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
This week I’m in the beautiful city of Cologne. The last time I was here coincided with the last Euro soccer competition. I remember, slightly quietly, sitting at the back of a large group of Germans cheering their national team to another inevitable win.
Coming up – I should tell you about the RAIN Summit Europe, which is in London on Monday 9 November. You ought to be there; I just wanted to make sure you put it in your diary for now. Make a weekend of it, and spend your lovely tourist money in my home town!
United Kingdom
- BBC World Service marks 1 billion downloads – impressive number, highlighting on-demand part of radio’s future
- Radioplayer now works with Android Auto – congratulations, Michael Hill and All In Media
- Enjoyed the first newsletter from Brun Audio Consulting – you should sign up.
- Genuinely worrying stuff about the future of the BBC from its Director of News.
- The breakfast jock of CHR-format BBC Radio 1’s Nick Grimshaw: “can no more make teenagers reach for the radio than editors can make them reach for a newspaper“
- Remember when radio DJs were famous enough for sitcoms to make gags about them? David Hepworth makes a good point…
- What Happened To Vishal? LBC’s new podcast has just ended its run. Yes, it’s a Serial alike. Just like much of what Global Radio does really well, nobody’s bothered PR’ing it though.
- UK mobile operator EE tests 4G broadcast. Charges it the same as normal data rates. Bravo. (sarcasm)
- Juice FM sold to Global to expand Capital – I’d love to be positive about this news, but it’s hard to be, given the job losses and lack of opportunities.
- RadioCentre, the UK’s commercial radio body, calls for radio regulation review. Next week, a turkey calls for a rethink about Christmas. Or Thanksgiving. (Delete as appropriate)
- Dash Radio aims to reinvent radio – there are some interesting business models in this piece
- Britain’s pirate radio stations are not going down without a fight says Newsweek. But it does show that broadcast radio is still desirable, doesn’t it?
United States
- Donations to public radio in the US are going down. (Also: public radio has 8,403 employees in US. That’s low.)
- The Portland Radio Project looks interesting – lots of talk, local music, and other things. Worth a read.
- The percentage of revenue from online vs offair is similar to 12 months ago. Disappointing in some ways that there’s no growth in online. Radio types might disagree, I suppose.
- Radiolab and On the Media will be distributed by WNYC, not NPR, later this year, as WNYC wants more control.
- “Is the nation that invented commercial radio being “schooled” by the UK?” The US Radio Magazine HAS SPOTTED OUR EVIL PLAN
- Staggering. The Voltair PPM processing box increases one station’s morning drive by 61%, so says Radio Insights.
- This episode of Radiolab just won a Peabody Award. I’ve no idea what a Peabody Award is, but it’s a good excuse to link to it.
- Stat buried in this story: “95% of all (US) Internet radio listening time is currently on mobile” – it’s a lovely statistic, but, as we’d say in the UK, it’s total bollocks. Mobile simply isn’t that high.
- Rivet Radio looks interesting – personalised news via an app. A bit like NPR One? I should check it out. Later – I did. It’s not bad, but suffers because it isn’t in control of the audio that is in it.
- An RSS Feed For Your Music – nice piece of music discovery. Surely this is for a radio station to do, though – it’s hardly rocket science to build. So why aren’t we?
- Music sounds better with you: so why are we not listening together online? Interesting piece from a Danish Google engineer in San Francisco – highlights the benefits of the “shared experience” of radio.
- Completely unaware of this until now – “The Pub”, a podcast for people who do (US) public media…
- Ad Spending For Digital Media Poised To Pass Broadcast TV (though direct mail is even higher than TV, amazingly)
- Radio Lessons From The World’s Oldest DJ – including sexism and the discovery that podcasting isn’t too technical. /via Larry Gifford
- Heard that radio listeners don’t like female voices? Here’s some actual research that – gulp – backs that up. Kind of.
- Only 30% of US broadcast radio listeners also use podcasts. I’m so unsure of this research it’s untrue, given 90% of the US is a ‘broadcast radio listener’.
Australia
- ABC Regional Stations begin restructure – much change at Australia’s largest public service broadcaster
- RadioApp, a Radioplayer for Australia – the Aussies have done their own Tinder-like radio app…
- Australia: A new launch for Kinderling Kids Radio. With BBC content. Once more, the Aussies show the BBC where they should be going.
Elsewhere
- The United Arab Emirates: a clever idea… the “radio spa”. Calming music during horrid traffic jams. A tweeter adds, uncharitably, that Los Angeles could do with this.
- Africa: new Ugandan radio stations run on sun, smartphones and buckets – amazing ingenuity. /via Steve Martin
- English broadcaster to launch on Belgian DAB+: lots more English-language stuff on digital across the world it seems
- Live now – 14 radio stations on DAB+ in Vienna, Austria. (resisting lazy Falco headline) (Deutsch)
- Really great photos of WorldDMB European Automotive Event in Brussels (WorldDMB are the folks behind the DAB standard). They highlight gender balance issues though.
- Interesting to spot Rdio doing a free, ad-supported, algorithmic radio station service in South Africa
- The power of radio – what a nice story from Ireland’s RTÉ Radio 1 and Joe Duffy.
- Another clever idea from the UAE: Twitter Radio, turning a radio station into a virtual jukebox…