1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,800 Hello, I'm James Cridland, the radio futurologist, and every week or so I write a newsletter 2 00:00:05,800 --> 00:00:10,000 all about the future of radio and radio's international trends, and this is the podcast 3 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:17,840 version for August the 6th, 2023. It's called Linkrot, Rayjar, and the BBC's global numbers. 4 00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:23,160 Over time, links go bad, whether it's the result of a site redesign or a site just 5 00:00:23,160 --> 00:00:27,080 simply falling off the internet. And some publishers, like BBC News or The Guardian, 6 00:00:27,080 --> 00:00:33,040 do a really good job of retaining all of their archive online. But most of the links from 7 00:00:33,040 --> 00:00:36,800 them just don't work anymore. They've succumbed to Linkrot. 8 00:00:36,800 --> 00:00:41,320 Now looking back at the first edition of Pod News in May 2017, I realised that two of the 9 00:00:41,320 --> 00:00:46,920 links there were broken as well, and I wondered how I could fix that without rewriting history. 10 00:00:46,920 --> 00:00:50,680 And particularly, I wondered whether anyone was doing anything about this. And I went 11 00:00:50,680 --> 00:00:55,800 searching the other week for Linkrot policies, because you'd assume that somebody like the 12 00:00:55,800 --> 00:01:01,240 BBC, or indeed The Guardian, would have written a fair amount about this. But if they do exist, 13 00:01:01,240 --> 00:01:06,560 I can't find any. But as you'll see, if you go back to have a look at the first ever 14 00:01:06,560 --> 00:01:12,880 Pod News from May 2017, two of these original links are now marked as being broken, and 15 00:01:12,880 --> 00:01:18,800 they link to the internet archive. And that's an automated process. The code that I've written 16 00:01:18,800 --> 00:01:23,040 checks links, and it fetches any broken ones from the internet archive as close to the 17 00:01:23,040 --> 00:01:27,920 original data as possible. And then it updates the article. Anyway, I've written a blog post 18 00:01:27,920 --> 00:01:32,920 about all of the details of how I do that on my personal blog, James.Cridlin.net. And 19 00:01:32,920 --> 00:01:38,760 I'd be really interested if your organisation is doing anything similar in terms of Linkrot. 20 00:01:38,760 --> 00:01:43,280 It seems a pretty important thing to get right, I think. 21 00:01:43,280 --> 00:01:47,760 Now this was an interesting development last week in podcasting, a music show where the 22 00:01:47,760 --> 00:02:11,680 artists get paid. 23 00:02:11,680 --> 00:02:18,960 Yes, it's the excited sounds of Adam Curry, the Podfather himself, and XMTV, VJ, of course. 24 00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:23,920 If you use a compatible player, the music artists that you listen to in that podcast 25 00:02:23,920 --> 00:02:29,240 get paid for every play, and it gets paid whatever you think that they're worth. You 26 00:02:29,240 --> 00:02:34,960 can even send boosts directly to the artist without a middleman. It's quite a technically 27 00:02:34,960 --> 00:02:41,480 impressive thing. I was curious to see how it worked, and curious to understand a little 28 00:02:41,480 --> 00:02:47,320 bit more. And so of course I did what, of course I would do. I had a quick go to a music 29 00:02:47,320 --> 00:02:54,600 show myself who find that linked. And in order to make me understand how it all worked, I 30 00:02:54,600 --> 00:03:01,560 had to write the RSS feed in a text editor. I had to use calculators. It was a fairly 31 00:03:01,560 --> 00:03:07,000 horrific thing. But yeah, it works really, really well. Now, of course, the music isn't 32 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:11,400 anything that you'll recognize, but one of the artists, Ainsley Costello, who's the fifth 33 00:03:11,400 --> 00:03:17,440 song that I play, is already earning more from this than from any other platform that 34 00:03:17,440 --> 00:03:24,880 she's on, including things like Spotify. So perhaps there is something in this, I think. 35 00:03:24,880 --> 00:03:29,920 In the UK, the quarterly Raja results are out. An excellent analysis from Matt Deegan 36 00:03:29,920 --> 00:03:33,560 and from Adam Bowie, as you would expect. Matt seems to have done up his website as 37 00:03:33,560 --> 00:03:37,680 well. It looks very lalida. Now, something that I don't believe that either of those 38 00:03:37,680 --> 00:03:42,480 people mentioned, the platform data, and there's a story, I think, going on there, 39 00:03:42,480 --> 00:03:47,800 websites and apps have shrunk really quite considerably year on year. Smart speakers 40 00:03:47,800 --> 00:03:54,200 now driving more hours and more share than websites and apps, which is quite a change 41 00:03:54,200 --> 00:04:00,320 from a year ago. Now, DAB is still considerably bigger than online. But of course, DAB comes 42 00:04:00,320 --> 00:04:04,920 with a lack of first party data, which is why commercial radio groups would rather that 43 00:04:04,920 --> 00:04:08,600 you signed in to listen online in the BBC because it thinks it's a commercial radio 44 00:04:08,600 --> 00:04:14,120 group these days, is copying the commercial broadcasters as well. But worthwhile, a peak, 45 00:04:14,120 --> 00:04:20,880 I think, at the platform data. Now, last week, I mentioned that the BBC's overall global 46 00:04:20,880 --> 00:04:27,160 