James Cridland’s Future of Radio: Get your radio tech right for an emergency; podcast listening parties; does AM lead any market?

james cridland canvasJames 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

  • I look at the Manchester bombings and suggest how to get your tech right to help with an emergency in the future. The sub editor for radioinfo.com.au, I notice, has also added “and get the facts right, too!” as a subtitle, and that’s entirely correct!

United States

  • Former radio presenter takes to Reddit to complain how “fake” it all is. It’s easy to forget that most people believe the presenter gets to choose the music; but some of the excesses of US radio – using actors for “gotcha” calls, as one example – does come as a rather a surprise to those reading. The trust our audiences places in us is easily broken.
  • PayPal files lawsuit against Pandora for mimicking its ‘iconic logo’ – and before you cry “ridiculous”, it would seem, from this coverage at least, to have some basis in audience confusion.
  • Audio alive: new forms of social listening is an interesting piece about making podcasts a little more ‘social’ – clubs, listening parties, discussion groups.
  • If you’re going to resort to denigrating an entire industry with a #lazybugglesheadline (which is demonstrably false), to write this piece under the name of your dull team of lawyers is a strange thing to do. But as we know, Google Killed The Inaccurate Lawyers At Seyfarth Shaw LLP.
  • Nielsen: Radio Habits Are Changing looks at a few different US formats. Interesting seeing the surge of interest for country music on one graph.
  • iHeartMedia Could Be a Thriving Business – If It Didn’t Have $20 Billion in Debt.” I like these headlines, since it rather highlights that radio’s in good shape, even if some of the US’s biggest names aren’t. Naturally, it includes a #lazybugglesquote – “what really killed the radio star was finance” – though I’m prepared to let that go.
  • Fred Jacobs has finally had enough of #lazyantiqueradiophotos and the constant denigration of radio by tech writers. Good. 🙂
  • Are Satellite Radio and Streaming Music a Match Made in Heaven? If SiriusXM buy Pandora, this piece highlights how well the companies might fit together. Also of interest – this is actually a piece of radio, recorded in a pretty awful-for-video radio studio; but it’s well-lit, produced quite well, disaggregated from the show well, transcribed nicely underneath with close-captions.

United Kingdom

Australia

  • I did a little bit of maths on the latest survey figures. Melbourne is supposed to be the place in Australia with incredibly well-performing AM stations: so how’s the platform split in the city? Share of AM radio listening in Melbourne: 34.5%. Share of FM radio listening: 53.8%. (Both figures include simulcasts on DAB and IP). Do you know of a market anywhere in the world where AM beats FM? I’d love to hear of one.
  • Sad to see EON Sports Radio cease live programmes on Friday. Audio of the presenters finding out here. The station is still on-air (DAB in metro cities in Aus), with a simulcast of the UK’s talkSPORT.

Elsewhere

James Cridland