Hello, I'm James Cridland, the radio futurologist,
and this is Radioland, my international radio
trends newsletter for October the 27th, 2025,
Emergences and Weekends. And this was a shorter
than usual and later than usual newsletter for
this week. We're one of 75 ,000 households who
lost power in a big storm last night, with at
least one house being blown over. and plenty
of trees falling into cars and onto roads. We're
still some of 25 ,000 households who still don't
have power more than 15 hours later. When the
power goes down round here, the cell phone coverage
also virtually disappears, partially because
the cell sites lose power, but also partially
because what's left is hideously oversubscribed.
Without any internet or power, and after realising
that the torches I bought nine years ago are
no way to be found, I've ordered some more, I
sat down by candlelight and tuned in to ABC Radio
Brisbane. But because it happened on a late Sunday
afternoon, by the time I started listening, it
was a networked show called by the announcer
National Evenings, and the 8pm ABC News bulletin
was also national, and no mention of the 75 ,000
households who could have been doing like I was.
And that's, by the way, 187 ,000 people. It was
a shame not to have heard any local programming
on Sunday night on the ABC, given the number
of people affected. The difficulty, I guess,
is that it's a major operation to reconfigure
the network to allow local programming for Brisbane,
especially if you're broadcasting to 2 .3 million
people and only a tenth of those are affected.
Particularly, nobody expected this storm, especially
its ferocity. So I understand why there wasn't
any local content. But I do wonder... How many
other people like me assumed there'd be something
on the radio? And what happens if we don't deliver
local information for when it's needed the most,
even if it is a Sunday evening? By the way, I'm
recording this later, and we didn't have power
for 58 hours. This morning, when I was on a drive
to find a power cable from the car to save my
freezer's contents, A listen to ABC Radio Brisbane
was the warm and friendly experience I was expecting
with plenty of information about what was going
on. Then the 8am news and then we were all treated
to AM, a fierce networked news programme from
Nipaluna Hobart with no local information. AM
started with a raw and unpleasant report covering
a story about children and abuse, surprisingly
without any editorial warning about the level
of detail we were subjected to in the report.
I have shared the first four minutes at peak
driving children to school time in the newsletter
version of this podcast, and I'll warn you, it's
a challenging listen. Only ten minutes previously,
Craig and Loretta were a warm, family -friendly
presence. sharing experiences in last night's
storm. I'm constantly surprised at the 8am handbrake
turn on ABC Local Radio, with one audience thrown
under the bus in favour of a hard -hitting news
show better suited for Radio National, and here
no care shown for the audience. Today especially,
I'm surprised at the content of this programme
and its suitability for an 8am time slot on local
radio. It's a stern, broadsheet programme on
a warm, tabloid station. It belongs on Radio
National, and I wish it would stay there. Probably
not alone this morning. I switched up the dial
at 8 .05 to 4BC, where Luke Bradnam was doing
a good fill -in role and was warm and friendly.
There was some talk about the storm and plenty
of talk about other things. He's a decent and
warm person. I quite enjoyed it, especially his
little impersonations of his friends, which could
become a nice gimmick. I forgot to switch back
to the ABC at 8 .30. Elsewhere, BBC Sounds has
raised its quarter 325 audience figures for its
audio app. Total UK plays were up 8 .5%. Audiences
increased 4 .3%. However, after a reorganisation
leading to an incomplete international BBC audio
product and a paywall in the US for BBC News,
total global podcast downloads are slightly down
from 213 million to 212 million. The top three
shows. Global News Podcast, Six Minute English
and the Documentary Podcast. Confusingly, the
BBC's internationally available podcasts still
promote BBC Sounds, a product that was closed
outside of the UK in July. Given they've all
the tools to correctly geo -target those ads,
I'm really surprised about how badly the BBC
is doing things there. Ray Jarre, the UK audience
figures, also came out last week. The bit that
I found interesting, and nobody's commented on
it as far as I can see, although maybe they did
last quarter, is that commercial radio's share
of listening on AM -FM has increased by 23 %
year on year. Now, as far as I'm aware, the amount
of choice on AM -FM has decreased, AM transmitters
continue to be turned off, and FM transmitters
are much more likely to be broadcasting networked
national output. So I wondered what was driving
those figures, and I asked in my newsletter,
did anybody know? Ray Giles actually contacted
me, and the figures are now correct. They weren't
correct a year ago. So what we're actually seeing
here is a correction to some previous figures.
I could bore you with all of the details, but
you're probably not that interested. An interesting
idea from last week's pod news. Somebody has
made a ranker for podcasts where your ads will
work the best, which is very neat. I'll link
to that in the newsletter. Best of luck to Soundwaves,
an audio conference and festival in County Limerick
in Ireland on November the 12th to the 13th.
And good to see Global doing a glitzy upfront
for advertisers for the first time. Happens all
the time from podcast companies and TV networks,
and it's great to see Global doing similar. Now,
where am I speaking next? I'm speaking next to
Radio Days Europe in Riga in Latvia in 2026.
I should probably book my ticket for that at
some point. And thank you to the many supporters.
Who will we choose today? Studio with two I's,
Soma FM and Radio King for your kind support.
Plus personal supporters, Greg Strassel, Sam
Phelps. Strassel or Strassel? You should probably
find out. Richard Hilton, Emma Gibbs, Jocelyn
Abbey and James Masterton for being regular supporters.
If you would like to support my work in any way,
then you can buy me a coffee. Buymeacoffee .com
slash James Cridland is where to do that. You
can follow me on Mastodon, james at bne .social.
And my website has more details about who I am
and what I do and whether I can help you further.
That is at james .crid .land. And until next
week, thank you for listening and keep listening.