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

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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

• The (UK) Telegraph covers radio’s, er, coverage of the bombing in Manchester. A nice, if desperately sad, piece. Meanwhile, the big radio shindig The Radio Festival was postponed.
• BBC Radio Leeds posted an awful, insensitive (since deleted) tweet during the remembrance event in Manchester. Last week they also managed to do a dreadfully poorly-judged music quiz on Ian Brady. Who on earth is in charge, many have asked? Why it’s the man responsible for this charmless sacking.
• LBC chose the right way forward after a sustained campaign and fired hate-monger Katie Hopkins. They do, though, still pay Nigel Farage.
• Media360 audience crowns radio the king of media – RadioCentre once more doing a very good job of highlighting the medium’s creativity. Alongside that, Mark Barber writes a piece called “Say It Out Loud – A Voice-Operated World Will Make Us Happier“, with some interesting research about voice assistants like Amazon Echo.
• It was wonderful to hear Tommy Boyd back on the air. That link lets you listen-again to his programme.
• How to record an audiobook (always wondered how they do this)
• Ben Cooper from Radio 1 appears to have changed his mind – and wants to promote the radio a little more instead of his more exciting YouTube stuff.
• Amazon Channels is easily the worst ever attempt to reinvent British TV, according to this review. It doesn’t look particularly good from here, either.

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

• Chile: Chileans Depend on Radio during the recent fires in the country. Radio did way better than TV or social media.
• Brazil: In Rio the penalty for speeding is having to listen to the worst radio on earth – a clever app that switches radio source if you go over the speed limit. Nice gimmick that you could steal tomorrow for your app, and sound like the most responsible station in your country. (Make the feature optional!)