James Cridland’s Weekly Links: How to make great radio, and more
by James Cridland
Guest columnist James Cridland Weekly Links, a new column on RAIN News. A new book, changes to BBC streaming, DAB in Australia, and much more. Continue Reading
AM/FM/HD/Satellite
All forms of broadcast.
Roger Lanctot: Car Radio Facing Digital Vulnerability
by Roger Lanctot
Roger Lanctot is Associate Director of Strategy Analytics, and a thought leader in the connected-car space. In this guest article, he starts by noting that GM removed HD Radio from five 2015 car models, and nobody seemed to care. “HD Radio is poised to realize its full potential to transform the listening and content integration experience in the car. But work remains to be done and questions of signal quality must be resolved. Recent events suggest that consumers and (at least one) car maker are in danger of tuning out.”
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Larry Rosin: Newspapers are the “Most Least Essential” Major Medium
by Larry Rosin
Guest columnist Larry Rosin reveals new, previously-unreleased information from The Infinite Dial 2015 — what is the least essenatial medium in people’s lives, compared to 13 years ago? Continue Reading
Nielsen Total Audience report (Q4) shows complicated radio picture
Nielsen released the Total Audience Report for the fourth quarter of 2014. It covers basic consumption metrics across TV, gaming, computer, phone, and AM/FM radio. This edition of the report shows AM/FM listening to be fairly stable, with trend signals that move in different directions. Continue Reading
Asia Pacific DAB adoption: a keynote from Aussie head of radio
Joan Warner, Asia PacifIc Chair of WorldDMB and Commercial Radio Australia CEO, recently gave a keynote address the Digital Broadcasting Symposium in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, about the need for a transition to digital or HD radio. “Streaming does have a… Continue Reading
United Stations partners with Radionomy to stream its syndicated FM shows
United Stations Radio Network, creator and syndicator of popular FM radio programs, has partnered with Radionomy to build 24/7 online streams of archived shows. Radionomy will host the streams, and distribute them to other online radio directories. Continue Reading
The five C’s of digital radio (DAB) growth in Europe
Two experts from the European Broadcasting Union wrote an article for Radio World about some of the ideas that have emerged as central components of successful digital radio adoption. David Fernández Quijada, senior media analyst, and head of radio Christian Vogg dubbed those common threads the “five Cs” formula. Continue Reading
Larry Rosin: What Wakes You Up?
by Larry Rosin
Edison Research President Larry Rosin reviews a survey which questioned how peoople wake up in the morning. Radio? Alarm buzz? Hungry dog? Continue Reading
WorldDMB examines DAB adoption in Europe and Australia
WorldDMB released an infographic compiling data about use of broadcast digital radio in Europe and Australia. The report highlighted three of the key trends emerging in digital radio for those regions: Digital switchover is firmly on the agenda in Europe; network coverage is now over 90% of the population in the UK, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands; in the UK, 61% of new cars sold have DAB as standard, and in Norway over 60% have DAB/DAB+ fitted. Continue Reading
NextRadio is correctly playing the “emergency” card
by Kurt Hanson
Two members of Congress wrote a letter to FCC Chair Tom Wheeler, advocating for activated FM chips in smartphones. RAIN founding editor Kurt Hanson analyzes why this is the best strategy for getting those chips activated. Continue Reading
Abacast becomes WO Streaming, as WideOrbit integrates products
WideOrbit announced this morning the launch of WO Streaming, a re-branding and integration of the Abacast Clarity product in the company’s software suite. WideOrbit acquired Abacast last June. Clarity (now WO Streaming) is Abacast’s cloud-based streaming and ad-insertion solution. Continue Reading
Editor’s Notebook: Ipsos In-Car Audio Study confirms people like what they’re familiar with
by Brad Hill
A new Ipsos In-Car Audio Study, sponsored by iHeartMedia, reveals that most repondents listen to AM/FM radio in the car, and overwhelmingly like push-button radios in the dashboard. This column notes that the average American car is 11.4 years old, and that technology change is always resisted by a preference for the familiar. Continue Reading