Hello, I'm James Cridland, the radio futurologist,
and every week or so I put out an international
radio trends newsletter, and this is it. From
October the 12th, 2025, a visualised podcast
in the flesh. One of the smartest podcasts that
the Australian ABC produces is called If You're
Listening by Matt Bevan. I'm Matt Bevan, and
this is If You're Listening. Now, I link to it
on YouTube and I link to it on ABC Listen because
originally an audio podcast, the ABC started
making it into a video podcast in July 2023.
The show is very heavy in terms of archive footage.
And as I understand it, Bevan recalls in both
video and audio in his basement at home, by the
way. And then two separate teams go and edit
it, one for video and one for audio. The audio
version that I link to in the show notes of the
same episode is 22 minutes, 28 seconds. The video
version is 21 minutes, 15. And they are wildly
different in terms of editing. I show an image
showing exactly how different they are. And the
video trial must have been a success because
the audio version now airs on ABC Radio National.
The video version airs on the ABC News Channel.
A lot of the times we hear a visualised podcast
being touted as something that's just a TV chat
show with a cheaper set. It's easy to film a
chat cast, a simple interview with two people
on video. You just run a few cameras and you
can even mix automatically between them if you
want. And with an online tool like Riverside,
you get a mixed video file free as part of the
deal. If you want, you've probably seen something
like that with Diary of a CEO. But this is a
piece of content that is deliberately remade
for both types of output. And there's lots to
learn, I think, from how the ABC do it. The format
seems almost unique. I don't think I've ever
seen or heard this sort of thing before. And
it speaks volumes that the ABC haven't put this
show onto Spotify in video. Spotify, if you didn't
know, lets you upload video podcasts directly,
but when you do that, the audio from the video
file is what everyone hears. So if you're doing
two separate edits, as the ABC does, then tough.
A Spotify listener will just get the audio from
the video file, and that's not always the right
plan. Anyway, I tell you all of this because
Matt Bevan was here in Brisbane last Friday,
speaking at the Brisbane Writers' Festival. I
didn't really know what to expect. But in the
sold -out event, he did an hour -long version
of the show, complete with hundreds of clips
of audio and video, talking about why nobody
can predict the future and why you're a fool
if you think you can. And I shuffled in my seat
a little when he started telling people not to
believe people who call themselves futurologists.
Yeah. And if I can guess his email address correctly,
I'm hoping he lets me know what his tech stack
was for doing the show. I think I could cobble
together what he did with Keynote, but there's
a lot of really clever moving pieces as he does
it. And I suspect he's running something a little
cleverer. Would love to know. Anyway, the show
is worth a listen or a watch if you haven't seen
it. Now in Germany, Radio Zeit is keen to highlight
a new patent. for producing a cost -effective
real -time transcription and visual display of
live audio. It's a really nice thing. It makes
radio significantly more accessible. Not just
that, but they've also launched a full monitoring
tool for radio stations, so you can search through
shows and be able to categorise elements and
all of that kind of thing. Very impressive set
of tools from a small German company. It's worth
a look. Now, emergency broadcasting. I might
be doing a talk in a month or so about radio's
emergency broadcasting, giving some good examples.
of radio stations producing emergency broadcasting
that connected with audiences who needed it.
And one of the benefits of being independent,
as I am, is that I'm able to talk about anybody,
commercial, public, community, and able to talk
about both programming solutions to emergency
situations, but also engineering solutions too.
The famed radio in a suitcase temporary solution,
or another solution that I'm aware of that broadcasts
radio with nothing more than an internet -enabled
mobile phone. and a bucket. And if you've got
any good examples or stories that you would like
me to share at an international broadcast conference,
please do let me know. I would like to be able
to play some video and play some audio and maybe
even do some magic translating that audio into
English. Who knows? My email is james at cred
.land. Interesting to read the howls of protests
from the Australian radio industry after I suggested
last week that the regulator ACMA should suspend
Kyle and Jackie O from the airwaves and shift
them to an age -protected online live stream.
Reaction to this was fascinating and really clear.
Anyone not involved with the radio industry wholeheartedly
agreed with me. And they were astonished that
Carl and Jackie had been allowed to broadcast
this obscene content for so long. Meanwhile,
anyone that was involved in the commercial radio
industry was totally horrified that I'd suggested
that media regulator ACMA actually do some media
regulation. But people can just turn off, can't
they? Was one response. Another person telling
me to let the market decide. Another deciding
that all the show needed was another censor,
but this time an independent one. Not a single
person involved in radio suggested that ARN,
as the licensed broadcaster, deserved any punishment
or had any responsibility. Yet every single one
also said that they didn't defend the content.
The difference here was really stark, really
obvious. To me, it's really clear that this is
now a systemic issue in the commercial radio
industry, not just a one -off. There is a genuine
belief. that obscene content on the radio is
just fine, and I'm the whinging pom for objecting
to it. Meanwhile, of course, no word from ACMA
on their next move, if indeed there even is one.
The BBC's radio stations fell off tune in last
week for 24 hours, but came back after I asked
a few people at the BBC whether that was a permanent
change. I also discovered that Apple Music lets
you listen to radio without a subscription. So
that's a nice thing. Anyway, I link to how to
listen to BBC Radio outside the UK from the show
notes. Still no on -demand radio in the app,
by the way. It's been on the web for a few months
now. I'm sure that they know what they're doing.
Now, I'm in Sydney from Wednesday afternoon until
mid -Friday. I'll be spending Thursday at South
by Southwest Sydney. So my contact details are
linked. In fact, james .cridland .net slash contact
is how to get in touch with me. I should mention,
by the way, if you're listening in the US, I've
got a new US telephone number to go with my UK
and Australian one. Yes, you can ring it and
it'll make this phone on my desk actually ring.
Astonishing. So you can give that a go if you
like. Also updated on my personal blog, why you
probably don't need a VPN, why you should cover
up your barcode on your airline boarding pass.
No, really. how to avoid showing some short codes
in Hugo's RSS output, which I'm sure that you'll
find thrilling. Where am I speaking next? Radio
Days Europe in Riga, in Latvia, in March 2026,
radiodayseurope .com for more information on
that. Very much looking forward to doing that.
And thank you to my many supporters, including
Wade Kingsley, creative coach, who I've already
mentioned in this podcast already. but you can't
guess where. Also, Media Realm, thank you, and
Media Results as well, as well as Greg Strassel,
Sam Phelps, Richard Hilton, Emma Gibbs, Jocelyn
Abbey, and James Masterton. Thank you all for
being regular supporters. If you would like to
support my work in any way, please do. You can
buy me a coffee at buymeacoffee .com slash James
Cridland, or there's plenty other ways of doing
that in my show notes. Blue Sky as james .crid
.land, Mastodon, james at bne .social. And I've
got a website as well, hooray, about who I am
and what I do and whether I can help you further.
You'll find that at james .crid .land. Oh yes,
that works now. So that's a nice thing. Anyway,
until next time, keep listening.