Hello, I'm James Cridland, the radio futurologist,
and this is Radioland, my radio trends newsletter.
And this podcast is sponsored by RSS .com. RSS
.com now has a fully featured API, so it couldn't
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money with advertising on it as well. You'll
find more information at RSS .com. Now it was
excellent to have been on 666 ABC Radio Canberra
on Monday to talk about ABC Radio Perth's switch
to FM earlier next year. As you'll recall, I'm
in favour of all ABC local radio stations in
capital cities like Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne,
Canberra, all broadcasting on FM. It's always
a little difficult to talk about the disadvantages
of AM on an AM station. But I think Alice did
a good job steering me through and dealing with
a mixed bag of reactions. Of course, AM listeners
love AM after all, especially when you get a
former engineer calling in who uses the word
propagation in his first sentence. You know it's
going to be an interesting half hour. Many of
the callers made the same point that AM reaches
further. It does, of course. It's harder to blanket
a country like Australia with FM, undoubtedly.
But for capital city radio, range isn't the issue.
To replace 666 kHz in Canberra with an FM signal
would cover the vast majority of the population
on a waveband people actually use. And as I've
repeated relatively often, radio broadcasts are
only good if people have the radio to pick them
up. and that's increasingly where AM radio is
failing. Tomorrow morning, I'm on ABC Radio Brisbane
at 7 .40am local time, and then, confusingly,
on ABC Perth and WA at 6 .15am local time. I
know, time zones. Here's hoping I do okay on
both. And if you want to go and have a listen
to the audio from ABC Radio Canberra, be my guest.
You'll find it on the website version of this
podcast. which you'll find linked in the show
notes. In the US, the AM for Every Vehicle Act,
which mandates AM radio receivers in cars, has
been watered down to last eight years rather
than 10. It's been waiting since April to be
voted on. I linked to the versions for Congress
and the versions for Senate. I don't really understand
why they're different. but then I don't really
understand anything about American law. And clearly
no lawyer, but the requirement is in the law
to receive signals and play content transmitted
by AM broadcast stations and then gives a definition
of an AM broadcast station as being something
which has been licensed by the FCC. Now, I don't
see anything in this law actually requiring an
actual AM receiver or anything requiring that
the AM broadcast band is receivable. in its entirety.
So I do wonder whether some car manufacturers
might just gently point out, yeah, you can listen
to the stations available on FM, you can listen
to content transmitted by AM broadcast stations
through this tune -in integration. I mean, that
would work, wouldn't it? Another thing, and I'd
not spotted this before, but there's also a requirement
in the law for a study on how effective AM broadcasting
actually is for emergencies. and whether some
other technology is better to reach at least
90 % of Americans in time of crisis, including
at night. All the big US mobile phone carriers
claim to cover well over 99 % of the US population.
So let's hope that they don't discover mobile
phone alerts. Also in the US, President Donald
Trump. is considering charging broadcasters for
their use of the public spectrum. I link to the
social media post in question. Now, that's the
case in some parts of the world. In Australia,
the government abolished broadcasting licence
fees in 2017. This year, temporarily waived the
chances, the charges for broadcast spectrum.
My suspicion is they will continue to waive that
because it's a lot of money to pay and I don't
think broadcasters can afford it anymore. And
talking about broadcasters, here's Brisbane Radio
Corner. I know, but it's left to the end, so
you can skip this bit if you want to. A three
-minute drive from ARN's studios in Brisbane,
which is the owner, of course, of Kiss 97 .3,
is the 4X Brewery, which makes one of Australia's
top -selling beers. But if anyone from ARN invites
you to a party there, it's becoming increasingly
clear that they couldn't organise one. Kiss 97
.3, which is Brisbane's number one hit music
station. And I know what you're thinking. You're
thinking, but James, B105 is Brisbane's number
one hit music station. It says so all the time.
