WEBVTT

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Hello, I'm James Cridland, the radio futurologist,

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and every week or so I write a newsletter all

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about the future of radio and international radio

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trends. And this is it for March the 9th, 2025.

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Emergency Radio Broadcasting, ABC Radio Brisbane,

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excels. Now this time last week I was looking

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forward to travelling to Radio Days Europe, but

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no such luck, because if I open the window, then

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you can probably hear... Yes, there's quite a

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lot of rain and wind there. Let me just close

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that. There we are. Yes, Tropical Cyclone Alfred

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has hit Brisbane and it's cancelling flights.

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and therefore I wasn't able to travel in any

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way. I wasn't going to leave my family here either,

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was I, to be honest. As a fun fact, Tropical

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Cyclone Alfred was going to be called Tropical

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Cyclone Anthony, but with a pending election

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here in Australia, it was wisely felt that Prime

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Minister Anthony Albanese might not be too impressed

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with the company talking about the destruction

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caused by Anthony. So it was officially changed.

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Now, at first, we felt that we'd got away with

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it. The cyclone calmed down a little, and we

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didn't get the scarily high winds that we were

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first expecting. But then came the rain. and

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a surprise set of high winds around 24 hours

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later. And as I'm recording this, much of south

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-east Queensland and northern New South Wales

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are coping with flooding, torrential rain and

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uprooted trees. More than 300 ,000 households

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are without electricity. Some will be without

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for many days. ABC Local Radio is well practised

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at emergency broadcasting with a clear format

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that it slips effortlessly into. The output is

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tight. Clear and unsensational. Not built for

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drama, but instead built for human connection.

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It's a mix of regular communications from authorities,

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information from elsewhere, and plenty of call

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us and tell us your story from wherever you are.

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Imaging is built to be reassuring. Little pre

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-recorded segments tell us how to prepare. And

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all the more impressive when you note that the

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ABC was doing the entire radio coverage. from

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the boardroom of a local hotel, rather than its

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normal offices. The ABC's studios are built on

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the side of the Brisbane River, and during the

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last floods, the building's basement was flooded

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out, and with it, the electricity supply. They

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were taking no chances. So a hotel was chosen

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that was 57 metres above sea level, rather than

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the ABC, which is less than 5 metres above the

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river. And the ABC had planned ahead. Much of

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this emergency coverage was simulcast across

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three ABC local radio areas, and as a tacit acknowledgement

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that everyone doesn't have AM radio receivers

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anymore, 612 ABC Radio Brisbane also took over

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ABC Classics transmitter on 106 .1 FM in the

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city. A wise move, it turns out, since for almost

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two hours on Sunday, the 612 AM transmitter fell

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silent after a failed generator. Radio's place

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in time of emergency is a bit of a trope, and

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in many cases isn't really a given, with many

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broadcasters eliminating local broadcasting altogether.

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At least one Brisbane commercial broadcaster

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thought it was fine just to broadcast non -stop

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music between 9pm and midnight, for example.

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But in this case, as hundreds of thousands of

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people were left without power and without internet,

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the ABC was their only connection to the outside

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world. And it's brilliant broadcasting. Now,

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on the web version of this, you can hear an entire

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hour of programming from the ABC, because I think

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people might learn a little bit from it. But

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here's a little taste. This is Cyclone coverage

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on 612 ABC Radio Brisbane and Queensland. The

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wind goes rattle a fair bit. Now we've got consistent

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rain and getting a bit heavier now. I'm at Burley

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Heads. It is wild, rugged and kind of evil out

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there as well. Just a lot of rain and, yeah,

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checking the elderly neighbours and seeing if

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they're going all good. But, yeah, a lot calmer

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than I expected, to be honest. This is Cyclone

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Alfred coverage on 612 ABC Radio Brisbane and

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Queensland. There's a whole hour of that over

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at james .cred .land and just find the blog section.

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Now, in other news, I was on Radio 4's Feedback

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this week, talking about the closure of BBC Sounds

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internationally. There's a link to that from

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the link in the show notes. Some fascinating

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stuff from the UK's CNMA consultation about Apple

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and Google's mobile ecosystems. It turns out

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that both Radio Centre and the BBC both submitted

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their concerns and thoughts. And much of the

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BBC's response is very interesting, though being

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fair, some of the BBC's response is trying to

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have their cake and eat it. I've written a full

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blog post about this i won't bore you with it

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now but you can certainly find that james .crid

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.land I'm currently having to deal with 20 times

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the podcast download traffic for my daily pod

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news podcast, which is fun. According to the

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rules, they're all valid downloads, so perhaps

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I should be claiming them, but they're not. Clearly,

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they're all coming from either Malaysia or Indonesia,

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all from Android phones. It's all a bit weird.

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Can't quite work out where they're from. A link

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again in the show notes to that. And a link to

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this. Last month on World Radio Day, I was on

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BFM in Malaysia. radio day segment starts at

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12 minutes and 15 seconds 12 15 and brilliantly

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world radio day was all about climate change

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and they asked me to record something so i did

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directly into whatsapp because that's how they

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asked me so um that ended up going out and that

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sounded quite good and if you're listening to

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this in athens firstly i mean why but also secondly

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have a lovely time i'm waiting for this rain

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to die down a little let me just check is it

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still Yes, it's still raining. So, yes, I'm going

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a little bit stir -crazy, but at least I do have

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power, which is something, and internet, which

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is something else as well. So sorry I can't be

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with you, but make sure to see the session about

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marketing at the end of Tuesday in track three.

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I've bullied Wade Kingsley, Wade, into doing

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that for me so that we can have another person

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from Australia on the stage. Where I'm speaking

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next, though, Radio Days Ireland in Dublin, March

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the 27th. Definitely be able to go there. Looking

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forward to it. Evolutions in Chicago, March the

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31st. Radio Days in North America, in Toronto,

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May 7th. The podcast show in London from May

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20th. Podcast Movement in Dallas, Texas, August

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18th. Radio Days Asia, which probably September.

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September the 1st to the 3rd, I believe. and

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PodSummit in Calgary in Canada. It's PodSummitYYC

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is its name from September the 19th. And thank

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you to the many supporters of this podcast and

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of the newsletter as well, including Play It

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Software, Soma FM, and Media Realm, all excellent

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for supporting me, plus personal supporters Greg

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Strassel, Sam Phelps, Richard Hilton, Emma Gibbs,

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Jocelyn Abbey and James Masterton for being regular

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supporters. If you would like to support my work

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in any way, buymeacoffee .com slash jamescridland

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is a nice place to go. You can just give a one

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-off coffee or five or give regularly on that

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and that's all good. You can follow me on Mastodon

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at james at bne .social and my website has more

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details about who I am, what I do and if I can

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help you further. There are also various virtual

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of this column translated into German at Radio

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Zine if you would like to go and take a peek

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at that but until next time keep listening