Hello, I'm James Cridland, the radio futurologist,
and every week or so I write a newsletter all
about the future of the radio. It's called Radioland,
and this is it for September the 28th, 2025.
No more awards in Australia and no more radio
in the UK Academy. First, though, I have a picture
of an ad. It's an out -of -home ad for Nova in
Brisbane. photographed today, photographed this
morning, in fact. And it's a picture of three
people. The headline is Ash, Lutzy and Nicky.
And underneath it's written, don't think just
Nova. That's literally all that it says. There's
no. information about frequencies or DAB or anything
else. And I say that Nova is a radio station.
Not that you'd know from that. Ash, Lutze and
Nicky are, I think, the breakfast crew. And this
type of advertising seems to only exist in Australia.
This campaign is all the same as well. It's a
picture of somebody, their name above it, and
a slightly strange tagline. You might think this
is another opaque ad campaign that assumes knowledge
from the audience. What's Nova? Is it a streaming
service? Is it a magazine? But then you realise
that it's probably only aimed at those with rating
diaries to fill, and literally to remind them
of the name of the radio station that these personalities
are on. And here's a fun fact. October the 28th,
today, is the first day of a week out of survey.
And I bet none of the people on this campaign
will actually be on the air next week. In Australia,
the Accra Radio Awards, last held in 2024, will
no longer return, according to the organisers
Commercial Radio and Audio. Individual networks
continue to celebrate the amazing work being
done across our industries through their own
recognition programmes, suggests the CEO, Lizzie
Young. Permanently cancelling the radio awards
is quite a shock and does send a signal of a
less showbiz, less relevant industry. Meanwhile,
the Australian Podcast Awards isn't happening
this year either. Pod News reporting it's shifting
to 2026. And the ABC Local Radio Awards are long
since mothballed. So is there any opportunity
for audio to be recognised in the country anymore,
excepting genre -specific awards like the Walkleys?
The Radio Academy will, from next year, be known
as the Audio Academy. As a former trustee, I
was asked what I thought and... You know, I'm
conflicted. It's the right move from the Academy,
I think, which runs the ARIAs, the Audio and
Radio Industry Awards. But it does seem another
loss of the word radio rather than a redefinition
of it. Now, here's a quote from Mark Damaser,
the former BBC Radio 4 controller, on the BBC's
international audio offer from Roger Bolton's
Beebwatch. You feel... really quite strongly
they've been making it up as they go along, and
they've had a lot of trouble communicating to
these audiences outside the UK interested in
BBC Audio what it is that they're actually doing.
Well, Mark Damaser suggests that the BBC's press
office is currently suggesting that the music
rights issue... isn't the reason the BBC remove
most radio stations from clear visibility for
international listeners and instead suggest it's
just all about money. And he raises an eyebrow
about that. Look, I know... for certain that
this is what has driven the concern about music
licensing, is what has driven the removal of
BBC radio stations. I've spoken to too many people
within the BBC about this. Of course, it's also
about earning money. And the fact is that the
BBC's music stations, both live and on demand,
would give the BBC more availability for advertising.
Were they able to do that? but the music rights
issue prohibits them from doing so. So I do wonder
why the BBC's press office is telling a former
trustee something different. BBC Audio isn't
yet linking to the new BBC DAB Plus stations.
BBC Radio 1 Dance, BBC Radio 1 Anthems and BBC
Radio 3 Unwind. I've updated my guide on how
to listen to BBC Radio overseas to add those
links. They work just fine, by the way. They
didn't, but they do now. Presumably now they're
fully licensed broadcast radio stations. There's
no reason to treat them any differently. I wonder
how long it'll take for the BBC's official list
to include them. And thanks to those who pointed
out that some BBC local radio stations are on
DAB+. Those radio stations are the first national
services on DAB+. A company in the US is publishing
3 ,000 podcast episodes a week using AI. I'm
not listening to almost any of them before putting
them out there. I'm releasing 3 ,000 episodes
a week and I have eight people on my team. There's
no way we're listening to the overwhelming majority
of our content before it's released. I interviewed
Janine Wright, the company's CEO for the podcast
Business Journal. Of course, radio could do that
too. Let's hope it doesn't. In the US, a new
law will mandate AM radio in cars, but only for
the next eight years. John Katsimatidis, the
owner of WABC in New York, an AM radio station,
calls the eight -year clause unnecessary, though
his station's website notes that since the onset
of FM and podcasts, an increasing number of younger
consumers opt for content they hear through their
phone. I would suggest, based on US listening
trends, that AM radio's audience will have entirely
vanished by 2034. Someone finds a software -defined
radio dungle on the internet this week and does
50 different things with it, some quite fascinating
things, some things that are less fascinating,
lots of things that are not allowed in Germany.
It's a good read. I linked to that today. And
an interesting comparison between high -attention
media and low -attention media. I've always considered
speech -based radio as high -attention media.
Podcasts, too. But the research appears to point
to ad money shifting away from high attention
media and shifting toward social media and out
of home. Now, I was in Canada last week and I'm
now at home. Hooray! Where I spent the last four
days mainly in bed. recovering from, as you can
probably tell, a surprisingly bad cold. But that
is all it was, say the tests. Anyway, I link
to a full trip report if you like that sort of
thing. That's linked from the show notes of this
very podcast. It's the first time now where I've
got no speaking engagements, save a pre -recorded
one early next week, until March of next year.
I really enjoy public speaking. I like the travel
though rather less. I am, though, planning to
be in the audience at some of South by Southwest
Sydney, however, so looking forward to that.
So where am I speaking next? Well, I'm on the
Health Podcast Summit. October the 1st to the
2nd. Actually, you know what? As I read this
out, I'm also forgetting that I'm also on a Italian
podcast conference, which I will be doing live
on the 30th of September. So there is always
that. And then I'm speaking at Radio Days Europe
in Riga in Latvia. in March next year, which
is very exciting. And thank you to lots of very
excellent people, including Meliora and Soma
FM and Radio .co for your kind support. If you'd
like to support my work in any way, then you
can buy me a coffee. You can become a member
to give regularly or just give a one -off coffee
or five. You can do that at buymeacoffee .com
slash James Cridland. I'm on the socials on bluesky
as at james .crid .land or on mastodon as at
james at bne .social. Mastodon, I'm rather more
active on, but, you know, I'm active on both
of them. I've got a blue tick now on bluesky.
Look at me. And my website has more detail about
who I am and what I do and whether I can help
you further. You'll find that at james .cridland
.net. And until next time, keep listening. free
audio post -production