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
- Podcasts Stats: What We Know (A Follow-Up) – my latest weekly column.
- How the iTunes Podcast Chart works. And why it isn’t a chart. Which is, actually, an edit of the above article with a hopefully rather better SEO headline. Also in audio
- For media.info, I did a bit of research into how the BBC check you’ve paid for your TV licence. And how the law allows them to check in future. That “wifi-snooping” article wasn’t, it turns out, entire baloney.
Australia
- Smooth is #1 on FM in Sydney, and even beats 702 ABC Sydney. Congrats to Nova Entertainment.
- Shut Up and Play the Hits: The Unappreciated Genius of (supermarket instore channel) Coles Radio – though this article doesn’t mention it, it’s run by Nova Entertainment who (see above) know a thing or two about radio.
- My local radio station 612 ABC Brisbane would be SoundWomen favourites – last week it was all-female.
United Kingdom
- I did a bit of research into how the BBC check you’ve paid for your TV licence. And how the law allows them to check in future. That “wifi-snooping” article wasn’t, it turns out, entire baloney.
- Awesome national job alert… Imaging Producer, Classic FM and LBC (and a reminder that media.info is a place that’s free to post jobs)
- Pure launch new Siesta bedside DAB radio – these units are looking nicer and nicer every release
- What’s Next for Radio? — Aiir blogs about Next Radio. They’re a sponsor of the event, but I think have been to every single one.
- Radio Yorkshire launch new daytime lineup – early DAB-only pioneer, and beginning to appear to do quite well for itself.
- Ready for new Next Radio – a post, in Norwegian, about the Next Radio conference I run with Matt Deegan.
- Can podcasts turn a profit?, asks BBC-lifer Rory Cellan-Jones.
- BBC sees 20% drop in youth TV viewing after they moved BBC THREE online-only.
- Mobile “delivers half of record BBC Olympics traffic” – I’m astonished this is so low, tbh, but some great stats. Facebook commenters point out that it is mainly related to at-work viewing, which makes sense.
United States
- Stats: 77% of online radio listening is via mobile; overall online listening up 10% year-on-year
- Social Networks Come and Go — Radio Carries On
- Sloppy, un-targeted mass media advertising is a good thing, says Dick Taylor – with some interesting stats
- Samsung’s music service, Milk Music, to be shuttered in September.
- How journalism works now: Mother Jones spends $350,000 on investigative story. Changes govt policy. Earns $5,000 from ads. The economics clearly aren’t working here. (As a direct response to this, incidentally, I’ve just become a paid member of The Guardian.)
- Print books? Not dead yet. Indeed, e-book sales are slipping. (Obvious parallels for radio business).
- Stats: 80% of podcasts are downloaded for on-demand listening – though Edison Research’s data seems to say something quite different
- Good to see a radio conference in Oregon also include podcasters too. That’s the way forward!
- Kanye West Tweets Plea To Radio Stations To Play Frank Ocean’s ‘Blonde’
- “Non-Constructive Comment Sections Are Literally Unaffordable” – NPR removes them. I think that’s sensible; though I’d love to work out how to pull comments from Facebook/Twitter on an article into the article itself somehow.
- Buggles corner: Geoff Downes of Yes on the Origins of Video Killed The Radio Star
- Radio station 97.5 The Fanatic had a fake regular caller, played by a producer. Deception, or showbiz?
Elsewhere
- Lithuania: AM radio is a vital tool, says this Lithuanian broadcaster, in response to my piece about AM radio’s bleak future
- Zambia closes TV, radio stations
- Korea: Better audio chips to be installed inside the new LG V20 phone – a 32-bit quad DAC. Mobile audio getting serious.
- Ireland: The man who brings broken radios back to life (and welcome to my love/hate relationship with old Bakelite radios and geeky enthusiasts with comb-overs)