Hello, I'm James Cridland, the radio futurologist,
and this is Radioland, my international radio
trends newsletter for October the 19th, 2025.
New Tesla? It might not have a radio in it. Next
year's cheapest Tesla, the base model Tesla Model
3 Standard 2026, won't have a radio. Now, Teslas
have never had AM radios, as I understand it,
but at US $38 ,630. The Tesla Model 3 standard
doesn't even list an FM radio in its list of
options, according to a report in Motor Trends.
They say, we had seen that there would be a less
powerful radio option, but we weren't expecting
the loss of a terrestrial radio connection in
the standard trim's content. I've also spotted
this in the Tesla US website. In a Tesla, the
owner's manual says you have access to TuneIn
and Apple Music. both of which do live radio
stations, but you'll need some access to data.
If you do want to access music and media streaming
in your car, you'll need to buy access to premium
connectivity, which is $9 .99 a month. Or you
can use Bluetooth to your mobile, because Tesla
don't support Apple CarPlay or Android Auto either.
Tesla has seen sales slump in Europe. January
to August sales were down 43 % in the EU, down
33 % in Europe as a whole, and its market share
in the US is the lowest since 2017, so pulling
the radio out completely is hardly going to help
the company's already battered reputation. In
Brisbane, the commercial talk station 4BC has
lost its breakfast presenter. This was Friday
morning, just before nine, and Peter Feagan...
I'm back 5 .30 Monday morning. Have a fantastic
weekend. Look after yourselves, and as I like
to say, be good, Brizzy. Be good, Brizzy. Yes,
he had told listeners that he'd be back 5 .30
Monday morning, but actually, no, he wouldn't
be. I'd like to share with you some changes being
made to the 4BC on -air line -up. Peter Feagan
has finished up on -air as the host of 4BC Breakfast.
Yes, Fegan, who'd been doing the show for just
13 months, wasn't allowed to say goodbye. Another
example of Australian commercial radio not caring
about its audience, albeit there wasn't much
of an audience to care about. Fegan had a 3 .6
% share on Breakfast. Talk competitor ABC Radio
Brisbane had 10 .1%. But for whatever reason,
Australia likes to focus on listening share,
but 4BC's share is driven by its high time spent
listening. And a share figure hides how badly
the station was actually doing in terms of audience.
For the 5 .30 to 9am slot, just 77 ,000 listened
to Fegan on 4BC. That's in comparison to 172
,000 to ABC Radio Brisbane, 69 ,000 to ABC News
Radio and a pitiful 33 ,000 to ABC Radio National.
And we shouldn't forget that all of these figures
are taken over the last two survey periods and
averaged. 4BC will have access to the more private
one survey numbers and those may have shown a
further trend down. I listened to Friday's 7
till 8am hour. I heard Fegan run a very divisive
phone -in subject on whether there should be
a Greater Brisbane set up for lots of callers
to call and say how much they hated other parts
of Brisbane, egged on by Fegan. There was also
an anti -renewable energy rant and a side about
how the government is losing it. A 10 -minute
interview with a man on a mobile phone from the
Courier Mail on the Greater Brisbane idea and
how bad it was. Actually, the journalist quite
liked it. and five minutes of sports talk with
a studio guest. He voiced five ads. We also heard
six traffic reports with various sponsor credits
and seven minutes of commercials. I heard nothing
to make me proud of living in Brisbane, although
perhaps that's not the point. Anyway, he's being
filled in from Monday, temporarily, by a Channel
9 weather reporter. Brett de Brits, who'd worked
for the station as a producer for a while and
is clearly still a committed listener, suggests
that what works in Sydney, raging, angry announcers
keen to berate and shout about whatever little
thing upsets them, is not what works in Brisbane.
And he may have a point. The talk personalities
that seem to work in this market are people who
you'd like to spend time with in the pub, whether
it's Steve Austin, Loretta Ryan, Craig Zonker,
Sophie Formica, Bill MacDonald, Ellen Fanning
or others. In the UK, media regulator Ofcom is
running a consultation on the availability of
radio on smart speakers. They're suggesting that
guaranteed access to UK radio will be required
for Amazon Alexa, Google and Apple devices. Tradebody
Radio Centre has explained what the legislation
might mean. I'll link to that from my newsletter.
And as ever, I think that's good thinking from
Ofcom. And an interesting piece from Westwood
One about how to make audio ads better. Brand
early and often is decent advice. I had a rule
of client name at least three times in every
ad, though they're rather more aggressive. Less
is more is also on the button, focusing on one
thing to say and saying it well. They also suggest
that humour works and using music as a sonic
brand anchor is a good plan. It's a good article.
You should head over and read that. Next, I'm
speaking at Radio Days Europe in Riga, in Latvia,
in March, which is very exciting. Maybe speaking
in Sri Lanka a little bit later on in the year.
I'm just waiting for that to either come back
and say yes or come back and say absolutely not,
James. No, no, no, go away. So you'll be the
first to know. You won't be the first to know
that this is a podcast. This is not how it works.
Thank you to the supporters who support my newsletter
and this podcast. How about Clyde Broadcast and
Media Realm, Soma FM, named after the drug in
Aldous Huxley's book, I was reminded the other
day, and Radio King as well. Thank you to them.
Thank you also to... Greg Strassel to Sam Phelps,
Richard Hilton, Emma Gibbs, Jocelyn Abbey and
James Masterton for being regular supporters.
You, you, yes, you can support this newsletter
and podcast at buymeacoffee .com slash James
Cridland. You can become a member to give regularly
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whether I can help you further your Find that
at james .crid .land and keep listening.