamentally different, so podcasting in its current form is unlikely to lead us into profitability paradise. In Nordic markets, we’re seeing opportunities with audiences willing to pay for quality content, and we’re currently exploring different monetization options. Currently, 95% of our digital revenue comes from advertising, but some operators in the market are building their businesses on subscription revenue. It will be interesting to see how markets evolve over the next three to five years.
RedTech: How are you leveraging virtualization and cloud technologies in your broadcast operations, and what impact have these had on efficiency and scalability?
Tenkanen: We’ve started shifting core broadcast and digital audio operations to virtualization and cloud platforms as part of Bauer Media Group’s wider cloud strategy. The move enables scalability options, faster launches and smoother cross-market integration while reducing hardware management. Overall, cloud adoption has improved efficiency, agility and monetization opportunities in both broadcast radio and digital audio markets.
RedTech: How are you incorporating AI into operations across Sweden and Finland, and what impact is it having on operations?
Tenkanen: In Finland, we’ve been frontrunners with AI. Having our own AI radio provides a testing ground for piloting innovations. AI currently supports our stations with news, traffic and weather updates. There are multiple AI innovations in the pipeline, and I’ve seen how excited and curious our teams have been. AI is often seen as an opportunity for cost savings, but it is also a chance to redirect resources to improve the product. In terms of tools, we prefer to stay flexible — a new AI tool coming out next week might be better. We have also developed our own AI tools tailored to our audio business.
RedTech: The car remains a critical space for radio. How do you see the role of radio evolving in connected cars across your markets?
Tenkanen: All new cars sold in Finland require an integrated FM chip, and that is being discussed for Sweden. However, the FM chip doesn’t eliminate the fact that we’re facing growing competition in cars, where radio had a dominant position. Easy accessibility has been an essential part of radio’s DNA, and we must ensure this remains true in the future. In practice, this means making sure our presence across a wide range of platforms and services.
RedTech: How are you approaching monetization in a fragmented digital audio landscape, particularly around advertising, subscription models, branded content and using AI to develop new revenue streams?
Tenkanen: I see great opportunities. Our core business provides limited growth opportunities, so we need to search for new inventory and revenues. Personally, this is one of the most exciting aspects of this business: transforming our regulated analog business to become winners in the unregulated digital business. With the growing number of opportunities and operators, we’ve chosen to build partnerships across the audio and advertising ecosystem. I believe the more partners we have, the fewer competitors we face — and that gives us a strong chance to be a winner.
RedTech: With increasing consolidation in the audio sector, what advantages does Bauer Media’s scale bring, and how do you ensure local creativity is not lost?
Tenkanen: In a perfect world, scale brings us learnings, piloting opportunities and support in many different forms. In the worst case, it makes us slow, bureaucratic and too big to react. The reality is somewhere in between, clearly closer to perfect than worst. I’ve never been worried about local creativity. Our business is strongly tied to local markets, audiences and languages. Since most of the new competition is global, we should see localization as a value-adding opportunity.
RedTech: Looking ahead to 2030, what do you think will define successful radio operators in Europe?
Tenkanen: Successful radio operators who listened to their audiences and built win-win relationships with clients and other stakeholders. Radio broadcasters have traditionally played a role in society, and I see that becoming even more critical. We need to cooperate and add value to be valued by others — listeners, clients, politicians and more. Radio has always been part of the collective culture, introducing music and personalities that audiences either love or love to hate. Although that shared culture has weakened in recent years, radio will continue to play an essential role through 2030 in fostering a sense of belonging among listeners. And although 2030 may sound far away, it’s just around the corner. I’m excited about the possibilities it will bring.
This story originally appeared in the November/December edition of RedTech Magazine.
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