James Cridland's international radio trends newsletter https://james.crid.land A weekly newsletter with news from across the world about radio's present and future. Curated by james@crid.land en 2018 Amazingly Brilliant Pty Ltd Mon, 19 Feb 2018 00:21:00 +0000 Mon, 19 Feb 2018 00:21:00 +0000 https://james.crid.land james.crid.land james@crid.land (James Cridland) james@crid.land (James Cridland) podcasting radio 5 <![CDATA[Kyle Sandilands in a new podcast]]> https://james.crid.land/update/kyle-sandilands-speaks Mon, 19 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I'm very grateful to the fine companies, below, who help me compile this weekly newsletter (and the daily Podnews podcasting newsletter). Futuri Media gets a special mention this week, because of their awesomeness and generosity. Thank you.

My things

United States

United Kingdom

Australia

Elsewhere

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james@crid.land (James Cridland) https://james.crid.land/update/kyle-sandilands-speaks
<![CDATA[Why people enter radio competitions, and the UK's RAJAR figures]]> https://james.crid.land/update/why-people-enter-radio-competitions Mon, 12 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Above: the "things to try" card with my (Aus) Amazon Echo Dot. Radio? Not there. Wonder why...

Thankyou to Futuri Media for their kind support.

My articles

  • I'm really proud of the growth of Podnews. If you're remotely interested in podcasting and on-demand, you should subscribe. It's free, thanks to all kinds of excellent supporters, who also help this newsletter, too.

    • Podnews is now available in your Amazon "Daily Briefing" list, and also on Google Assistant: "OK, Google, ask podnews for the latest". It's broadcast-friendly, and always less than two minutes.
  • I spent a day analysing almost 100 of the top podcasts to work out what bitrate, mono/stereo and LUFS values they were running at. If you're having trouble sleeping, here's a big table. And some graphs.

  • My weekly column: Broadcast radio - are data-driven ads the future?
    • This is available as a podcast. Search for "James Cridland" in your favourite podcast app (except Spotify for some reason); or "OK, Google, play James Cridland's podcast".

United States

United Kingdom

  • RAJAR, the UK audience research figures, were out last week. Of note...

    • Impressive to see BBC Radio 2 posting the best-ever listening figures (in total hours).
    • Like Radio 2, BBC Radio 4's figures are fascinating. Ever-growing reach, but ever-shrinking per-listener hours.
    • The ascent of LBC might have been slightly dented this quarter, but it's now the most listened-to commercial radio station in London, say Gloabl - so good for them. (Most listened-to over all is BBC Radio 4).
    • Digital listening 'tantalisingly close' to 50% - commercial radio (and BBC Radio 4) are now over 50% digital listening, which is interesting to see. Hitting the 50% target gets the government to consider FM switchoff.
    • Some quarter-hour RAJAR data from the London market from Paul Easton if you're interested how your favourite station did...
    • Adam Bowie's RAJAR blog. Adam makes the obvious point that even when we hit 50% digital listening next quarter, that's unlikely to instantly lead to switchover. The UK's too busy destroying its relationship with its neighbours first.
    • The RAJAR Q4/2018 blog from Matt Deegan is worth a read. "Nearly one in five of every hour listened to on the radio, is to Radio 2" - and it's growing. Still waiting for the death of radio? Don't hold your breath. Matt also points out that the fabulous Chris Moyles is doing a good, consistent, job at increasing audiences. Good for him. It's a good show and he's a top lad.
    • Some digital stats from BBC Radio 1, which are released today alongside the #RAJAR figures. (Some of these are a bit spurious, to be honest, but still).
  • Death of AM: Absolute Radio proposes to switch some AM transmitters off - it's a really good document to read, this: it turns out that by turning off these transmitters they'll remove Absolute Radio from about 6% of the audience (on AM); but save themselves 50% of their transmission bill. I'm surprised why they still want to run Brookman's Park - the AM for the South East (where they're also on FM) and one of the biggest ones; but it might be a contractural matter with Arqiva. Expect talkSPORT to do similar.

  • Good to see the return of the British Podcast Awards - you should enter!

