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:
- World Radio Day – Is Radio Still Relevant? Here I am on BFM in Kuala Lumpur.
- World Radio Day – Will podcasts kill the radio star? Clever editing of my interview with them to make a separate page, this time about podcasts #lazybugglesheadline
- World Radio Day: Fate of Radio in the Age of Digital Technology – nice piece, using interviews to their fullest
- Radio World: South Sudan’s Mayardit FM Utilizes Solar Power
- Making your content go further – the Super Bowl lesson
- How to add radio station logos to your VW or Skoda radio – quite pleased at building this.
- Podcasting – Much To Look Forward To, Say Awards Organisers Across The World – my weekly column. And podcast.
United States
- Radio stations who push their listeners to TuneIn – this fake ad for Google Play could deliver malware to your audience…
- Will Europe Foreshadow U.S. Broadcasting’s Future? – if you mean “increasing market, year after year” I’d hope so. (Seriously, the fact that the UK radio market is still increasing in total revenue is amazing to me, given that cost-per-thousand is about half as much as it was in the late 1990s)
- US: Another nice case study from a “major motorcycle brand” using radio. These things benefit the industry at large, not just the author.
- Pandora might turn a profit this year, according to their founder. Spotify, too. (SiriusXM posted its first profit in Fall 2009, having launched in 2001 (XM) and 2002 (Sirius). Pandora launched in 2000.)
- They Seek “New and Better Form of Radio” – a piece about 60db, which sounds interesting. After finding the iPod Touch, I’ve installed it. It’s a nice potential alternative to NPR One, certainly.
- Radio still most popular way of listening to music, says CBS News. Though those numbers are awfully close.
- Reach Is the New Black: Advertising’s Mass Reawakening
- Facebook videos (and, by extension, shared bits of audio in a video container) now play audio automatically
- New FCC chairman says lots of nice things about radio
- Voice of America Celebrates 75 Years
- Steve Goldstein: Car infotainment systems are in the slow lane – completely agreed.
United Kingdom
- UK: released on World Radio Day, “Radio released from shackles” – “Commercial radio stations will no longer be shackled to an outdated regulatory system”, according to this UK government release. You’d not guess it, but this is actually a consultation piece (though the government’s pretty clear what it wants the outcome to be). It promises a removal of format regulation and lots more networking. Means a bit more regulation on DAB though. Potentially good news for journalists as well. Roy Martin, editor of RadioToday UK, has thoughts about UK radio deregulation in this week’s #eRADIO. Read after drinking two cans of Diet Coke, it’s what he would have wanted.
- Meanwhile, released on Valentine’s Day, some lovely news – world’s first voice-controlled hybrid radio for cars launches – massive news. Congrats UK Radioplayer and all. Here’s my piece for the Radio Magazine with a bit more context.
- From the archives for #worldradioday – The Invention of Radio, an In Our Time programme on BBC Radio 4
- “Hybrid radio: get involved to stand out” Andy Buckingham writes about new RadioDNS announcements
- Also from Andy – What if… we treat radio as our product? It’s a nice think-piece. But it needs proprietary companies to drive it. NextRadio is one good example; Sky or YouView is another.
- The day two men talking about cancer on the radio made the nation stop
- Nice beginner’s article for podcasters (and also highlighting that interviews often sound better not live)
- The Media Show this week talks about (among other things) radio style guides. Iain Lee and Matt Deegan have a fight.
- All the facts, all the time – Fact Radio plays today’s better mix of facts, with the best facts from yesterday
Australia
- Heard on 4BC – We all need a good WHAT?!
- One for legal eagles everywhere – reporting a story causes murder case to be abandoned
Elsewhere
- Letter from Liberia for #WorldRadioDay
- India: Looks like DRM is now in a car radio – a Hyundai car, if I’ve understood this opaque press release. Exciting.
- South Africa: Primedia calls for DAB+ in phones
- South Africa: A full, long, report of a DRM test broadcast. Looks encouraging.
- Canada: This is a nice broadcast news resource. They quote great people, too.