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:
- Hacking radio stations – the new normal. My article and my podcast which contains five (FIVE!) swears in about ten seconds. And which got broadcast a number of times on inRadio.
- Solar power to run a transmitter? It’s possible. – a feature article for Radio World International, which I very much enjoyed working on
- Radio Advertising Gets Personal on Digital Platforms – this is a very clever advertising technique for online radio.
United States
- A new podcast from the New York Times. 20 minutes long, with a much less formal tone. I really like it – nicely produced (if sometimes a little over-produced) and an interesting listen.
- A few interesting shots of radio on the dashboard in the US
- FM radio is now enabled in half of all US smartphones
- “Mailing mics to podcast guests” – goodness, this is attention to detail
- Bloomberg essentially adds the homepage to the bottom of every article page. Increased pageviews by 28%. Nice idea.
- Neat: Sean Ross tweets: ALT AZ 93.3 gives away tix by calling those currently listening on mobile. More than just “hey, download our app.”
- Radio market grows in UK, Finland, Australia – nice rosy picture, though the US has declined by 0.5% (or, as the industry calls it, “stable”)
- Great, perceptive article about “street teams”, and how to get the most out of them. /by Paige Nienaber
United Kingdom
- A not entirely fair comparison, in some ways, but entirely fair in others: two breakfast show videos compared courtesy of Matt Deegan
- Trying to earn revenue from online advertising? This is a must-read. /by Mark Ritson /via adcontrarian
- Radio job: Digital Content Producer – this would be an awesome job where you could learn from the best in the biz.
- Jazz FM launches a new pop-up online radio station with a dating service for Valentine’s. “Jazz FM Loves“. Clever.
- Randomly happened upon this old blogpost about the “Xfm Buzz” – a nice piece of work adding interactivity to radio
- Four years ago, a dog hosted a radio show. Here’s the audio if you missed it. Barking mad.
- Inside tracks: life at the UK’s prison radio station
- A “Hold Jockey” – from the BBC Archive in 1992. I’ve worked on stations with smaller audiences…
- BBC licence fee evasion is increasing, and earlier guesstimates were a bit wanting
- Radio market grows in UK, Finland, Australia – nice rosy picture, though the US has declined by 0.5% (or, as the industry calls it, “stable”)
- The Rabbit Hole – Iain Lee and Katherine Boyle do a phone-in in front of an audience. Appears to work. Interesting what a difference an audience makes.
- Radio Advertising Gets Personal on Digital Platforms – this is a very clever advertising technique for online radio.
- A bit of history – Reggae Radio in the UK
Australia
- 4BC’s website (and others) hacked.
- Radio market grows in UK, Finland, Australia – nice rosy picture, though the US has declined by 0.5% (or, as the industry calls it, “stable”)
- A new logo, and a slightly familiar tv ad (for this Brit anyway), for Nova. Looks modern and fresh. Like it.
- Broadcaster funded by taxation tells commercial broadcaster having premium material stolen to adapt or die. Um…
- Radio New Zealand International spies an opportunity in Radio Australia’s shortwave closure
Canada
- Lovely and quite moving tributes to the excellent Arnie Celsie. I worked with him for only a couple of days, but enjoyed every minute. He came to every Next Radio conference, too – keeping his ears open for new ideas.
- The CBC has sold its Montreal headquarters (which were massive and rather old-fashioned, but had an excellent view from the executive floors)
- ‘Trash radio’ under fire after Quebec mosque attack
Elsewhere
- Europe: Looking forward to Radiohack Europe at Radiodays Europe this year – I’ll be a judge. Here’s a video of me in my garden.
- Nepal: Women-run radio stations
- India: Government is promoting DRM30 to commercial broadcasters. They’re the only country using it in production.
- Thailand: Latest media bill labelled ‘death blow’ to media freedom
- China: Podcasting in China: Why the Limited Appeal? Interesting that podcasting isn’t very popular there; but as far as I can work out – and please do correct me – podcasting only actually appears to be popular in countries that speak English. It could well simply be a lack-of-content problem.
- South Sudan: Solar power to run a transmitter? It’s possible. – a feature article for Radio World International, which I very much enjoyed working on