Hello, I'm James Cridland, the radio futurologist,
and I write a newsletter called Radioland, which
you can get at james .cridland .net slash radioland.
And this is it for October the 5th, 2025. ACMA,
you should kick Kyle off FM radio. As much media
movement in Australia, SCA, are to merge with
7 West Media. That brings together Australia's
largest radio company, worth $206 million. They
own 86 radio stations, including Triple M and
the Hit Network. And Australia's second biggest
Television Network worth $223 million and 7 West
also own the leading newspaper in West Australia.
It's subject to two separate regulatory approvals,
though both are unlikely to be major showstoppers.
As a merger, it makes good sense to similar -sized
companies with plenty of synergies to benefit
from. Meanwhile, trouble at ARN. ACMA, the Australian
media regulator, has again ruled against ARN's
Kyle and Jackie O for quotes repeatedly and deliberately
airing content that is vulgar, sexually explicit
and deeply offensive. ACMA has so far found 12
breaches in 2025 alone. ACMA, the weightiest
of all global media regulators, is currently
thinking about what to do next. Well, a day after
ACMA nervously released their timid pronouncement,
ARN CEO Kieran Davis announced he was to step
down. He'll be replaced by Chief Operating Officer
Michael Stevenson. The ACMA report wasn't mentioned.
ACMA has the power to pull Kyle and Jackie O
off the public radio spectrum. They have the
power to pull the licenses for Kiss in Sydney
and Melbourne all together. Or they have the
power to do nothing at all except wring their
hands in an awkward way. Prime Minister Anthony
Albanese went to Kyle's wedding after all and
who would want to upset one of the Prime Minister's
friends? However, it's difficult to square a
wet and weedy ACMA decision with Australia's
upcoming ban of all social media websites for
under -16s, which comes into force in December.
Why should YouTube be banned in December to under
-16s? when you can listen to much worse content.
If you read the full ACMA investigation, you'll
read all of the eye -watering transcripts. So
why should YouTube be banned when you can listen
to that on an FM radio station during the school
run? How can Anthony Albanese claim he's on the
side of families when his own media regulator
is allowing this kind of content to continue
on free -to -air FM radio? I would suggest that
ACMA have no option but to act quickly and decisively
and require that Kyle and Jackie O are removed
from the public broadcast spectrum for a 12 month
period. Kyle and Jackie O can continue their
lurid games behind an age verification tool on
the company's iHeartRadio app if they like. And
curiously, that would be good for Australians
who wouldn't hear this crap on the FM dial. It
would be good for pressure group MFW, who have
been successfully persuading advertisers to boycott
the programme. And it would be good for ARN and
Kyle and Jackie Oh, who would be uncensored and
free, and they could have a significant effect
on the take -up of online radio, for those who
really want it. Elsewhere, with the plethora
of social media tools these days, it can be difficult
to monitor them all. So congratulations to Radioland
supporter Studio, who've launched a very cool
looking studio panel that brings together all
of your messages together, including email, along
with weather information and a phone system.
The company is based in Melbourne and has been
operating for seven years under the name of Broadcast
Launch. I guess they finally launched. So congratulations
to them. Studio is spelled with two i's if you
want to learn more about that. So that's studio
with two i's dot i -o. I was interviewed about
FM Switch Off and DAB Plus and IP for Italian
publication Newslinnet. I linked to that today
from my newsletter. I also have a new portable
travel radio. Chances are that the listeners
of this podcast will be the ideal audience for
it. It's the Deep Elec DP666. I've reviewed it
in tedious length on my blog and lucky for you,
I've also reviewed it in tedious length on this
podcast as well. So go and have a listen to that.
It's the geekiest, least consumer -friendly radio
you'll see, but I bet you want one too. After
I was sad about the lack of awards for radio
and audio in Australia after the closure of the
Akras, Radioland reader Danae Gibson of RTRFM
reminds me of the continued existence of the
CBAA Community Broadcasting Awards. Quite right.
Thank you for that. Rayjar has released the Midas
study for summer 2025. It's a comprehensive look
at all of the different types of audio listened
to in the UK, with a nice graph showing the growth
of connected audio, which is increasing significantly
both in terms of reach, but also in terms of
time spent listening. Catch -up radio in Midas
is separated out, and consumption of that is
really interesting. Computers account for 20
% of listening time to catch -up radio. Mobile
phones, well, three times as long, 58 % of listening
time of catch -up radio. Speaking of catch -up
radio, a month after I last mentioned it, worthwhile
pointing it out again, the BBC International
website contains lots of play buttons to listen
again to Radio 4 output. The BBC app on mobile,
internationally, contains no such buttons at
all. For the reasons why this makes no sense,
please wind your podcast back 60 seconds and
have a listen again. Where am I speaking next?
Well, I'm not speaking anywhere until March.
Hooray! Radio Days Europe is where I will next
be speaking in Riga, in Latvia. Looking forward
to that. That's in March 22nd to the 24th. 2026,
I should book my flights, I suppose. That would
be fun. Gosh, I really want to do more flying.
And thank you so much to many of my supporters,
in fact, all of my supporters. I mean, thank
you to all of those, including Broadcast Radio,
including the creative coach, Wade Kingsley,
also Joukwa and Soma FM and Studio, of course,
let's not forget them with two I's. Plus Greg
Strassel, Sam Phelps, Richard Hilton, Emma Gibbs,
Jocelyn Abbey and James Masterson for being regular
supporters. If you would like to support my work
in any way, you can buy me a coffee. Buymeacoffee
.com slash James Cridland is where to do that.
I'm on BlueSky at james .crid .land or I'm on
Mastodon at James at BNE .social and my website
has more details about who I am and what I do
and whether I could help you further. I should
really fix my james .cridland website as well,
shouldn't I? I can't go and do that in a minute.
Anyway, you can find that at james .cridland
.net. Yes, james .cridland .net and until next
time, keep listening.