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
Next Radio
- Matt and I announced a bunch of new speakers for the Next Radio conference this week. Hey: sponsorship is available for some bits, and you can join Broadcast Bionics and the BBC Academy in supporting this great event. Do get in touch.
James Cridland’s articles
Bumblebee Brings the Buzz of Live Radio to People With Sight Loss (my article, and my punny headline)- The future of radio – according to our future listeners – also in German
United States
- Sad to note that even in NYC, overnight radio is turning into automated back-to-back music. (In fact, while WCBS-FM have removed Dave Stewart from the overnight schedule – not that Dave Stewart – it is apparently still staffed because the unions won’t let it be automated, so a tweet informs me.)
- Dick Taylor doesn’t like HD Radio – mainly because HD failed, in his view, to market itself correctly: nobody knows what it’s for, he says. I’d agree with that, and back in 2012, I wrote a piece on the flaws in promoting digital radio. By and large, as I wrote at the time, people don’t think they want it.
- The RAB in the US makes podcasts about radio from a sales POV. Here’s their latest.
- Wondering why car manufacturers are slow to add DAB etc to cars? They want to avoid stuff like this.
- Nice coverage of KMJQ Houston
- Police: Woman attacked with portable radio (Radio! A weapon!)
- Radio versus Pay-Per-Click /via Paul Chantler
- Who Needs Dumb Ol’ Research Anyway? – Sean Ross writes about music research. (Again: this isn’t a binary conversation, though many frame it as such. Music research is a tool to use along with your skill and talent.)
- Interesting to see more niche apps for podcasting – this one is apparently the world’s first kids podcast app, from Leela Labs
United Kingdom
- Foreign radio podcasts with subtitles was rather a fine idea from podnews last week.
Australia
- The ABC have done a deal with Google to add their latest news to the Google Assistant (and, from there, the Google Home smart speaker).
- Interesting podcast from ex-ABC staffers: Moonshot
- Top 20 percent of ABC staff paid $124 million – a hangover from last week’s hand-wringing about the BBC’s salaries. The ABC isn’t, it seems, well-paid: in comparison with the BBC, anyway. It also has a lower market share. Wonder if the two are connected in some way?
Elsewhere
- The Netherlands: two new radio ads for DAB+
- Canada: Radio and beer. What’s not to like? Larry Gifford is joined by Steve Martin on the Radio Stuff Podcast
- Germany: SoundCloud isn’t the only streaming firm struggling to make music pay, says Wired magazine
- An anonymous Nordic country: Clever idea to retro-fit DAB into older cars – put it in the mirror!
- Denmark Could Be Next to Begin FM Shutdown says the Radio Magazine. Switzerland is well ahead of Denmark in its plans, incidentally.