reach has declined quite markedly. And I suggested that making BBC News, the BBC News channel, 47 00:04:27,160 --> 00:04:32,600 available on YouTube for free, would really help that. And something, incidentally, you 48 00:04:32,600 --> 00:04:38,080 can geo block country by country. So if they wanted to, they could start today by making 49 00:04:38,080 --> 00:04:42,400 the BBC News channel only available in countries where they don't have carriage deals. Now, 50 00:04:42,400 --> 00:04:48,880 I'm told that the main loss is from the significant cuts to the BBC World Service, however, not 51 00:04:48,880 --> 00:04:53,920 least the closure of BBC Arabic radio. I'd also been unaware that the BBC Minute had 52 00:04:53,920 --> 00:04:58,400 been closed as well. That was a one minute news bulletin aimed at younger audiences, 53 00:04:58,400 --> 00:05:02,480 and it aired on many FM radio stations across the world. You can still listen to one of 54 00:05:02,480 --> 00:05:08,520 those because its official RSS feed still contains the last news bulletin aired on December 55 00:05:08,520 --> 00:05:14,200 the 23rd, eight months ago. It was a shining example of the BBC getting its content on 56 00:05:14,200 --> 00:05:19,560 air everywhere, and it seems a bit of an own goal that it's all gone. Now, let's take a 57 00:05:19,560 --> 00:05:25,520 listen to a little bit of commercial radio from Australia many, many years ago. 58 00:05:25,520 --> 00:05:29,560 The makers of Priscilla welcome you to Australia's biggest and brightest quiz. 59 00:05:29,560 --> 00:05:33,000 Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. 60 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:37,000 And to give the money away we give you Jack Davies. 61 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:39,560 Yes, yes, yes. 62 00:05:39,560 --> 00:05:42,480 Hi Roe, everybody. Welcome to the Priscilla show. Give it a go. 63 00:05:42,480 --> 00:05:46,840 Give it a go. We're Jack Davies who sounds very northern to me and most certainly not 64 00:05:46,840 --> 00:05:54,080 very Australian. Anyway, commercial radio in Australia turns 100 years old this year. 65 00:05:54,080 --> 00:06:00,440 2SB started on the 23rd of November, 1923. It's the oldest continually operating licensed 66 00:06:00,440 --> 00:06:05,560 radio station in Australia. It did change its name though from 2SB which stood for Sydney 67 00:06:05,560 --> 00:06:12,360 broadcasters over to 2BL, Broadcasters Limited, because its competitor appeared a couple of 68 00:06:12,360 --> 00:06:17,440 weeks later and called itself 2FC and 2FC sounds a bit too close to 2SB. 69 00:06:17,440 --> 00:06:22,120 Anyway, the radio station is now known as ABC Radio Sydney. Now, I tell you all of this 70 00:06:22,120 --> 00:06:26,840 because firstly I find it a really interesting point of difference between Australia and 71 00:06:26,840 --> 00:06:34,000 the UK. Legal commercial radio in the UK only came on air in 1973. 72 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:39,280 And also because today I was on Brisbane's 4BC, a station that actually launched in 73 00:06:39,280 --> 00:06:45,240 1930. Talking about the future of radio, you'll find a link to that in the show notes and 74 00:06:45,240 --> 00:06:50,280 my newsletter at james.cred.land and I was interviewed by Spencer House. 75 00:06:50,280 --> 00:06:56,560 You might also want to read Michelle Rowland's speech. She is in charge of communications 76 00:06:56,560 --> 00:07:01,480 and the media. I think that sort of thing. Anyway, she did a nice speech in Parliament 77 00:07:01,480 --> 00:07:07,440 this week about 100 years of commercial radio in Australia which is worth a read. 78 00:07:07,440 --> 00:07:12,280 Thank you to Broadcast Radio, to Clyde Broadcast, Richard Hilton and James Masterson, Brunn, 79 00:07:12,280 --> 00:07:19,040 Audio Consulting, SOMA FM and Media Realms Radio websites for your kind support. If you 80 00:07:19,040 --> 00:07:23,880 would like to support my work in any way, you can buy me a coffee. You can be a member. 81 00:07:23,880 --> 00:07:29,880 So give regularly or just give a one-off coffee or five. You can do that at buymeacoffee.com 82 00:07:29,880 --> 00:07:36,560 slash jamescred.land and you can follow me on Master Don as well. I'm James at bne.social 83 00:07:36,560 --> 00:07:43,840 over there and way, way more active there than anywhere else. So yeah, do follow me 84 00:07:43,840 --> 00:07:49,760 there if you can. My professional website has more detail about who I am, what I do and 85 00:07:49,760 --> 00:07:54,160 whether I can help you further. You can hear this newsletter being read to you on a podcast 86 00:07:54,160 --> 00:07:59,880 player near you. It says here. Yes, you already know about that, don't you? And where will 87 00:07:59,880 --> 00:08:06,040 I be? In a couple of weeks, I will be in Denver in Colorado looking forward to that, hoping 88 00:08:06,040 --> 00:08:11,980 to be in Munich. That'll be fun, wouldn't it? In October, in November, I will be in 89 00:08:11,980 --> 00:08:20,800 Mexico City. Also, I'm going to be in London. It's a 23rd ish of September. Looking forward 90 00:08:20,800 --> 00:08:29,240 to that. Radio Days Asia in Kuala Lumpur. Earlier than that, in early September. So all over 91 00:08:29,240 --> 00:08:33,800 the place really. So if you're coming to any of those things, it would be fantastic to 92 00:08:33,800 --> 00:08:37,440 see you. But until next week, keep listening.