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 sends us his weekly links as he continues settling into his new Australian homeland.
James Cridland articles
- Radio: the emergency service. But what about your website? Congratulations, Stray FM
- Ireland: Trouble underground for Dublin’s radio stations: some radio stations are angry at a tunnel. Fascinating story.
United States
- According to Paige Nienaber, the “Encyclopedia of Radio Promotions” is really good and well worth buying.
- Otto Radio – interesting personalised service for commuters
- Apple’s iAds is iDead. More evidence of a retreat from online display advertising? (And I wonder what this means for the 30″ spot?)
- Apple gives up trying to compete with Pandora: and shutters its “radio” streams (except Beats1). The Pandora-killer that wasn’t: interesting analysis on this story from XAPP.
- A review about the second series of Serial. (Spoiler: not sure they like it)
- 52 things I learned in 2015 — fascinating list of stats and facts
- To Attract New Listeners, Podcasts Need to Move Beyond Sound, apparently. (Not quite sure why.)
- Man with ‘golden voice’ given back his radio job
- Al Jazeera US failed, in part, because the cable companies stopped them using the internet. #transmittermindset
- Live365 – soon, sadly, to be not live, as the service shuts.
- Interesting interview with Ira Glass. Relevant to BBC types as well as NPR ones.
- “Is it all right for our presentation at events to look like ass?”, asks Paige Nienaber
- Spotify Is Ready to Move Music Way Past the Jukebox Model – interesting glimpse into acquisitions by the company
- “What I Believe” – a great read about (US) radio’s realities. Depressing in parts but interesting in others.
- Urgh, the depths US radio stoops to.
United Kingdom
- “The curiosity shop of radio stations” Aaron Bateman on BBC Radio 4
- David Bowie: the power of editorial curation.
- Delighted to see UK Radioplayer being featured on the Google Chrome webstore. [client] [my code]
- A top tip from VIZ.
- This Christian O’Connell interview with Ricky Gervais is really well shot, if you want some tips for radio interviews for YouTube. Two fixed cameras plus one really good manual one: great zooms in some of this.
- Watch: UK’s first LGBT televised radio show to launch
Elsewhere
- Germany: the latest platform for news? Facebook Messenger, according to a big newspaper
- Argentina: Radio is made for the internet, says Agostina Di Domenico in this nice piece. Agree. (This is easily the most-shared piece this week.)
- New Zealand: New visual radio service covered bleakly with lazy Buggles headline by tech journo, because tech journos don’t see popularity as exciting as novelty
- Syria: Pocket FM transmitters, getting an alternative message into the country. (This is really nice tech.)
- Norway: Norway Begins to Switch Off FM Stations – yeah, but no. It’s a Bauer cost-saving, as someone’s realised they can get rid of those pesky local staff and inefficient local offices. (Also see Tfm, Kerrang!)
- India: Government being amazingly strict on community radio stations and suffocating them in red tape.