Yes, I know. But Kiss 97 .3 is also Brisbane's
number one hit music station. They say that all
the time. How can you have more than one hit
music station? I don't know. But they've both
managed it somehow. Anyway, Kiss 97 .3, Brisbane's
number one hit music station. Said an emotional
adieu to Robin, Kip and Corrie from their breakfast
show on November the 28th. I linked to some audio
from the website. Strange time to leave November
the 28th, isn't it? I mean, that's mid -survey
eight. There's another two weeks still to run.
Anyway, Craig Lowy Lowe was limbering up for
a breakfast show on the station where he'd undoubtedly
have got Lowy lower audience figures, but would
have come with a Lowy lower talent bill. So that's
probably OK. Robin, Kip and Corrie's production
team of 10 people have all been looking for new
jobs since, and most of the production team have
been snapped up by other radio broadcasters in
the area, which is great to see. Although a strange
decision for ARN to only start hiring for Craig
Lowy Lowe's producer on November 27th, given
his new show had been announced on October 29th.
And then this week, ARN changed their mind, announcing
Robin, Kip and Corrie are returning in January.
Imagine being the person who had to renegotiate
that deal. Goodness, what a mess. And what an
awful way to treat your talent. Without many
of their experienced production team, though,
it'll be hard to get up and running again. Craig
Lowy Lowe will have a Lowy Lowe profile doing
a national evening. show on the KISS network.
It'll be, I mean, you know, who knows whether
he'll come from Brisbane or come from Sydney,
though his brief tenure at SCA saw him in Sydney.
So it probably makes sense that he'd move a little
lower down the country. I'll stop doing this
joke. Robin Bailey said on a social post, we
will see you from 5 .30am on January the 19th.
with some more really exciting news about who
we are and what we're going to do. That's a strange
thing to say, isn't it? We know who you are.
We know what you're going to do. That's the very
reason you've been hired back. So what's really
going on here? I don't think this story's done.
Also happening on January 19th, Christian O 'Connell
starts simulcasting into Sydney on Gold 101 .7.
and into Brisbane and Adelaide on gold on DAB+.
Now, where am I speaking next? I am speaking
next at Podfest in Orlando in Florida, which
may be why I didn't comment on the conversations
earlier in the US. Anyway, yes, I'll be talking
about where we've been, where we're going. I
will also be on stage doing the new media show,
which should be fun. So looking forward to doing
that, which has reminded me that I haven't put
that into my diary yet, so I should probably
do that. I've also put myself forward to speak.
There's an inventors session, which is probably
run by one of these inventor companies who will
then buy your idea and sell it for, you know,
hundreds of things. Anyway, I am going to talk
about location -based podcasting. um where which
is already an open standard and so therefore
there's nothing to actually own but i'm going
to talk about it anyway hopefully if they let
me so that might be fun um but anyway uh looking
forward to being in orlando he lies and um that
should be fun uh january the 15th to the 18th
at podfest and then at radio days europe in riga
in latvia where I will be. I think I'm getting
there on March the 20th. But the event is March
the 22nd to the 24th. And the reason why I know
when I'm getting there is I've finally booked
the flights. Finally, after all this time. Anyway,
I'll be talking about the future of audio being
people -powered and how we'll listen to radio
in the future on what devices and how we can
make our output truly unique. It'll be 40 minutes
of... me talking. So that'll be fun. I'd go to
that. And so should you. RadioDays .com is where
to buy tickets for that. And thank you so much
to the many supporters of this podcast and of
the newsletter, including Clyde Broadcast, the
radio people, Wade Kingsley, the creative coach
who has something to announce and now doesn't.
So who knows what's going on there. Soma FM and
Meliora. The excellent Clive Dickens will also
be at Radio Days Europe, I notice. Thank you
also to Craig Strassel, Sam Phelps, Richard Hilton,
Emma Gibbs, Jocelyn Abbey and James Masterton.
Oh, I should thank Rupert Brunn. Where's Rupert
Brunn? Oh, there he is. Brunn Audio Consulting
Limited. Yes, I should thank him too. You're
all regular supporters. Thank you so much. If
you would like to support my work in any way,
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time, keep listening.