I'm James Cridland, the radio futurologist, and
this is Radioland, my radio trends newsletter.
You can get it at radioland .email. And this
is November the 16th, 2025. Tim Davey, Hart,
AI Traffic, and ACMA again. I'm really sorry,
James, but I won't be able to see your talk tomorrow.
That was the last time Tim Davey, the Director
General of the BBC, spoke to me at a public service
broadcasting conference in Canada in 2024. Earlier,
Tim had started his speech in a self -deprecating
way, saying that overseas conferences like these
he has to explain what Director General means,
since virtually nobody knows. Apparently the
usual reaction is, what, so you're in charge
of the whole thing? Later that day, he came to
find me, to apologise for having to leave early
the next morning. That's the BBC's CEO... the
man in charge of, by some measures, the biggest
broadcaster in the world, who spent time to come
and find me, an insignificant guy who writes
a podcast newsletter for a living, and this newsletter
for fun. And that made me feel quite special.
Having worked at the BBC at the same time as
Tim Davey, I was in two meetings with him during
my entire career. And... And... No, if you're
expecting me to opine about the BBC's current
crisis, there'll be none of that. I would just
gently point out that the public of the UK pay
£3 .8 billion a year for the BBC. 84 % of UK
adults use the BBC every week. 70 % of them thinks
it does a good job. 62 % of them still believe
BBC News is trustworthy in spite of every other
media source telling them otherwise. every single
day. So if Donald Trump really thinks that he
deserves $5 billion of the UK's public money
because he was badly edited, well, he needs to
give his head a wobble. In Australia, Southern
Cross Austereo has launched a radio service called
Heart. And if you're expecting to be able to
turn up the feel -good and enjoy a version of
the vibrant heart from the UK, then you'll be
disappointed. It's a non -stop music service
promising interruption -free music with no talk,
as long as you don't count the constant voiceovers
between every song as either talk or interruptions.
I'm speaking at Radio Days Europe next March
about the future of radio, and as part of that,
I've got opinions. about this sort of thing.
If you want to hear a 30 -minute telescope of
SCA's heart, then you can find one in my blog,
which you'll find linked from the show notes
today. A fun game is to count the number of different
positioning statements in that 30 minutes of
telescope's heart. I counted nine. Here's a little
clip of one of their music positioners. You're
listening to your heart. Relaxation. heart plays
your relaxing soundtrack to a calmer day escape
and unwind with heart's non -stop music variety
and no talk listen to your heart Oh, sorry, I
nodded off for a minute there. In the US, podcasting
is probably the hottest category of media right
now. That's according to none other than iHeart
CEO Bob Pittman. iHeart Media announced its financial
report for quarter three twenty five. Podcast
revenue grew twenty two point five percent year
on year to one hundred and thirty nine point
seven million US dollars. About half of iHeart's
podcasting advertising revenue came from iHeart's
local sales force, and that figure was just 11
% in Q3 2020. Podcasting contributed a record
14 % to the business's revenue, and Pittman said,
we believe we have the most profitable podcasting
business in the United States. However, the multi
-platform group which runs the radio stations
saw revenue down 5%. The company announced an
additional $50 million of savings for next year.
Now, I covered AI -powered news last week, not
particularly positively, but in the UK, Bauer
are now producing AI -voiced travel news bulletins,
working with INRIX. Bauer produces seemingly
100 different versions of Greatest Hits Radio,
if I've counted them correctly. and about 40
versions of Hitz Radio, which is their top 40
brand. Theoretically, at breakfast, this system
could deliver more than 300 properly local travel
bulletins in just one hour. As I understand it,
the news is still humanly produced. It just uses
AI voices. And for what it's worth, I think this
is precisely what AI is good for, leading to
better, more local information. I think it's
quite impressive, particularly impressive when
you listen to a little bit of audio. Laurie Fire
has closed the A1 northbound from St Neots to
Little Paxton with diversions via the A428 towards
Cambridge, A1198 towards Godman Chester and A14
back to the A1. The A47 is partially blocked
eastbound at Cromwell Road in Wisbeach due to
an accident. There are 10 -minute delays on the
A1101 Elm High Road at the Elm Hall roundabout
in Wisbeach, while queues on the A16 southbound
at the A47 in Eye are causing 10 -minute delays.
minute delays that's the latest travel with the
rail app the home of hits radio music radio podcast
download the rail app now nice to hear a northeastern
accent as well on the radio too Now, in the UK,
Jet, the radio trading system, has added digital
audio trading, including podcasts, to its tool.
It's working with Global's DAX and Bauer's AudioXI.
Jet is a pretty cool thing, actually. It's been
digitally trading linear radio since 2002, and
it handles more than 98 % of national radio sales
in the country. In the US, the opposite is happening,
and buying platform StackAdapt announced an integration
with iHeartMedia to incorporate broadcast radio
into its programmatic ad planning tools that
people are currently using for podcasts. Interesting
times for both, nonetheless. In Canada, TuneIn
has been acquired by Canadian broadcaster Stingray
for as much as US $175 million. TuneIn maintains
live radio and podcast databases used by companies
like Apple, Google and auto manufacturers, but
has made multiple layoffs over the past few years
and removed the ability for podcasters to submit
new podcasts into its database in February 2024.
