WEBVTT

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I'm James Cridland, the radio futurologist, and

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every week or so I write a newsletter all about

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radios, international trends and the future of

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radio and stuff. And I also read it out for you

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in case you're too lazy to read it for yourself.

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And as you can hear, I don't edit it. So this

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is Friday the 23rd, 2025, today. And it's called

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A Tale of Two Sets of Radio Closures. Last Friday

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was the turn of a number of radio presenters

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to do what may well be their last radio show,

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as Global ended a number of regional shows on

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Hart, Capital and Smooth, which I blogged about

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earlier on this year. As expected, the London

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people got the national shows. It also means

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the physical closure of many studios as well.

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Gone are the studio facilities in Newcastle.

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Leeds, Liverpool, Nottingham, Wrexham, Milton

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Keynes and Fairham, which is near Southampton.

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Global do look after their people well, as I

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understand it, and part of that contract is repaid

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by the affected presenters who've been measured

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and polite on social media. A few pictures of

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studios, a few wistful memories of the start

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of their careers, but no angry words at the end

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of their careers. And I felt for one of them

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who posted a poignant picture of their studio

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with a carefully crafted message. paying tribute

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to all of the big names who have broadcast from

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there. The first comment, are they giving you

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a new studio, must have been hard to respond

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to after just coming off air for the final time.

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But all these fine broadcasters got the chance

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to say goodbye to their audience. Some of them

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had been on air for 30 years in their local area,

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and they had about six weeks to continue broadcasting

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to their audience and prepare them for change.

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Quite a different world in Australia, where significant

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redundancies have taken place at broadcaster

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SCA just before the company's half -yearly results.

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It means the closure of some regional breakfast

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shows and many management roles. SCA isn't saying

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how many. But also the closure of Triple M's

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Australia -wide night show, The Night Shift.

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The host, Luke Boner, did get to say goodbye,

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but only just. He was given one final show. There'll

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be thousands of listeners who will not have heard

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the news and will be wondering where an iconic

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Australian radio show and their night -time companions

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have gone. There's really no excuse for junking

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a 10 -year show with 24 hours notice. It saves

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you no money, these people are on a contract,

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and it upsets listeners. Give experienced broadcasters

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time to do their goodbyes. And if you don't trust

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your presenter to say the right thing, why the

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hell did you employ them anyway? While I don't

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like what Global is doing, at least they're doing

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it right. The future of radio is a human connection

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and a shared experience. Companies that simply

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cut shows within 24 hours demonstrate that they

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don't understand the radio business, that they

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despise their audience, and worst of all, that

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they're actively accelerating radio's decline.

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Shame on SCA. Talking about despising their audience,

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ARN's Kiss 97 .3 in Brisbane and SCA's B105 in

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Brisbane are both still claiming that they're

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Brisbane's number one hit music station. Audiences

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know they can't both be right. Some great research

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from Radio Monitor, I mentioned this last week

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actually, suggesting that radio is at least five

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times bigger than Spotify. What struck me when

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looking at their research again is the comparison

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between a track by Benson Boone, which received

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15 times more listeners on UK radio than globally

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on Spotify. But what's more important is how

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quicker Benson Boone was to pick up on Spotify

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and how much slower radio was to react to it.

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The peak of airplay on UK radio was more than

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50 days after the peak of streams on Spotify.

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which I thought was quite interesting. I also

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linked today to lots of positive data from Westwood

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One and Cumulus Media about US radio's effectiveness

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as an advertising tool. That's quite some useful

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data there. You'll find that linked from the

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link in our show notes and our newsletter at

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james .cridland .net. And thank you to Phil Hagar,

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I hope I pronounced that right, from Juquar,

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which is a broadcast consulting firm with clients

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in Europe and Africa. Phil is my latest supporter

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for this newsletter and very grateful to you,

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Phil, for doing that. I'm grateful for your support.

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And that as a company looks like an amazing company

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for you to take a peek at. You can learn more

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at Juqua, which is J -U -K -W -A dot com. And

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nice and simple. Next, I am speaking. I'm actually

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sitting in a hotel room right now. But I'm not

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going to tell you where because I'm slightly

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embarrassed about it. But coming up next, Radio

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Days Europe in Athens in Greece between March

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the 9th to the 11th. Then radio. Space days.

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Ireland in Dublin at the end of March, followed

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by evolutions in Chicago and Illinois in the

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United States, assuming that the United States

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is still a thing by then between March 31st and

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April the 3rd. Thank you to our many supporters,

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including Duke, but also including play it software

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ad master. and Brun Audio Consulting for your

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kind support. If you would like to join them,

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please do. That would be lovely. You can go to

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buymeacoffee .com slash jamescridland to either

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give regularly or just give a one -off coffee

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or five. That's cool. Or alternatively, I link

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to another way with Stripe in case you want to

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do that too. You can find me on Blue Sky or on

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Mastodon. My website has more details about who

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I am or what I do. You can find that at james

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.cridland .net. And until next time, keep listening.