James Cridland’s Future of Radio: Is Alexa the replacement for an AM/FM radio?

james cridland canvasJames Cridland is Managing Director of media.info, and an Australia-based radio futurologist. He is a consultant, writer and public speaker who concentrates on the effect that new platforms and technology are having on the radio business. Find out more or subscribe at http://james.cridland.net


James Cridland’s articles

United States

United Kingdom

  • Radio 1 at 50, but can anyone find it? – a bit of a silly piece from David Sillito of the BBC, handing kids a very old-fashioned analogue radio and attempting to extrapolate this to an impression that kids don’t tune in. Here’s the actual data – 74% tune in weekly. Just not on an old-fashioned analogue radio with a dial. Naughty David Sillito. But it was a fun piece, and I played a bit in a conference on Saturday and it made people laugh a bit, albeit slightly uncomfortably. Don’t unsubscribe, David.
  • Spotify: 61% of UK adults regularly listen to podcasts. This, I’m afraid, is either misleading bullshit, or inaccurate reporting: a) not mentioned in the piece is that they only bothered to ask 18-44 year-olds, so this is not in any way “UK adults”, and b) I have no idea what they mean by “regularly”, but the article states the figure is only 21% weekly. So is 61% a monthly figure? If so… really? Or is this a “has ever” figure? Anyway, if you want actual, non-bullshit, figures, here’s RAJAR – 10% of UK adults (5.6m people). Spotify has previous, with some dodgy comparisons between their music service and UK commercial radio. But, er, (tries to think of something positive to say so he doesn’t lose 6 subscriptions…) at least it’s made us talk about Spotify. I love Spotify. Don’t you?
  • This is a very good idea for an article: Pocket DAB Radio Sensitivity – more focus should be made in this area
  • I went to Q Radio In Northern Ireland
  • A rather fun review of the BBC’s radio anniversaries last week from Gillian Reynolds.
  • BBC Radio 1 Presenter Annie Mac On Personality Radio – a great writeup from Next Radio

Elsewhere

James Cridland