James Cridland’s Future of Radio: Amazon Alexa to come to cars

James Cridland, the radio futurologist, is a conference speaker, writer and consultant. He runs the media information website media.info and helps organise the yearly Next Radio conference. He also publishes podnews.net, a daily briefing on podcasting and on-demand, and writes a weekly international radio trends newsletter, at james.crid.land.


James Cridland’s articles

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United Kingdom

  • Inside BBC Radio 1’s new breakfast show – everything I’ve read looks like Greg James will do a good job on this. By the time you read this, his first show will have finished. The little bits of it I’ve heard so far, sound fun.
  • Clever move by talkRADIO to get Jeremy Kyle, aka “Jezza”, back on the radio. He’s a great broadcaster who understands the medium. Reported by The Sun, who is also owned by News UK.
  • Object based media. Undoubtedly the future of radio, and television. The BBC at its best.
  • Bauer buys Jazz FM. Sensible move – more money for the station, not in competition with any other service they run. A radio station that is liked by The Establishment. A place, other than Classic FM, to get commercial radio into the boardroom. Canny.
  • This could be the best ten quid you’ve ever spent. Keep It Legal – a guide to the law, for radio, podcasting and social media.
  • BBC Radio 4’s esoteric Shipping Forecast just got a little unusual

Australia

  • Australia’s #2 commercial radio group sees revenue up by 7%
  • Digital radio (in the form of DAB+) is being promoted to ad agencies in Australia. A nice quote from an ad agency: “Until an advertiser can target individuals or tightly determined groups through digital radio, the difference between digital and analogue on a media plan will just be how the sound is produced.” – yes, this. There’s nothing “special” about DAB+, it’s just another waveband. We shouldn’t be focusing on it being “digital” – it doesn’t matter. We should be focusing on the great new stations available on the platform, and the opportunities for getting closer to audiences. The form of broadcast is immaterial. (This article’s author also suggests that DAB+ is different from linear radio, which rather belies its confusion).

James Cridland