James 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
- Lazy Buggles headlines are the subject of my AllAccess column, where I ask what we’re doing about these inaccurate, false headlines. (Spoiler: not much.)
- I look at the broadcast setup for Talking Lifestyle’s Trevor Long in the Radio Magazine. He’s a clever man.
United States
- Love this from Radio Ink, particularly since I’ve just written the very same thing for my AllAccess.com column: Radio Is Not Dead.
- “People love intimacy of radio and the human connection” vs another presenter let go without being able to say bye – in this case, from iHeart’s WDFN in Detroit. What does it say about our industry when radio presenters have to use social media to say good-bye?
- I’ve Heard the Future of Talk Radio, and His Name Is Chris Plante – either a good spruik from Plante, or an enthusiastic review!
- Radio host Ira Glass discusses storytelling and potential of radio for the Ann Arbor Summer Festival.
- As Search Costs Increase, AM/FM Radio Is A Smart Way to Grow Customers, says Westwood One. I’m a bit confused why nobody else in the US radio industry is a visible cheerleader like Pierre Bouvard from Westwood One is here.
- How to make better YouTube videos – this is nice. Good tips for radio folk here.
- Bloomberg Radio Expands In Boston – it’s also recently popped up in London, among other places.
- SiriusXM Fires Radio Personality Opie Three Years After Dumping Anthony
- From podnews.net, a piece about how to get featured on iTunes.
United Kingdom
- Celador moves all Anglian programming to Norwich – five stations now sharing programming. These stations all compete with Heart and Capital, who share most programming out of London (with regional breakfast/drive); and, of course, the national BBC Radio 2. Disappointing, but as Heart/Capital/Radio 2 shows, “local” isn’t a reason to listen.
- Eleven times radio stations have made a beer – the radio blog Earshot knows how to get me to link to one of their stories. Splendid research: I wonder if Steve taste-tested every one?
- The BBC releases their Interim Annual Report: there’s a summary and comment here from David Lloyd
Australia
- Survey shows Radio as most trusted media – this isn’t the only country where trust in radio is strongest: radio is also the most-trusted media in most EU countries.
- Ouch – libellous phone call on a radio station costs the broadcaster dear. A reminder that the dump button is a good thing, as is not always believing a caller if they claim a story is in the newspapers.
- Audiograms and the future of social audio – the ABC take us through “audiograms”, the kludge that turns great audio into shareable video, and what they’re doing to make them better. I like the ones OmnyStudio put together for my podcast, which I put on YouTube.
Elsewhere
- South Africa: At Radiodays Africa this week, there was a talk on podcasting for niched audiences and advertisers. It’s very clear that podcasts, particularly, benefit from narrowcasting to communities of common interest. (It’s one of the reasons I launched podnews.net to monitor the goings-on in that space: have you subscribed?)
- Germany: SoundCloud slashes 40% of staff as financial reality hits hard – very sorry for these folks, and hoping they pull through. A contact tells me that SoundCloud is particularly popular with black artists, and tries to tell me that it’s Silicon Valley’s inbuilt racism. Not sure I agree, but it’s certainly a viewpoint.
- Norway: Six months in, some stats on Norway’s FM “switchoff”. Radio is still holding up nicely: and weekly 2.1m Norwegians listen to new stations that aren’t carried on FM (with a 22% share). Population of Norway is just over 5m, to put that in context. I’m concerned about cars: only 38% have DAB installed. That’s a lot of potential lost listening.
- A German website decides to hop onto the #lazybugglesheadline bandwagon