  • Data around UK adspend. More money went to 'mobile' than to 'TV' (whatever each of those are). Radio up by 5.1% year-on-year.

  • From the arrogance to the self-indulgence and massively dodgy stats (50,000 regular listeners?!) this is madness from Noel Edmonds...

  • Never heard Tony Blackburn's Golden Hour before (BBC Radio 2, Friday night). High energy, full of personality but tidy, neat links. Lots of "today's" jocks would do well to listen. Awesome.

  • Trinity Mirror buys Express and Star in £127m deal - quite some consolidation in print media in the UK. Is it too late, though, to rescue the Express's reputation?

Australia

Elsewhere

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james@crid.land (James Cridland) https://james.crid.land/update/why-people-enter-radio-competitions
<![CDATA[Young people and the radio, Spotify to get more expensive, and personalised ads]]> https://james.crid.land/update/young-people Mon, 05 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000 It's been a busy travelling week for me, and this, coupled with an issue with Buffer which I use to help compile this list means this week things are a little quiet. Back to normal next week, I promise.

My articles

United States

  • Goodness. Spotify and Apple Music are about to get 44% more expensive (gradually) after a new US copyright ruling. It doesn't affect broadcast radio.

  • What's better than stopping people skip the ads on telly? An opportunity for people to click-to-buy straight from the TV ad. WITH CRYPTOCURRENCY! (ffs) This is presented as if it's a brand new idea, ready to solve all broadcasters' problems; in reality, I think this is an idea that's been tried hundreds of times by broadcasters and has always failed, and I'm not sure what the special sauce is here to make it succeed. This press release was followed by another talking about them filing for a patent, because there's nothing better for this kind of thing to succeed than making it proprietary.

United Kingdom

  • This is nice - Radioplayer's Amazon Alexa skill now does podcasts and catch-up, from included stations. In other news, my Amazon Alexa arrives in the post today.

  • Podcast: A Million Ads, dynamic audio and personalised ads - these are worth learning about, I think. While personalisation is impossible, of course, on broadcast radio, I do wonder whether this same technology couldn't be used to produce automated advertising for certain categories, like those dependent on the weather, stock prices, or sports. Could it make radio sound more real and relevant?

  • I've wanted to write this headline for a long time... ha! The BBC podcast I link to is a great podcast, too: I listened to both episodes on a long plane ride and enjoyed it. I must confess, I have trouble with the concept of podcast-only material from a publicly-funded broadcaster; I've been arguing for a while that radio should get the best value out of their content, and this seems a retrograde step to me. Does it really have no place on the schedules?

  • We need to talk: why Britain loves radio phone-ins, accompanied by a lazy antique radio studio photo (of a programme that wasn't a phone-in).

Australia

  • They say young people don’t listen to the radio - an evidence-based article showing that actually... they do.

  • An Aussie newspaper (owned by News Corp) is doing some live internet radio, a bit like The Sun's attempt a while ago. They live-streamed on Facebook as their primary (perhaps only) outlet. They had the Aussie Prime Minister on. I hope Facebook coped with the massive 32 concurrent viewers. (I'm sitting in a coffee shop typing this, and I reckon I could reach more people just by shouting.)

  • Data from Australian radio. This is a massively confused article - the headline confuses "radio" with "commercial radio", and also seems low - Australia's population is 24m, so if you were to skim-read this article you'd assume that radio's total reach here is about 40% (in reality it's well over 90%). Odd that this article is still there and uncorrected; but at least the press release is quoted.

Elsewhere

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james@crid.land (James Cridland) https://james.crid.land/update/young-people
<![CDATA[Scripps: radio out, podcasting in; and triplej's Hottest 100 shows radio still big for the young]]> https://james.crid.land/update/triplej-hottest-100 Mon, 29 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Last week, I posted about iHeart's Santa 100, a radio station in Columbus OH which switched to "Christmas time, all the time". No wonder I was confused - it was, of course, a stunt (another from the crazy mind of Paige Nienaber), to get people to talk about iHeart's Hot 100, a new urban-format radio station. Its main competitor is WBFA 98.3 The Beat, an urban radio station which... iHeart owned until 24 November. I guess they missed the urban format too much.

