I'm James Cridland, and this is the future of
radio. It's from my international radio trends
newsletter, which you can find at james .crid
.land. And this is it for March the 16th. The
Voice of America gets cut. Almost 1 ,300 journalists,
producers and assistants are no longer working
at Voice of America. And for the first time in
83 years, the broadcaster has been silenced.
I went to the Voice of America in 2009, and I
did a talk there about radio's future, and I've
just found my blog post from the time and restored
it to my website. It reminded me of my visit.
I found it a little old -fashioned and governmenty,
but also genuine and sincere about its commitment
to its listeners. The White House suggests that
it is radical propaganda. and alleges that it
is left -biased. Now, much of everything appears
to skew to the left if you believe that Fox News
is fair and balanced, I suppose, but along with
the closure of US aid, what an astonishing loss
of soft power around the world. The BBC World
Service is currently arguing about the sources
of its funding as part of wider BBC funding talks
due to complete in 2027. About two -thirds of
the cost of the BBC World Service comes from
the UK licence fee. In a rushed deal originally
done by Mark Thompson in October 2010, the considerable
benefit that the BBC World Service delivers around
the world is immeasurable to Great Britain, but
yet successive UK governments haven't. seem to
have considered that. I know from my own travels
how important the BBC World Service is to the
standing of the UK, and while Voice of America
may not be in the same league, it still really
benefits the perception of the United States
of America. It's a massive mistake to close it.
Restoring the post from VOA has also meant that
I found and restored a ton of other posts from
that time. So I've linked to a gushing piece
about NPR, things I learned from Tokyo FM in
Japan, a trip to CBC Radio 3 in Vancouver, the
strangeness of radio in Bangkok, and a look around
Osterio in Melbourne. It's quite a nice trip.
That, down memory lane, I might have been unemployed
at the time, after my time at the BBC, but what
an enjoyable travel journey it all was. Emboldened
by blogs, I wrote a new piece about why it was
time for ABC local radio to be on FM in the capital
cities here in Australia. For them not to be
seems short -sighted from the ABC, but also short
-sighted from the government, who, after all,
funds the ABC to exist. The amount of hatred
I've had in Facebook groups for making that suggestion
has been interesting, to say the least. One reason
the Facebook commenters give is that it's illegal
to simulcast on AM and FM. However, there's no
such law, as far as I can discover, not least
many ABC local radio services do exactly that.
I recorded an interview this week for J -Wave,
81 .3 FM, about the 100th anniversary of radio
starting in Japan. I'll be on JK Radio Tokyo
United with John Kabira between 6 and 11 .30
on March the 28th. That's in a couple of weeks.
Radio in Japan started after the government was
concerned about misinformation and wished to
give a sense of unity to the station. It's never
been as popular as in the US or Europe and reaches
about 40 % of people in Japan every week as opposed
to about 90 % in many other countries. It is
still a vibrant medium. And John told me during
the interview that younger audiences are rediscovering
this machine called radio. And finally, Smooth
Radio in North Wales has closed its AM transmitters.
AM continues to be slowly turned off in the UK,
especially by the commercial sector. Here's a
bit of the promo talking about that closure.
Smooth FM in North Wales. Where am I speaking
next? Well, I'm in Dublin. In Ireland, March
27th to the 28th, if you're listening to this
and you're in Dublin and you fancy catching up
for a pint of the black stuff, then I will be
delighted to do that. That would be fun. I'm
actually there a day early and stay there for
another day afterwards. So, yes, that would be
a good thing. Anyway, Radio Days Ireland is a
thing. Maybe it's a Radio Days that I can actually
get to this year, along with Radio Days North
America, which I'm also going to in Toronto between
May the 7th and the 8th. In the middle of that,
Evolutions in Chicago in Illinois, March 31st
to April the 3rd is when that is on. The podcast
show in London. May the 20th to the 21st. Just
before that, I believe I'm speaking at PodCamp
2 .0. That's not yet confirmed, but PodCamp .live
is where you can learn more information about
that. There's a podcast movement going on in
Dallas, in Texas, in mid -August. Just booked
my tickets for that. That's good. Qantas has
a deal on at the moment, so I better get that
booked and also get these two booked as well.
Pennine Radio's 50th birthday. I will be going
to London. I think the way I'm going to be doing
this is return to London and then a return from
London to Calgary, which is where I am speaking
the following week. Pod Summit YYC in Calgary
in Canada. That's between September the 19th
to the 20th. There may be a Radio Data Asia in
there as well. due to have a conversation about
that, when I was in Athens. But that never happened
because I wasn't in Athens, because of the cyclone.
Everything's fine, by the way, here. The worst
that happened to us is that the pool went green.
There you go. I know. First world problems. Thank
you so much to my many supporters, including
Wade Kingsley and Soma FM and Radio King, plus
Greg Strassel, Sam Phelps, Richard Hilton, Emma
Gibbs, Jocelyn Abbey and James Masterton for
being regular supporters. If you would like to
support my work in any way, please do. You can
buy me a coffee. Buymeacoffee .com slash. James
Cridland. You can become a member if you like
to give regularly or just give a one -off coffee
or five in there. I'm on Blue Sky as james .crid
.land. Not that I use it much. I'm on Mastodon,
which I use much more. James at bne .social,
brisbane .social. That would be a fine place.
And my website has more details about who I am
and what I do and whether I can help you further.
But until next time, keep listening.