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
- Radio documentary gets European premier at Radiodays Europe – I’m looking forward to hosting the Q&A. Send me questions! (And watch the trailer, in this story).
- Interesting data point – in the UK, two thirds of people have NEVER listened to the radio online. Part of my article for AllAccess this week about telling audiences how to tune in. Also in audio here.
- Brave decision by a children’s radio station in the UK to ban songs from the most popular Disney movie in the last few years. I’ve been trying not to write lots of puns in the stories I cover, but this time I just had to let it go.
Australia
- The idea of sharing transmission facilities for ABC and SBS seems a no-brainer – and, actually, they already do that on DAB Digital Radio. Some interesting ideas from Mark Scott, outgoing MD of the ABC.
- Another great Craig Bruce piece – the story behind The SA-FM Fugitive (or, if you’re reading this in the UK, the Real Radio Renegade)
- Here’s how to tweet if you’re the boss of a radio company. How great must the talent be feeling now – and how simple to do.
- Great snippet of a documentary about an Aussie voiceover
- Audio: how radio works in a crisis, and how it dovetails with social media. Good piece from ABC Australia about Fiji broadcasting
- Big relaxation of media ownership laws. 612 ABC Brisbane gets an expert on, and also a bloke who clearly hadn’t woken up properly.
United States
- “What Does Data Sound Like?” Josh Stearns lists a few interesting radio programmes making audio with data
- Radio Is a Muscular Mass-Reach Medium, says Westwood One and Edison Research. Often forgotten.
- As publishers lose control, are newspaper websites a dead parrot? – Emily Bell with a random Monty Python headline, and a thought that is probably relevant for radio people too.
- Do not drink: The water crisis in Flint, Michigan – recommended podcast series and episode. I listened to this over the weekend on an IKEA run – as a parent, terrifying to hear.
- There’s a new craft cola out there. Perry Michael Simon reckons radio can learn stuff from it.
- Dan Mason suggests that radio stations are fine businesses, and to ignore what the stock market says. He’s right. While corporately, radio groups are in poor shape in the US, that’s being used to bash radio. It isn’t radio’s fault that corporates have messed up; and that doesn’t immediately mean radio is in dire straits.
- Fascinating relic of radio engineering past
- The next step: moving from generic analytics to editorial analytics – fascinating data analysis
- Nice piece of UX here for a special radio, and a special radio station
United Kingdom
- Congratulations to Fun Kids Radio for this excellent coverage on the BBC
- Strangely negative interview with Chris Moyles in The Guardian. Seems simply planned as a stirring exercise, with the journalist looking at every single time he’s gone wrong in the past and asking him about it just to look clever. She also doesn’t understand how RAJAR works, and has simply got it wrong.
- Along the same lines, and in the same paper, “BBC Radio 5 Live could go online-only” is utter tosh, too. The last paragraph is the one to read first. According to those who know, someone within BBC Local Radio leaked this piece of work in their effort to avoid their bit of the BBC being cut. “We are one BBC”, it says on the back of their ID cards, just to remind you.
- The new UK national newspaper (which launches today) won’t have a website, but instead will just have social media presence. I still think you need a website, but I don’t think you need anyone specifically producing content for it. I’d tell you more but, you know, I’m very available to help your with your strategy.
- On Tony Blackburn, the BBC and the News of the World. An anonymous blog, linked without comment; not for any legal reason, but just because the BBC’s actions make me so annoyed I find it hard to have coherent thoughts about them.
- Why to make friends with your station engineer. An astonishing bit of video!
- Best radio strapline ever.
- Spotify integrates with Volvo dash. Cue a lazy Buggles headline from author John McCarthy.
- Worth knowing that if you immediately apologise for poor language, Ofcom like that very much.
- The BBC Is Bringing Back The Twilight Zone As a Radio Drama – recycling TV scripts into radio, so cheap; doing it with a show with endearing geek-cred, so easy PR; putting it on digital-exclusive 4 Extra, good promotion. Good calls all round.