I'm quite excited to see new life breathed into
TuneIn. would note that TuneIn's ads are sold
in the US by iHeart. Stingray is a competitor
of iHeart in Canada. In Australia, ARN issued
a trading update warning that profit for this
year is likely to be down 27 % and that October
ad revenue is down 10 % year on year. In June,
radio competitor SCA reported 5 % in year -on
-year revenue growth, while ARN reported at the
time a 7 % decline in revenue. You'd have to
assume that the mad fudging witches, as I call
them on this podcast, they are running a campaign
against Kyle and Jackie O. That has resulted
in more than 540 advertisers withdrawing from
the show. And it also means that many radio stations
who take the Kyle and Jackie O power hour, which
is... an hour show that ARN provides across their
network, are doing it entirely ad -free these
days. Now, that presumably is having quite some
effect on the revenue. ARN says it's going to
make more cuts, by the way. Meanwhile, Kyle and
Jackie O are still trousering $20 million a year.
Speaking of which, breaking news, ACMA has acted
against Kyle and Jackie O. No, wait, they've
proposed action against Kyle and Jackie O. And
the action they've proposed is that ARN has to
follow the existing rules as a licence condition.
Now, literally, that is it. It's now up to ARN
to respond to ACMA's proposal by December 3rd.
And then ACMA will think about their response.
And then presumably next year at some point,
ACMA will formally suggest that ARN must now
follow the rules or else. Now, if this seems
utterly pointless to you, as I understand it,
ACMA actually lacks any authority to do anything
unless it's a breach of a license condition.
And the existing CRA code of practice isn't actually
a licence condition. It's just a gentleman's
agreement of what commercial radio will do. And
I link to the commercial radio codes of practice
and, for good measure, the community radio codes
of practice as well from the newsletter this
week. You might ask yourself why the Australian
industry's codes of practice aren't de facto
licence conditions, as I did, but who knows?
I've asked ACMA about this via their public email
address and got no response. And if they have
a press office, well, it's very well hidden.
from the press. Anyway, judging by Kyle's reaction,
it seems that this could be quite serious. Now
he's been told to follow the rules, Kyle is incensed,
calling them fake complaints and threatening
to leave. We can only hope. Meanwhile, radio
expert Wade Kingsley, who supports this very
newsletter, agrees with Kyle and thinks that
any attempt to curb the obscenities he feeds
his audience, 16 % of whom are kids, is, quotes,
censorship. I would agree if Kyle wasn't using
public spectrum. He can do what he likes online,
but if you've been gifted public spectrum, which
is there for everyone, you should at least attempt
public decency. And by the way, ARN is gifted
it. Commercial radio normally pays for access
to public radio spectrum under the commercial
broadcasting tax, which is $51 ,000 a year per
transmitter for high density areas. That's about
25 ,000. or US $33 ,000. This year, though, there's
no charge for reasons of temporary relief, which
reminds me of the contents of one of Carl's segments.
And thank you to Radioland reader Henry for three,
three coffees. He says, I discovered your newsletter
inadvertently. and your coverage of the shifting
BBC landscape has kept my interest. Thanks for
all that you do. Well, thank you, Henry. That's
good of you. Buymeacoffee .com slash James Cridland
is where to buy me a coffee, just like Henry
did. Next, I'm speaking at Radio Days Europe
in Riga in Latvia in March. I know. Still not
on a plane. It's brilliant. And I can now tell
you the title and description of my talk, if
you're interested. And this will probably come
as a surprise to the organisers who want to listen
to this. But anyway, the title is The Future
of Audio is People Powered. The way people consume
media is changing. James Cridland, the radio
futurologist. That's me. takes a look at global
trends in radio and on -demand. How will we listen?
On which devices? How can we make our outputs
truly unique? How do we do it in a resource -efficient
way? And what part does video play in the future
of audio? In this wide -ranging session, bringing
together data from North America, Asia, Australia
and Europe, we'll learn why the future is bright,
as long as we understand why our audience comes
to us in the first place. Blimey, I'd go. Anyway,
RadioDaysEurope .com for your tickets if you
wish to do that. I've never been to Latvia before.
Looking forward to it. I better book the plane
ticket. I say that every week. I should probably
get on with it. And thank you to the supporters
who support this very podcast and the newsletter
every single week. Meliora. Thank you to you,
Mr. Dickens et al. Also, Wade Kingsley, the wrongly
headed creative coach. The good folks at Media
Realm. Media Results Inc. and Radio King. All
of those fine, fine people. Along with Greg Strassel,
Sam Phelps. Or is it Greg Strassel? I should
find out one day. Richard Hilton, Emma Gibbs,
Jocelyn Abbey and James Masterton for being regular
supporters. If you would like to support my work
in any way, you can buy me a coffee, become a
member to give regularly, or just give a one
-off coffee or five, then that's absolutely fine.
Buymeacoffee .com slash James Credland. And if
you don't feel that you have to, absolutely fine.
Please, if you can, that would be awesome too.
And please do follow me on Mastodon, on the Fediverse,
james at bne .social. That's B -N -E for Brisbane.
james .bne .social. And my website has more details
about who I am, what I do, and whether I can
help you further. That is at james .cridland
.net. And until next time, keep listening.