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
- Audio: Can you work out listener figures from social media?
- Thrilled with the first set of Next Radio speakers. Tickets are cheaper if you buy now.
United States
- Here’s an article (from a Brit) arguing that radio’s next leaders should not necessarily be radio people. I think there’s certainly a benefit in working for someone who isn’t entrenched in the ways of radio’s past. It’s why I’m fascinated to see how the Australian ABC will change under a leader who joins the corporation from Google; or, indeed, how Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is running The Washington Post. He’s certainly made that newspaper stronger. I wonder how much of that is from, simply, treating the past as a place where people did things differently?
- RadioNet Looks Back at Internet Radio’s history – lots of fun stuff in here, including a photo of the Kerbango that Virgin Radio once owned.
- Good news for stations that have uploaded content to SoundCloud: Twitter’s got your back by investing in it.
- “Why are podcasts still so hard to make?” Ian Ownbey makes a magic automated editor/hoster
- “Without cars, radio would be dead” says a BBC story. So, why’ve I put it in the US section? Because it’s the grubby, commercially-led BBC Autos website, not BBC News; it’s a piece written seemingly by an American who cites satellite radio as radio’s last technical innovation (missing podcasts, DAB+, streaming, visual radio, hybrid radio, and goodness knows what else); and it’s rubbish, too. Indeed, in the UK, radio in-car is only 20% or so of total listening, though it’s around 50-55% in the US and Australia.
- Why Binge Listening to Podcasts is a Thing from Jennifer Lane – I binge-listened to a bunch of podcasts on my plane ride to Canada the other week.
- Radio changed America, says this series of articles
Australia
- How To Deal With Tragedy On Your Normally Hilarious Radio Show – with some great clips (of television programmes, naturally) from one half of the talented Dan and Maz. Also, read this piece about whether you change your music playlist in the wake of a tragedy? (why wouldn’t you?)
- Ad agencies cottoning on to the importance of the car dashboard for radio. I wonder when radio’s response – on a global scale – will be?
- Why we need to #keepcommunityradio – community radio in Australia is threatened by a budget cut, at election-time.
- A new breakfast show 2MORROW for 2DAY?
United Kingdom
- Keeping marketers tuned into radio. Some excellent quotes from radio experts (and any piece that gives me a block-quote is welcome!) Shame it’s illustrated by a radio from the 1950s, but that appears to be radio’s lot.
- Music in the age of the algorithm – good essay in the FT which argues that our tastes are getting narrower, not wider, in the era of infinite choice. Also accompanied, I note, by a podcast. This sort of story is clearly in vogue at the moment – here’s another from Salon magazine in the US: Spotify is making you boring: When algorithms shape music taste, human curiosity loses
- Astonishing. A set of radio stations in the UK plans more local programming – in this day and age, that’s quite something. Wireless Group, congratulations to you.
- Interesting piece from Steve Hewlett about Netflix. In the UK, at least, it’s additive, not a replacement. – apparently, this is relatively unusual.
- Building a studio link and RDS encoder with a Raspberry Pi
- In June last year, I said Chris Evans would let his Radio 2 show slide when Top Gear came? Listen to this… oh dear.
- Just caught up with Bruce Daisley from Twitter UK on the Media Focus podcast. Really illuminating listen.
- I had no idea Jerry Springer had a podcast, but, talkRADIO, this is a very clever signing.
- Interesting to spot this Channel 4 News video on Facebook: perfectly done, with close-captions and cropped square. This is how to share video on Facebook: it works really well technically.
- Matt Deegan claims that if you don’t know how Snapchat works, and you work in media, you’ve failed. I am proud that I have failed.
Canada
- A “thought leader” presentation by a “thought leader”. Funny satire on the TED style; from a radio programme there.
Elsewhere
- Slovakia: Growing DAB+ in New Areas
- India: the latest distribution platform for radio is… bluetooth. Say hello to Bultoo Radio – a news radio program you share via Bluetooth in places with little or no data.