James Cridland is Managing Director of media.info, and a U.K.-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
Last week I was in Malaysia for the Asian Media Summit. It’s certainly a conference of contrasts. In Nepal, 50% of people who listen to the radio do so to fulfil a simple need: to know what time it is. (They’re farmers and workers.) Radio’s tremendously popular in many places, and also weirdly unpopular in some: in South Korea, only 14% of people listen to the radio every day, for example (in Germany that figure’s 79%).
UK
- ‘I Thought the BBC Was Just for Africa’ – lovely story from John Ryan
- Behind the scenes of Car Share on BBC1 – a sitcom set in the front seat of a car, if you’re unfamiliar with the show. To get the same pictures for radio, all you’d need is a microphone. Well, maybe a few.
- BFBS Nominated for International Radio Awards – I think we forget the wide variety of programmes on BFBS
- Hi-de-Hi! Ho-De-Ho! Lincs FM presenters become Butlins Redcoats – the kind of reporting I rather enjoy
United States
- For NPR, total streamed listening hours is down 6%. US commercial radio isn’t growing either online. Fascinating stats from NPR. I’m seeing more evidence like this which makes me think that the radio industry shouldn’t be assuming that a live, linear stream works on mobile phones. Increasingly, it’s clear, it doesn’t.
- Holding off Periscope because it doesn’t work on Android? It does now.
- Lazy Buggles headline: Vine Killed The Radio Star: Examining The Platform’s Creation Of Rap Phenomenons.
- Revenge Of The Record Labels: How The Majors Renewed Their Grip On Music
- Lazy Buggles headline: The new Spotify: Video killed the radio star? — decent overview, though, of Spotify’s changes
- Photo: iHeart Pino Grigio. As Chris Stevens says, was formerly known as Clear Channel Communications Pino Grigio.
- Netflix want connected TVs to work better. Meanwhile, the radio industry doesn’t apparently care about the crappy interface for connected/DAB radios. One of mine crashed last week, while doing the admittedly complicated job of telling me the time, in standby.
- The oldest radio presenter in the world? On the Radiostuff podcast this week.
- Mobile Isn’t Killing the Desktop Internet – fascinating. So, mobile is additive, not replacement
- Inside Google’s Secret War Against Ad Fraud – fascinating and worrying stuff about online advertising’s problems
- Concern about the cost of streaming music, and a lazy Buggles headline
- Glowing review of Android Auto. I’m getting it in my next car. Will it replace my radio use? It might. /via Mark Scott
Australia
- Listen: Australia’s ABC puts digital first with new podcasts (and interesting that they’re doing this with audio. The BBC are doing this with video, but not seemingly putting audio digital-first.)
- Lazy Buggles headline: “Mobile killed the radio star: how search and social are swallowing marketing budgets” – strange for the Australia Business Review Weekly to have stretched ‘less budget going to radio’ to the death of a medium, but lazy Buggles headlines need lazy subbing
- Meanwhile, actually, an accurate Buggles headline for once.
Elsewhere
- Norway: Randomly fell upon this really well-written intro to NRK, Norway’s “gigantic small broadcaster”.
- India: Radio Mirchi (alone) has 41m listeners. Big numbers. #ams2015
- Ghana: The Power Bank Phone in Accra. Fixes tiddly batteries and not enough SIM slots. Oh, and has an FM radio inside.