United States

United Kingdom

Australia

Elsewhere

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james@crid.land (James Cridland) https://james.crid.land/update/triplej-hottest-100
<![CDATA[Slate magazine - a quarter of their revenues come from audio]]> https://james.crid.land/update/slate-magazine-podcasting Mon, 22 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000 My weekly column

North America

  • Slate say podcasting is now 25% of their revenue - the question for me is whether this money is coming out of broadcast radio's budgets, or out of that for banner advertising.

  • How public radio’s risk-averse culture impedes its chances for success - an interesting piece in Current, and rings a few personal bells. Much of the secret appears to be to know when to just do things and ask for permission later; though 'public' radio also has to remember who pays its wages.

  • Local radio station switches to all Christmas music, all the time - wonderful quote in here from their press release: a claim that it is "the most dramatic and exciting new musical directions ever under-taken by a U.S. terrestrial radio station". The station is Santa 100 in Columbus OH. I'm a bit more perplexed why the previous programming, known as Sunny 100, has gone over to 94.7, which was previously a country station. Surely you'd keep Sunny 100 programming on 100.1, and if you're killing the country station, put the Christmas songs on that? But then, there is plenty about US radio I don't understand.

  • Joe Frank has died. Harry Shearer pays tribute.

  • Edison Research and Triton Digital Expand The Infinite Dial Study to Canada - this is good news, since the quality of this research is excellent and it's very helpful to get data worked out identically in three different markets (US, Australia, and now Canada).

  • Smart Speaker Sales Are Growing Faster than Smartphones in the U.S.. By the way, the Amazon Echo launches in Australia in February, and apparently also launches in another fifty countries as well. (Naturally, I've ordered one.)

United Kingdom

Australia

  • Over the summer holidays, two aussie radio stations played their entire music libraries (it took them 18 days).

  • Channel Nine's Today Show gets called-out for simply copying a BBC Breakfast promo. And they would have got away with it if it wasn't for you pesky internet.

  • Online Audio is valuable, it’s a premium product: Triton Digital’s Richard Palmer. (It's also the opportunity for the audio industry to reset the low prices that we charge for radio: in the UK, at least, cost-per-thousand is much the same price now as it was in the mid 1990s.)

Elsewhere

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james@crid.land (James Cridland) https://james.crid.land/update/slate-magazine-podcasting
<![CDATA[Smart speakers: radio's friend, but less so for podcasts]]> https://james.crid.land/update/smart-speakers Mon, 15 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000 United States
  • New data about smart speakers in the US was released last week, from Edison Research and NPR. Here's Steven Goldstein's analysis.

    • Two things to note from this: "AM/FM radio listening is down with smart-speaker owners" is not a bad thing for the radio industry, since listening to radio stations is considerable on these new devices. "Radio" is not "AM/FM" any more.
    • The word "podcast" is conspicuously absent. With the exception of flash-briefings, my suspicion is that people don't use these for podcasts: may be a function of being in a shared space, or the impossibility of navigation and browsing on a screen-less device.
  • Also at CES - lots, and lots, and lots of integrations for iHeartRadio into devices, as well as a new music subscription product and more stuff.

  • Everything is too complicated - a good piece in The Verge reminding us that many people find tech assumes too much. Also see DAB radio interfaces, and the way we talk about things on-air.

  • Nice idea - Nails Mahoney reviews radio shows and hosts from around the world. Here's 'Liz & Reilly' from 94 5 MixFM Oregon.

  • US radio stations, in numbers - AM deathwatch: 30 gone in 12 months.

    • end 2016 AM 4669, FC comm: 6746, FM edu: 4101
    • end 2017 AM 4639, FM comm: 6744, FM edu: 4120
  • As Low-Power Local Radio Rises, Tiny Voices Become a Collective Shout - low power FMs in the US, profiled by the New York Times.

  • Catching Pandora In Their Lies - a quite damning piece highlighting that Pandora's use of statistics is, charitably, challenged.

  • Samsung Becomes Latest Phone Manufacturer to Unlock the FM Chip - congrats to NextRadio for getting this done.

