Hello, I'm James Cridland, the radio futurologist,
and this is Radioland, my international trends
newsletter for August the 10th, 2025, multi -platform
Christian O 'Connell, coming soon across Australia.
Within hours of my post last week, ARN announced
that the Christian O 'Connell breakfast show
was going national. The show will be on FM in
Sydney, and surprise, Gold will additionally
broadcast on DAB Plus and online in Brisbane,
Adelaide and Perth. In Radioland last week, I
suggested that ARN should put Gold onto FM here
in Brisbane rather than KISS. Gold's rollout
here on DAB Plus was seized by some of the trades
as a missed opportunity, and I kind of agree,
but I'd underestimated the confusion in Australia
about what DAB Plus actually is. and how much
it's used. One industry expert said in the Media
Week story that I linked to in my show notes
and in the newsletter this week, that ARN will
probably now try to swindle some Sydney and Melbourne
buyers into investing in the other markets by
using O 'Connell's show, where he's only being
heard on the DAB Plus band. Well, that industry
expert clearly doesn't understand how radio is
sold. You buy on a rate normally called CPM,
or cost per thousand listeners. So there's no
swindling going on from anyone. Another highly
experienced industry expert I've spoken to this
week said, disparaging DAB +, that you can be
guaranteed that a Gen X or Boomer has no plans
in changing a breakfast listening habit for a
platform they're barely even aware of. So is
that true? Is it true that DAB Plus is not listened
to and that people are barely aware of it? Well,
it's surprisingly hard to find the data. But
I have. And here are the facts. For Cap City,
Australia, a third of Australians use DAB Plus
each week to listen to the radio. A third. And
more astonishingly, 40 % of radio is not listened
to on an AM FM radio. Whether ARN will market
gold heavily here in Brisbane, they'll need to
market both the station and How To Listen, remains
to be seen. But even if they don't put gold onto
FM, it's a real opportunity for them for gold
to be on DAB Plus here if they market it, even
if the industry experts have found it as hard
as I have to actually get the data. Christian
O 'Connell sounded bullish and excited when I
caught up with him on the phone this week. I
worked with him at Virgin Radio in London and
he was quick to remind me that for all the great
figures he had in the UK, he was available on
FM only in London and on DAB and a bad AM signal
elsewhere. He's used to multi -platform radio,
possibly more so than much of the Australian
radio industry. He told me that there's a need
to educate the industry as to how people really
listen to the radio. As to whether people only
want local radio, he pointed out a rather hypocritical
message from many of the, yes them again, industry
experts. We're told that people want radio to
be local, but we're also told how brilliant Hamish
and Andy were. Radio companies spend cash marketing
National Afternoon Drive radio shows. So why
couldn't it work at breakfast? And I think he
has a point. Kyle and Jackie O have famously
been keen to broadcast to Melbourne, but not
that interested in actually going there. Christian,
though, is prepared to put in the work to gain
a Sydney audience. He told me that he'll spend
time in Sydney as well as in Melbourne. Not that
you'll always hear that on the air, though. And
he'll be coming to other parts of Australia too.
And he sounded excited to be working with advertisers
again, something that it sounded as though he's
missed since his time in the UK. There's a limit
to how close you can be to advertisers if you're
only a local show, but he enjoyed spending time
with national brands when in the UK and sounds
keen to do so here. And yes, that does mean that
he'll spend time in Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide
as well. There are a variety of large brands
based outside Melbourne and Sydney. As to whether
he'll be welcomed in a different city, well,
he told me about the text messages he had coming
into the studio when Kyle and Jackie O were announced
in Melbourne. We don't like people coming into
this city, said one listener. You do remember
that I came from the UK to do this job, Christian
reminded them. Ah, but that's different, the
listener replied. And different it will be. He's
just got to wait five months to get going. The
UK broadcaster James Whale died this week. He's
the reason I'm in radio. And as I've written
in a tribute and indeed put in this podcast feed,
I was lucky enough to have told him so. Matthew
Rudd, the presenter of Forgotten 80s on Absolute
80s, was interviewed for a podcast and a website
article. I talk a lot about radio being a human
connection and a shared experience, and this
show epitomises that. It's a good read. And Bill
Rogers describes the audio experience in the
new international BBC app as a much worse digital
product. He points out that the broken search
function, where the archers appears below some
sports stories about archery... is not hinted
to be fixed any time soon. As some might say,
round Salford, he says, it's mince. Well, I'm
looking forward to being at Podcast Movement
next week. If you're in Dallas, I've got next
Sunday free. So shout if you know where to find
a beer. Or, yes. you know, follow me there. I'm
on Blue Sky as well and on Mastodon. And my website
has more details about who I am and what I do
and whether I can help you further. That's at
james .cridland .net. And until next time, keep
listening.