1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,080 Hello, I'm James Cridland, the radio futurologist, and every week or so, or couple of weeks, 2 00:00:05,080 --> 00:00:11,880 I write a little newsletter about the future of radio and all of that, and this is it. 3 00:00:11,880 --> 00:00:17,200 For June 16th, 2023, Behind the Scenes at Five Live. 4 00:00:17,200 --> 00:00:21,400 And this is all about visual radio, and I should remind myself that people do actually 5 00:00:21,400 --> 00:00:24,520 read my newsletter and listen to this podcast. 6 00:00:24,520 --> 00:00:29,480 And sometimes if I'm criticising something, I'm criticising someone's hard work. 7 00:00:29,480 --> 00:00:33,680 So I got an email from the BBC. 8 00:00:33,680 --> 00:00:38,000 They spotted that I would be in Media City, UK in Salford, and would I like to have a 9 00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:40,960 look at the visual radio set up for Nicky Campbell? 10 00:00:40,960 --> 00:00:42,680 Yes, yes I would. 11 00:00:42,680 --> 00:00:44,800 And so I did. 12 00:00:44,800 --> 00:00:45,800 Everyone was very kind to me. 13 00:00:45,800 --> 00:00:48,560 Nobody mentioned that I'd been quite rude. 14 00:00:48,560 --> 00:00:52,680 Writing about a big microphone partially obscuring Nicky's face, big chunky headphones on, and 15 00:00:52,680 --> 00:00:55,320 a computer monitor also in view. 16 00:00:55,320 --> 00:01:00,520 Well it turns out that the brief from the TV people was that they wanted Nicky Campbell's 17 00:01:00,520 --> 00:01:04,160 show to look like a radio programme. 18 00:01:04,160 --> 00:01:07,760 Now I'm not sure I agree with that decision, but that was the brief that the team were 19 00:01:07,760 --> 00:01:13,160 given, and the implementation of that brief is actually quite thoughtful. 20 00:01:13,160 --> 00:01:17,680 A few pieces of their implementation struck me as being quite nice. 21 00:01:17,680 --> 00:01:22,960 For example, when Nicky opens the talk back to his producers, the camera will automatically 22 00:01:22,960 --> 00:01:28,880 change to a wide shot that's carefully positioned behind Nicky so you don't see his mouth moving. 23 00:01:28,880 --> 00:01:34,040 The big microphone both communicates that it's a radio programme as per the brief, but also 24 00:01:34,040 --> 00:01:37,560 affords the opportunity for Nicky to hide his face. 25 00:01:37,560 --> 00:01:41,920 And if you're on air and in vision for two hours, you're likely to want to hide your 26 00:01:41,920 --> 00:01:46,520 face at least some of the time, which I think is probably fair enough. 27 00:01:46,520 --> 00:01:50,840 Nicky's normally in London in fact, but in an identical studio. 28 00:01:50,840 --> 00:01:55,560 The camera is connected to the Salford Gallery, so it appears just the same as any other, 29 00:01:55,560 --> 00:01:57,360 which is quite nice. 30 00:01:57,360 --> 00:02:02,600 Now I learned that the project took nine months from the initial brief to on air, which is 31 00:02:02,600 --> 00:02:04,760 light speed for the BBC. 32 00:02:04,760 --> 00:02:09,760 And as someone who's done my share of big projects at the BBC, what I found most impressive 33 00:02:09,760 --> 00:02:13,080 was how non-gold-plated it all was. 34 00:02:13,080 --> 00:02:17,080 Everything from the cameras and lighting to the reuse of an existing radio studio was 35 00:02:17,080 --> 00:02:22,520 done in what seems to be an economical, sensible way with minimal extra staff. 36 00:02:22,520 --> 00:02:27,480 Yet it does drive two hours of national TV every weekday. 37 00:02:27,480 --> 00:02:33,360 Broadcast Bionics have made much of the vision technology, automated vision mixing so good 38 00:02:33,360 --> 00:02:35,760 that they rarely have to touch it. 39 00:02:35,760 --> 00:02:37,520 And it does appear to be working too. 40 00:02:37,520 --> 00:02:40,880 The programme gets many more callers than it used to. 41 00:02:40,880 --> 00:02:43,640 And also the callers are more female than they used to be. 42 00:02:43,640 --> 00:02:48,960 And Five Life has lots of sports output, which means it skews male in audience. 