  • A well-written account of a visit to WUWM, Milwaukee Public Radio — and a good explanation of how local NPR stations work for British folk

Canada

Great radio speaker for your next event

Planning a radio or podcasting conference in 2018? Need another white, middle-aged man? Book me. Many people use me as a scene-setter for the day; others for my international experience; others as a host for the day. I get good reviews, too. My speaking page has two recent examples of specific talks I've done for audiences in Australia and Europe.

United Kingdom

  • RAJAR's Winter MIDAS survey - tracking UK radio's place in our multiplatform world. Essential reading for those interested in our future.

    • I covered the podcasting learnings over at podnews - of note, there's no real podcasting consumption on smart speakers.
    • Slide 17 is both f-ugly but also alarming. Owing to RAJAR measuring "listen again" and "podcasting" separately (for various reasons), the data's a bit obfuscated - but it's clear that on-demand radio and on-demand music are both significant players now in our audio landscape.
  • Impressive figures: Global, the UK's largest commercial radio broadcaster, grows radio ad revenue by £12m (US$16m). The company is earning decent money: an EBITDA of £77.8m (US$106,000). £16m came from a newly-acquired music events company.

  • I've been playing with the Global Player, the company's app, now that it's available on Android. Last time I reviewed an app I was shouted at for an hour in a pub by one of its developers, so I'm a little reticent at doing a full review, but a few things I really like:

    • When you connect, the audio fades in over a second. No unpleasant sudden audio to blow your ears off. So obvious, everyone should be doing this. Everyone. No exceptions.
    • Like the 2001-vintage Virgin Radio player, it shows big, well-shot pictures of the presenters while they're talking; and music artwork when songs are playing (with a fancy animation, too). This is the right way to highlight both talent and music. (Personally, I'd flip the studio cameras on if they're available).
    • It's a fast, responsive app on Android and coded with Android interface standards in mind (particularly the 'play' notification).
  • Of note, this tweet: "It is very unlikely that there will be any Small Scale DAB licences issued this year @Ofcom annual plan meeting. #SSDAB" - it would seem that the only thing holding DAB back in both the UK and Australia are the regulators (something Silicon Valley doesn't have to contend with). The tech works, let's get a move on.

Australia

  • While the BBC in the UK once more hits itself repeatedly in the face, this time over pay, here's an interesting piece about Australian broadcasting pay, and the public service.

    • The ABC had to reveal staff salary details last year, which they did without naming names. The top-earning ABC presenter earns $460,000 (£265,000). And... she is a woman.
  • "Today, radio, as we know it, is really the content, not the carrier." Brad Smart is on the button.

Elsewhere

  • France: Streaming didn't kill the radio star - nice data about the French preferring radio to streaming. #lazybugglesheadline

  • Singapore: a new radio station - Mandarin pop from the 80s and 90s: 96.3 Hao FM

  • Switzerland - the TV/radio licence fee is under threat, with a referendum on its future in March. (This is a crowdfunding site trying to persuade people it's a good idea).

  • France seems to be getting its plan together regarding DAB. The tech will be called "DAB+" in future and not the francophone "RNT"; they appear to have agreed on DAB+ and no longer bothering with the strange French-only DMB-A sub-standard, and they've a good roll-out plan. ALl looking quite positive.

  • India: Nobody killed the radio star - a rather lovely piece from Delhi. If you need a pick-me-up, this is the article to read.

  • Norway have posted their latest data about radio listening (you'll recall this is the country who has turned FM off for 95% of radio there). Matt Deegan posts a long thread about what it all means, which is worth a read.

    • At Radiodays Europe in Vienna, I will be hosting a special Sunday workshop all about Norway's experience with FM switchoff. It's entirely free - no need to pay for the main conference, but you do need to sign up.
  • Video kills the radio star as more in Saudi Arabia, UAE turn to streaming - the very best example of a #lazybugglesheadline you'd ever need, since radio is very much alive in both countries.
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james@crid.land (James Cridland) https://james.crid.land/update/smart-speakers
<![CDATA[Small-scale DAB in the UK - how should it work? And good radio station branding]]> https://james.crid.land/update/small-scale-dab-consultation Mon, 08 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000 It's been a busy week for my new baby, Podnews, a free daily briefing for podcasting and on-demand.

