#WorldRadioDay with Peter Ogley

Happy World Radio Day

In August 2020, Peter Ogley became the new CEO of Pure and has since been leading the brand through a new era of radio. Click the video for a personal #WorldRadioDay message.

5 Questions with Pete

Read on for a snippet of Pete’s interview with CEToday, in which he discusses his vision for the brand, his appreciation for music and his assessment of technological market developments.

CE: You’ve been in the audio industry for about 25 years and have previously worked for Bose and Sennheiser, among others. What makes Pure different?

PO: The format. My two previous employers were much larger. Also, I’ve never worked for a UK company before. Pure’s simple structure makes it a very exciting company. We have the opportunity to grow, change and find our place in the market. I can now even work with every single Pure employee, as well as those from affiliated companies – that way I have more personal contact with our distributors. It allows me to be more involved and help build a more agile company overall. Also, it’s simply fun to be involved in all areas of value creation for our customers.

CE: Many consumers are now using music streaming services on their smartphones. What impact does that have on you as a radio specialist?

PO: I see it as an opportunity, not a threat. Pure already has products in its range that appeal to these customers. For example, the “DiscovR,” which I also use here in the office. It’s a radio streaming device. I use Alexa to listen to my favorite radio stations with it. Our hybrid products are also our most successful ones.

They can serve as speakers for smartphone content, but also receive radio signals. We have to give our customers what they want, not what we think they should have. So if they want to access content on their phone and still get great music service, we’ll make that happen. But then if there’s someone else in the same household who wants to listen to the radio in a traditional way, that’s not a problem with these devices either.

Right now, there are a lot of products on the market that are very smart. But to use them, you often have to become a techie yourself and forget how you used to operate devices. We want to guide people through this transition step by step. We are constantly working to understand how customers are adapting and evolving so that we can offer products that are meaningful and useful.

The reason why many of our products still have a screen and buttons, while many other manufacturers do not include those features, is because that layout is very familiar to customers. They like the fact that they can see the content that is playing.

CE: How will you navigate the FM switch-off?

PO: We know what to do and what not to do once the time comes. Norway, for example, has already switched over to DAB+, and the demand for DAB+ equipment has been increasing rapidly. There was also a great thirst for knowledge from customers. We will therefore ensure that we prepare our partners well for the switchover, have the right products ready at the right time and offer customers the opportunity to communicate with us – either via social media or through our online platform. We have also learned from our experience with Norway that while there may be a lot of demand, it will also decrease. So we will also make sure that our partners are not left with a surplus of stocks.

CE: What are your plans for Pure in the upcoming years?

PO: Pure should become a customer-first company instead of a technology-first company. That is our priority at the moment. We are currently very strong in the UK and have left our mark in other parts of the world, but we want to cement our market presence further. This includes becoming more active in Asia. I see many opportunities there. And although DAB is not really a thing in Asia, Internet and content radio are huge. Even in Europe, there is more depth to be gained, still. But the goal is not to become a huge company. We want to be able to serve customer groups that have been ignored by the big tech companies.

CE: How do you usually listen to music?

PO: Radio is a constant companion in our home. My family and I often squabble over who gets to pick the station. Usually it’s one of my kids who wins. But even when I’m traveling, which is often, I listen to music. I use headphones when I’m waiting at the airport or sitting on a plane. That way I get a little “me time” while traveling, too.