43 00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:51,240 So I looked forward to watching it a little more. 44 00:02:51,240 --> 00:02:55,920 Now I understood how it worked, but that wasn't to be because big news events overtook the 45 00:02:55,920 --> 00:02:58,320 phone in on the rare times I was able to watch. 46 00:02:58,320 --> 00:03:03,560 But I'm grateful to the team for their kindness shown to me in Salford. 47 00:03:03,560 --> 00:03:09,160 Elsewhere, Radio Days North America was a great event, a significant change from the feeling 48 00:03:09,160 --> 00:03:12,440 at Canadian Music Week the previous year. 49 00:03:12,440 --> 00:03:16,720 I was lucky enough to speak twice this year, a session about tools that podcasting users 50 00:03:16,720 --> 00:03:20,600 that would be great for radio, which I got some good feedback from. 51 00:03:20,600 --> 00:03:25,120 And the five ideas in 35 minutes traditional end to the conference hosted by Nick Goodman. 52 00:03:25,120 --> 00:03:28,720 It's the first time I've done that and I rather enjoyed it. 53 00:03:28,720 --> 00:03:33,840 Towercast, the French transmitter infrastructure company, has purchased Radio King, which is 54 00:03:33,840 --> 00:03:36,040 an online streaming radio company. 55 00:03:36,040 --> 00:03:41,960 And I tell you why I always liked how Futuri called their streaming product an online transmitter. 56 00:03:41,960 --> 00:03:46,840 It makes perfect sense for a tower operator to buy an online transmitter company, don't 57 00:03:46,840 --> 00:03:47,840 you think? 58 00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:49,440 Here's a fun fact. 59 00:03:49,440 --> 00:03:53,240 Someone said at Radio Days North America, and quite a scary fact as well, the latest 60 00:03:53,240 --> 00:04:00,600 sample size for radio measurement in Vancouver, which is a market of 2.6 million people for 61 00:04:00,600 --> 00:04:06,440 15 to 24 females, was just 16 people, 16 people. 62 00:04:06,440 --> 00:04:12,240 It's a whole business that runs off 16 people, it's astonishing. 63 00:04:12,240 --> 00:04:17,520 A fascinating survey from Radio Centre Ireland, which looked at how radio ads drive website 64 00:04:17,520 --> 00:04:22,360 traffic, it turns out that possibly because radio is a multitasking medium and is listened 65 00:04:22,360 --> 00:04:27,120 to while doing something else, people don't instantly visit websites that they've heard 66 00:04:27,120 --> 00:04:29,320 advertised, duh. 67 00:04:29,320 --> 00:04:34,520 The data shows good response in a three day period, but not the 30 minutes after the ad 68 00:04:34,520 --> 00:04:37,320 plays, which kind of makes sense. 69 00:04:37,320 --> 00:04:43,320 And the BBC have turned off, well, I said in my newsletter that HLS radio streams, it 70 00:04:43,320 --> 00:04:49,080 sounds as if they've turned off their shoutcast radio streams for their services, for all services 71 00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:51,920 except BBC World Service Radio. 72 00:04:51,920 --> 00:04:58,920 You can listen using an ADTS stream, whatever that is, which works in many players, including 73 00:04:58,920 --> 00:04:59,920 VLC. 74 00:04:59,920 --> 00:05:05,360 Thank you to Clyde Broadcast, Richard Hilton, James Masterton, Brunn Audio Consulting, 75 00:05:05,360 --> 00:05:08,600 SOMA FM and Media Realms radio websites. 76 00:05:08,600 --> 00:05:12,920 If you'd like to support my work in any way, you can buy me a coffee, become a member to 77 00:05:12,920 --> 00:05:17,200 give regularly, or just give a one off coffee or five if you want to do that, buy me acoffee.com 78 00:05:17,200 --> 00:05:19,480 slash James Cridland is where to go. 79 00:05:19,480 --> 00:05:21,040 You can follow me on MasterDone. 80 00:05:21,040 --> 00:05:26,800 I'm James at Crid.Land there, just search for that and you'll find me. 81 00:05:26,800 --> 00:05:30,200 You can also search for that on Nostra as well, but you know, you know, it'll be there, 82 00:05:30,200 --> 00:05:31,200 are you? 83 00:05:31,200 --> 00:05:34,680 My professional website has more details about where I am, what I do and whether I can help 84 00:05:34,680 --> 00:05:35,680 you further. 85 00:05:35,680 --> 00:05:38,480 You'll find that at James.Cridland.net. 86 00:05:38,480 --> 00:05:58,440 And until next time, keep listening.