On Tuesday, I released an investigation into highly-inflated figures for iHeartMedia's podcasts - it turned out that Podtrac, the analytics company, was merely measuring page-impressions to websites like Z100 or KIISFM, rather than actual listens. I'm quite proud of the piece, and I'm grateful to those who helped me unearth the facts and check the lengthy write-up.

Podtrac have since removed iHeartMedia's figures completely from their ranking charts. iHeartMedia made a statement to a US radio industry website, too.

I don't believe there was any deliberate inaccuracy involved; but it's been interesting to see how the news has been reported: or, mostly, not reported. Perhaps that's a comment on industry websites being unwilling to anger large companies; or, probably more likely, a lack of interest in analytics. Either way, I'm enjoying my work on Podnews - if you're interested in the future of podcasting and on-demand, you should pop over and subscribe.

North America

United Kingdom

  • Connect FM leaves DAB due to price increase - while multiplex owners need to charge a "fair and non-discriminatory" price according to UK law, that doesn't stop them charging more for everyone as the medium becomes more popular. The UK essentially has a monopoly provider for local DAB multiplexes (since only one company can operate one in most areas), and has a virtual monopoly provider for transmission facilities (since Arqiva is the only at-scale company for transmission). It's probably important, therefore, that the small-scale DAB project comes to fruition as quickly as possible to offer competition. Which leads me to...

  • How should small-scale DAB work in the UK? Now's your chance to tell the government. (This will result in new laws for DAB multiplex provision - is there time, what with Brexit and everything?) Anyway, here's Matt Deegan's comments on it which are worth reading.

  • Title changes for BBC Local Radio managers - if you're a station manager, you switch from being a Station Editor or a Managing Editor to being a "Senior News Editor". This is being driven by BBC management who wish to 'reduce the number of job titles'; but it seems to me that it is helpful to a) have an external job title that people understand, and b) have a job title which isn't just about "news", since BBC Local Radio isn't just about news. It's also apparently true that a "News Editor" is actually more senior than a "Senior News Editor"...

Australia

Elsewhere

  • Tunisia's first LGBT radio station on air despite death threats

  • Ireland: a monthly programme about Irish radio, Wireless on Flirt FM. "On the December edition of Wireless on Flirt FM, we feature the radio activist Margaretta D’Arcy, founder of Galway’s Radio Pirate Woman, who recently donated her archives to NUI Galway. We hear from Margaretta D’Arcy and from Maureen Maguire who was also involved in the station. As festive station Christmas FM goes on the air, we interview its co-founder Daragh O’Sullivan. We also feature more material from the National Student Radio Conference held in Galway in November and we learn about the newest arrival on the radio scene, Community Radio Kilkenny City."

  • An automatically updating list of every new album available on Spotify, categorised into micro-genre.

  • One for your bookmarks - when different countries start listening to Christmas music, according to Spotify data. Worthwhile noting: Even on Christmas day itself, Christmas music is 0.4% of all music voluntarily played by people - i.e, if left up to our own devices, 1 song in 250 is a crappy Christmas music classic. On the 20th of December, normally a place where awful christmas music is all over the bloody radio, it's 0.10% at maximum for most countries - 1 song in 1,000 plays. I am clearly not in the target market.

  • The broadcast regulator in Trinidad and Tobago doesn't like a song about chutney.

What did you miss over the holidays?

Thanks to the wonderful supporters on Patreon, this newsletter is now being archived on the web. So, if you were away during the holidays...

  • Here's December 25th's update, with UK radio deregulation as the big story.
  • And look, here's January 1st with the sad news that Dick Orkin has died, and the tyranny of the target audience.

Thank you to Allyson Marino, Jason DeFillippo, Robbie MacInnes and Mirko Lagonegro, Pat Hannon, Andrew Davies, Alexander Laurin, Brad Smart, Jake Shapiro, George Bradt, and Andy Maher for your support via Patreon over the past month. Also, thank you and "hello!" to our new silver supporters - Simplecast, Geller Media International, and acast. I now have 62 patrons. You can be like these fine people and suppliers.

