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’s articles
- ICYMI: Is Beats 1 really ‘the biggest radio station in the world’? (Spoiler: no.)
United States
- Coal Ain’t Coming Back & Neither is AM Radio, says Dick Taylor. I like the comparison, particularly since there are some people who believe fervently that coal/AM is the right thing, while most of us have moved on.
- I’m in the sizzle reel for WWRS 2018. Look at me, shamelessly quoting a Donald Trump-like phrase.
- An Appreciation. Of Michael Barbaro. And “The Daily”. The New York Times’s daily podcast is worth a listen, since it conveys quite well the excitement of being in a busy newsroom, and makes the journalists sound like rockstars. This is something that NPR and the BBC fail to do, which I find interesting.
- Video ads in social media not working well enough? Just relax the metrics, that’ll fix it…
United Kingdom
- Big Ben stopped bonging last week for four years, for renovation purposes. A relatively niche radio format, but a fun one nonetheless – a streaming service you can leave on that does Big Ben’s bongs for you.
- Younger Listeners May Prefer Podcasts, But That Doesn’t Mean Radio is Dying – a good piece from Jordan Wildon, though I’d disagree with the headline.
- This would be big – Bauer to buy NRJ? It would certainly make sense for the two groups to combine: Bauer appears not to wish to grow its own brands, but instead wants to retain branding from its acquisitions (see Absolute, Free Radio, and others).
Australia
- My local Fairfax Media website is getting a redesign. Really clean, less ads, impressive-looking. If there are any trends to be noted in websites, it’s this – a removal of clutter and nonsense, and a focus on the content.
- Tiny, racist Australian political party gets an apparent deal for far-reaching laws to fiddle with ABC and SBS from government. Australian politics would be quite good if they got some adults taking part.
- Nightline kills the radio star, oops. Also an actually accurate Buggles headline.
- iHeartRadio Australia launches new station Radio Dead with Steve Penk – there’s no escape from Penky! Definitely an interesting format, and good to see it in more places.
Elsewhere
- Strong growth for digital radio sales in Europe: unsurprisingly for Norway, where sales have almost tripled; but strong sales in the Netherlands and Belgium. A major advertising campaign in Switzerland, which is the next country to switch over, has succeeded in selling 9% more sets. (Is this good? The press release seems to think so.)
- Spain: Five cheap DAB radios ideal for any home (in Spanish)
- India: Radio’s Forgotten Technology Is Booming in India
- Iceland: the RÚV’s Teletext Service is broken, and the person who knows the code is on holiday.
- West Africa: the BBC launches a new service, BBC Pidgin. It’s rather fine to read – here’s the front page, a typical story, and here’s the very latest news bulletin (in audio). The news bulletin is in a shot, pacey style – if you’d like to know more about it, you’ll find a presentation about the BBC Minute here from Next Radio last year.