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
This month, James began publishing a podcast to complement this weekly newsletter. The show is available on iTunes, Google Play Music, PocketCasts, player.fm, and other Android apps.
James Cridland’s articles
- The lazy antique radio photo – and what we need to do to eradicate it: my latest podcast.
- Radio braucht Bilder, aber bitte keine antiquierten mehr! – where hopefully I say the same thing but in German. I learnt last week that my interpreter is a man called Jens. I need to keep on his good side, because he can literally make me say anything.
Around the World
- The Netherlands: RadioDays Europe 2017 Unveils First Slate of Speakers – the world’s biggest radio conference is back with some great names.
- Ukraine: Another country imposing language quotas for radio playlists – 25% of music must be in Ukranian
- Canada: Stats for TV, radio and mobile data usage from the CRTC (this is what a regulator should be doing, in my opinion)
- Canada: CBC has had enough with podcast aggregators slapping ads in front of their content: releases legal hounds. I think this is probably entirely fair.
United Kingdom
- When should you start playing Christmas songs? Steve Penk reckons “now”. I reckon Dec 24th is a bit early. I loathe Christmas music: probably too many years playing it on-air.
- 11 new language services for the BBC World Service – at last, some good news out of Broadcasting House and for radio in general. Yay!
- Virgin Radio UK are looking for a new Head of Music. Big job: Virgin needs to be really crystal clear about its music proposition, and I’m not entirely sure it yet knows.
- Lots – lots! – of Christmas stations in the UK this year. Multiplatform means its easy launch these services. And since this story was published, news of News Corp using their latest acquisition, Wireless Group, to launch a Sun-branded christmas station in Scotland.
- Excellently detailed look back at Jimmy Young’s career. He was the oldest DJ on Radio 1 at launch, by the way.
- The Arqiva Commercial Radio Awards have been cancelled. I understand that Arqiva were happy to continue sponsoring them. With two large broadcasting groups commanding around 80% of all commercial listening, the UK radio industry appears increasingly fractured, and that’s a shame.
United States
- PRX set to train radio stations in podcasting – seems like a good idea
- Thank heavens there’s someone else who has an attention to detail about loading music into playout systems. Fab article from Sean Ross. Incidentally, to any radio stations who might read this, I really enjoy tidying up segues for automated sequences. Genuinely.
- PantronX Seeks “Complete SDR Solution” – this looks like a capable device for radio geeks
- Data: Digital listening is growing in the car, as radio still leads
- Interesting article about predicting the future. Inside: radio was the fastest-growing technological invention in history.
- HD Radio now working on its own hybrid radio solution. They still appear to be members of RadioDNS, who are apparently working with some auto-makers; this writeup reads as if HD Radio are doing something different, and something that is similarly platform agnostic.
- Pandora getting into station curation by big stars – like this “station”/mixtape from Jon Bon Jovi
- Radiolab’s Jad Abumrad on podcasting’s uncertain future: ‘Supply is outstripping demand’
- IF DONALD TRUMP CREATED YOUR NEXT RADIO CAMPAIGN – some nice tips in here, although heavens, no.
- 10 Ways Your [Radio] Show Would Be Better If You Were More Like Trump – don’t take this as an invitation
- This transistor radio is smokin’… almost
- Fred Jacobs reports on How 40 Chicago Radio Stations Pulled Off a Civic Duty Miracle (and simulcasted the same output).
Australia
- Mark Ritson: Dodgy video metrics prove TV is way ahead – another great article comparing online vs broadcast stats. These articles are must-read: they help you understand how online stats work, and defend radio.
- A writeup of a first-time attendee’s visit to the CBAA conference. Some useful learnings for conference organisers everywhere.
- Audio: Spencer Howson, Brisbane’s king of breakfast [on 612 ABC Brisbane] to step down from the throne – shock! As of writing this, still no word where Spencer’s going – the ABC have been clear to say he’s staying with the station; though I’m personally hoping he’s snapped up as the Tony Delroy replacement for national lates: overnight radio needs fun. Since Spencer gets this newsletter, he’s probably already cringing at that suggestion.
- “Job cuts could be on the cards at ABC Radio” – the perennial public service broadcasting refrain. And here are some cuts at the ABC’s Radio National. Removing music shows from the network seems a sensible idea, though: consistency is important.
- Heard of a “mood offering”? Good article about Paul Jackson’s Smooth FM in Australia, which is one of those – it’s roughly similar to Magic in the UK, and it’s made it to quite a commanding #1 in the Sydney market.
- Here’s the thrice-yearly magazine from the CBAA about community radio, which might be of interest to community radio folks in the UK.