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
- Say it straight, say it great – the sound of brilliant radio adverts (my article for radioinfo)
- Swearing on the radio – a thinly disguised attempt to make great radio websites across the world link to a list of sweary words by Ofcom. Success.
- Object-based broadcasting – the future? – the magic of making the most of your content, with some very clever technology.
United States
- Very clever idea for sharing podcasts – Shortcut from This American Life. Seems like an awful lot of work for your listeners, though, and the risk of content being quoted out of context. /via Niko Batallones
- Podcasts – not just being snapped up for radio… Amazon picks up horror podcast Lore for TV series
- This Is A Thing – a “one sheet” to hawk yourself as an expert guest to radio and podcasts. That’s a great idea. I’d probably better work on my own.
- Really interesting data on how The Verge is being viewed online: useful to help you plan your future online strategy. Google AMP seems a big thing for them. (I’ve also switched some portions of media.info to being exclusively in AMP. Theoretically you shouldn’t notice.)
- Public Radio in the US launches a competitor to YouTube and Vevo. A new walled garden?
- Hispanic Radio, compared to US radio as a whole. Fascinating how it differs. /by Christina Hoag
- Sioux Falls stations have ratings again, for some stations. Interesting article with both sides of the ratings story
- “Why Podcasting Still Needs RSS” Chris Rhoden has an interesting plan to add bits to RSS for better podcasting
- 18 years later, someone tries to get their Diamond Rio PMP300 MP3 player to work… obsolete tech ahoy! /via Ewan Spence
United Kingdom
- The changing role of the broadcast engineer – including the rather startling statistic that 60% of engineers across Europe will retire in the next ten years
- News Radio UK, a new ten-minute-looping news radio station, launched last week in the UK.
- Is BBC Radio 1 on the brink of a crisis? – a view from the music business.
- Out-going BBC Radio Director Helen Boaden, in her own words. Worth a listen
- How the main FM transmitter for the North of England was built in 1951
- Trevor Dann interviews former Radio 1 presenter Noel Edmonds about his new internet radio stations – prickly interview from a man who appears to talk entirely in business-ese.
- The Sound of Personalisation – clever personalised radio ads from AMillionAds, and some interesting notes of caution at the end
Australia
- Say it straight, say it great – the sound of brilliant radio adverts (my article for radioinfo)
- Another day, another misjudged radio stunt in Australia
- Interesting to see how Soundmite works in Australia. Nice idea to get audience voices on-air. Glad to see this service has pivoted to offering embedded features in stations’ own apps, rather than trying to get listeners to download something else.
Canada
- Corus Radio becomes first Canadian commercial broadcaster on Apple Music – interesting deal. I wonder if money changes hands?
- Nice idea – Radio-Canada are assembling a list of female speakers for your next media panel (though a better idea would be to get rid of panels, they’re almost entirely awful) /via Xavier K. Richard /cc soundwomen
Ireland
- Radio at crossroads between apps and the milking parlour – a slightly strange parochial piece but celebrates a big prize being given to the Irish Radioplayer. I was part of the team who got it out there – and I’m delighted to see it rewarded.
- Why the second coming of podcasting is paying off
Elsewhere
- Hong Kong – turns out that radio’s ‘shared experience, human connection’ is also relevant for social media
- France: total bids to run DAB multiplexes in the country? 128. Wow.
- Europe – EBU New Radio Day explores ways to enhance live listening – an overview of a conference in Spain. A ‘future of radio’ type event, but one that appears to be a little confused about whether live radio means “produced live” or “live broadcast”; and rather paints the radio industry as a transmitter operator.
- The Netherlands: The Dutch reckon that 70% of their listeners will be using digital radio by 2023.
- Latvia: trialling DAB+ – I always get confused why countries ‘trial’ proven technology, but if it helps get it adopted I guess it’s a good thing
- Austria: Wow. Finally, there’s a car manufacturer with FM, DAB and IP in the same preset list. It’s Tesla – and here’s a look at it. I’m rather sad this is right at the bottom of my newsletter this week, because this is astonishingly good news.