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james@crid.land (James Cridland) https://james.crid.land/update/small-scale-dab-consultation
<![CDATA[Dick Orkin dies; BBC switches off more AM transmitters, smart speakers a hit]]> https://james.crid.land/update/dick-orkin-dies Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Welcome to 2018, which I saw in by being woken up by fireworks.

Podnews has a big story tomorrow

Tomorrow in podnews: a story that blows the lid on podcast measurement, revealing how one company could have hit #1 in a respected podcast chart without anyone actually listening. Find out how they did it, and what to look out for: will you ever trust podcast measurement again? Subscribe for free today.

United States

  • Radio creative, voiceover and star Dick Orkin died just before Christmas. His daughter Lisa announced the news, and Eric Rhoads wrote Life And Lessons With Chickenman, an affectionate look back at his relationship with Dick. Orkin was particularly famous for wanting to tell stories (mostly funny ones) about clients in order to help potential customers to remember them. Here's a podcast with Dick and Lisa with some of their thinking.

  • Total global usage of Stitcher in 2017 was over 100,000,000 hours. In context: total US radio listening in 2017 was 194,220,000,000 hours - (249m listeners, listening on average 15h a week.). On Twitter, RAIN's Brad Hill adds, via Twitter: "I believe Stitcher delivers 4% of podcast listening. If that's correct, total podcast listening would be 2.5B hours. Still small fraction of US radio."

  • Triton Digital's ranker for online radio, October 2017. News/talk continues to rise. Top 40 music radio falls. There's a lesson here for the future of radio.

  • 'Cherry, Cherry' on repeat on local radio station 107.1 - stunts like this do get talked about.

  • Bill McMahon posts about The Tyranny of the Target Audience. Having a target audience is good (though not a strategy by itself); it's how you use it that's important.

  • Amazon Alexa and Google Home top App Store charts on Christmas Day, implies smart speakers were popular holiday gifts. I'm still waiting to see some stats from home speakers (not just research but actual data).

  • Think we can't change the name of a podcast? In the US, in 1922 a portable radio was called, confusingly, a "wireless 'phone". Fascinating stuff from the Smithsonian Magazine.

United Kingdom

  • Death of AM: 13 BBC Local Radio AM transmitters will go silent this January. As I say relatively regularly, if you're primarily an AM broadcaster, you need to consider your survival plan.

  • John Myers pens a few radio memories. Notably, particularly, the high amount of paperwork around radio in the early 1990s.

  • Letter from America, a podcast from WNYC about a BBC Radio 4 programme from Alistair Cooke.

Australia

  • What will the (commercial) radio landscape look like in 2018? - NOVA's excellent Paul Jackson says that he will be focusing on consistency - which is a trait that Australian radio has a strange blind spot for, with lots of changes happening in mid January. All this comes after six weeks of randomly-presented network programming. The station that retains consistency through the summer break next year will be the real winner, if you ask me: the listeners don't get six weeks off, after all...

I'm grateful to Melbourne's 89.9 Light FM, and to Wayne Scott, for your kind support of this newsletter.

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james@crid.land (James Cridland) https://james.crid.land/update/dick-orkin-dies
<![CDATA[Australia's christmas sabotage, and UK radio to get deregulated]]> https://james.crid.land/update/uk-radio-deregulation Mon, 25 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Above: spotted by Steve Martin in a taxi near Heathrow Airport, a DAB user interface that mimics a radio dial. Argh.

Happy Christmas! Thanks to CitiSport, the new sports radio station for London, Nearly, Outcast Collective and Audience Insights for their support as silver supporters of this newsletter (and the website). Very kind of them. And, thank you for reading - and I hope you have a great holiday season.

My articles

United States

United Kingdom

  • UK radio is being deregulated - David Lloyd looks at what it might mean, and John Myers has a go too. In short: no more music format regulation, news will be quite tightly regulated, no requirement for local programming, old AM/FM licences can be handed back if you don't want them and they won't be re-advertised, DAB multiplexes has no regulatory requirement for approval of changes. Much of this isn't too different to where we are now, it seems to me - great swathes of output is networked anyway, and DAB multiplexes could change anything they wanted just by asking. That said, I'm pleased to see the AM/FM licence non-re-advertising thing, since I've been calling for that for some time.

