James Cridland, radio futurologist, is a conference speaker, writer and consultant. He also publishes Podnews, a daily briefing on podcasting. Buy James a coffee HERE.
I was at Radiodays Asia last week (and Podcast Day Asia as well, which I was programming). My time was mostly focused on the podcast bits, though I was happy to interview the excellent Jacqueline Bierhorst from WorldDAB on-stage (below). DAB is now gaining a lot of interest from a number of Asian countries, which is good – many are in “trial” (never quite sure what there is to trial, to be honest, just launch already!), but very good to see.
And why wouldn’t they be interested in DAB? It offers, among other things, a surprising amount of new choice: allowing broadcasters to grow their offerings to attract more new listeners. The UK’s Global has just announced twelve brand new radio stations – all sister stations for Global’s existing brands (not sure what yet though). Wow. Meanwhile, its rival Bauer is to launch Greatest Hits Radio 60s, a spinoff from the main station. And the BBC is ploughing on with new services, too.
- With the news that Oasis is reforming, Geoff Lloyd reminds us of when Noel Gallagher came into Virgin Radio’s breakfast show with Pete and Geoff for a live phone-in, “but just lined up loads of nannas and grandpas”. Wonderfully subversive stuff.
- I was live on the BBC News Channel at the end of last month. What a thrill. I wrote up what the experience is like, in case you were curious.
- Latest Kyle and Jackie O lazy smut update, as reported by the ABC (in an online-only piece intended for younger audiences). Caution, contains very lazy smut. ACMA, the Australian media regulator, continues to look away. But for how long?
- The BBC broadcast silence at the end of the BBC Radio 4 Today programme last week. 72 seconds of silence to remember the 72 people who died in the Grenfell Tower fire seven years ago. Bravo – a brave move and an ear-catching one.
- Melbourne’s Disrupt Radio has fallen off-air, according to Unmade, and lost access to its studios. The company had lost $5mn in its first year.
- BFBS’s Sam Bailey shares Some tips for applying for radio jobs. He seems to be having an excellent time – everything he posts is wonderfully positive.
- Connecticut AM radio stations move to FM for financial reasons, joining growing trend – this piece suggests that radio stations are hanging on to AM licences and simulcasting over to FM as well. One person interviewed for the story says “The owner has no idea what to do with their AM station, but doesn’t want to lose the licence”. Another one for the death of AM, perhaps…
- Someone cheekily suggested that the revived 1980s ABC News theme tune sounded rather too similar to Drop The Dead Donkey’s theme tune. Naughty.
Nobody wants another trip report so soon after the last one. But if you’re nobody, here’s a trip via Singapore terminal 4, which I’d not been in before.
