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.nets
James Cridland sent us his weekly batch of links with a note that his U.K. vehicle tax notice included a reminder to chack his car for the availability of digital radio (DAB). It included this information resource: www.GetDigitalRadio.com.
By James Cridland:
- In AllAccess: Radio Research – Learning From The Irish
- Two new JACK stations launch in Surrey and South London – congrats to OXIS Media for their expansion
A RAJAR special!
- Last week was RAJAR week in the UK – another quarter’s radio listening figures. I noted that online is growing slower than DAB, and people use it less – if the future really is internet radio, it’s taking a mighty long time to happen.
- The media’s main story was BBC Radio 1 “adding 750,000 new listeners”, which most media outlets published without actually thinking about it. But, as media.info’s handy graph of BBC Radio 1’s listening shows, it’s virtual nonsense; they’ve replaced the audience they lost last quarter, and the station remains in relatively dreadful decline.
- Interesting to note that DAB stations get a cramped paragraph in this BBC press release. New thinking needed: they account for a considerable amount of listening these days. Shoving them in the ‘also-ran’ section of a press release doesn’t communicate good things to anyone.
- Here’s some great analysis of RAJAR from Adam Bowie, one of the best strategists in the business – some fascinating station overlap charts.
- And Steve Penk passionately wrote about Key 103. It’s time to rebrand Key 103 and start again, he wrote; inspiring a lively discussion, including this very interesting analysis from Matt Deegan about the issues for Key 103 and similar heritage stations like it. Passion is why we’re in this business.
United States
- Theft, Lies, and Facebook Video – stats from Hank Green
- Apple have invented “listen again” for Beats 1, a way of listening to radio shows you missed. So innovative! #sarcasm. Of note: Apple can’t manage now-playing information for listen-again shows either: nor can the BBC, and it’s only 2015. This is really puzzling: why on earth not?
- Stats: In US, listening to online audio/radio streaming is up 45% year-on-year(average active sessions, 6a-midnight) – that’s a headline with rather a lot of hubris, but the growth isn’t coming from online simulcasts, as far as I can tell. I’m working on a big piece about this.
- Surprising lack of lazy Buggles headline for this story about the first song ever played on MTV
- Lazy Buggles headline! That directly contradicts the story beneath! 2 points!
- The Washington Post covers AT&T’s decision to stop disabling the FM chip in your mobile phone. Good news, though the spin is funny – everyone’s spinning this as “AT&T tells mobile manufacturers to enable FM chip”, rather than the actual truth of the matter. Not that it matters much.
- NPR’s Senior VP of News – the biggest problem at NPR is… NPR. – I’d say that every large organisation has this issue; the BBC certainly does.
- Quite clever – a radio ad that turns your iPhone off.
- “Content is king, but the delivery system is at least Archduke” – Perry Michael Simon
- The New Television Bundle – how Clarkson et al on Amazon helps clarify the change going on in media
- Internet Radio is Bigger than Facebook – this is a great post from XAPPmedia
- Stats: The NYT has over a million digital subscribers.
- I’ve written before about how most radio stations’ social media accounts are full of unfunny memes and other bullshit. Now, a story that radio stations are the worst for spreading false, fake weather stories on social media. D’you think we could do better than this, radio industry?
- The secret sauce of Slack’s branded podcast…
- Lazy Buggles tweet
United Kingdom
- An Interview With Pete Downton, 7digital – clever man, and worth following
- The ‘first ever mobile and music network‘ – free streaming with a SIM plan – is clever. It isn’t the first, mind you, but is quite impressively priced.
- Weird seeing the resurrection of Virgin Radio, a brand I worked at for six years. Still, I’ve plenty of random images to use to illustrate it.
- Interesting that the benefit of terrestrial TV broadcasting (regional advertising) is now deemed uneconomic, as Channel 5 stop bothering.
- An ad agency somewhere: “Henrietta, apparently unboxing videos are a thing.Could you script and shoot one?” – awful nonsense
- Wow – Leah McGrath Goodman “kicked out of UK” trying to investigate alleged child abuse by Edward Heath /by Tom Swarbrick
- Football commentary, so yesterday argues John Myers. This kicked off a small discussion on Twitter; turns out that the lack of exclusivity in the UK causes it to be relatively worthless.
- Interesting RAJAR fact… “LBC London News” has more listeners than BBC London 94.9. Um. So, here’s a fun local radio talkback story, from BBC London, since you’ll not have heard it.
- WorldDMB becomes WorldDAB – very good news, and the correct thing to do. Now they need a new logo.
- This event with Johnny Beerling looks amazing. Shame it is the day after Next Radio…
- Listen: John Peel, on pirate Radio London in 1967. Er – the golden age of radio, they say. Not entirely convinced. This is mostly dreadful. Calling John Peel ‘dreadful’ might get me removed from some peoples’ Christmas card lists, but sorry, it is.
- Impressive coverage for Phoenix FM – a small community radio station. Nice comparison with Radio 1 here too!
Global
- Stats: US – Apple Music already half as big as Spotify in terms of total sign-ups. Though they’re all free trials so far.
- Nepal: Radio Plays Vital Role in Quake-Ridden Nepal
- Sweden: Acast Selects Triton Digital’s a2x for Global Podcast Inventory Monetization – canny move