  • Radioplayer searches for tech partner - this is a big opportunity for radio tech companies.

  • Just in time for Christmas, the Global Player, from the UK's largest commercial radio group, is now available (fittingly, globally) on Android devices.

  • Interesting blog post from the BBC who are going https. Particularly, mobile networks fiddle with data sent in http and break things (one of the reasons I went https a while back - I found one coffee shop adding ads on the top of my own website!).

  • No idea how real this list of royalty figures for Christmas songs is, but if true, goodness.

  • Anyone want to buy a radio station in the UK? Here you go...

  • UK television discovers local radio's favourite phone-in subject.

  • "My Top 200 Tweeters of 2017" - Iain Dale knows how to get a retweet

  • This is a nice thing for a radio station to do - congratulations, BBC Radio York.

Australia

Elsewhere

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james@crid.land (James Cridland) https://james.crid.land/update/uk-radio-deregulation
<![CDATA[BBC and Cumulus both launch smart speaker skills, and a confusing LUFS story]]> https://james.crid.land/update/smart-speaker-skills-for-radio Mon, 18 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000 I'm massively grateful to Pacific Content, JCALdigital, Edison Research and Nearly who have all become silver supporters of this newsletter (and of podnews) this week. Reflecting growth, new supporters will pay more in January, so become one today.

I'd also like to thank Kristin Charron, Andy Maher, George Bradt, Brad Smart, Jake Shapiro, Alexander Laurin and Andrew Davies for very kindly becoming personal supporters this month. You, too, can be like these people.

My articles

United States

United Kingdom

Australia

Elsewhere


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james@crid.land (James Cridland) https://james.crid.land/update/smart-speaker-skills-for-radio
<![CDATA[Radio that makes you feel better, first on Twitter, Global is medium of the year]]> https://james.crid.land/update/nursing-home-subscription-radio Mon, 11 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I hit my Patreon target a few weeks ago, and so I'm delighted to be able to spend a bit of time coding this newsletter. It now has a website of its own, and this week's is also on the web. The site's searchable (though that's a little pointless currently given there's only one newsletter in the system), has RSS and all that, and hopefully looks and works well. Shout if you see anything odd going on. And thank you for supporting me on Patreon - I really appreciate it. Particular thanks this week to the folks at Triton Digital, who are a new supporter.

My articles

United States

  • YouTube to Launch New Music Subscription Service in March "according to people familiar with the matter". It already has one (YouTube Red); it had one (YouTube Music Key). Also, see Google's bewildering range of instant messaging services: Messenger, Duo, Allo, Hangouts, Google Chat, Google+ and Google Spaces. For a company with lots of clever people in it, Google sure is strangely poor at marketing.

  • The trendy young Matt Deegan knows who YouTubers are, as he posts the company's showreel for the year. If you don't, and you do media for under 30s, then I think he's telling you to get with the program(me).

  • Book: Encyclopedia of Radio Promotions - a neat, useful creative brain jogger from Paige Nienaber, which you should buy.

  • The looming end of the smart speaker - not sure I agree with this, but it's useful to see an alternative point of view.

  • Fascinating. via Matt Deegan, “Artwork Personalization at Netflix” - they even personalise the thumbnails for programmes depending on what genres you watch.

  • Well, I thought the TuneIn logo was nicely designed and was flexible and recognisable. They've changed it to this thing (which is too big for a Twitter logo, so that just says TI). Perplexing. I note they've also stopped using the complicated terminology "follow" to add a station to your favourites; the button is now marked "favourite". Oh, and if you had any old "Follow" buttons on your website, they still display but don't actually work any more.

United Kingdom

Australia

  • Visual Radio in 2009: Sea FM on the Gold Coast was broadcasting their breakfast show on the telly.

Elsewhere

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james@crid.land (James Cridland) https://james.crid.land/update/nursing-home-subscription-radio
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