Hello, I'm James Cridland, the radio futurologist,
and this is Radioland, my weekly radio trends
newsletter. It's obviously just had a week off
for Christmas, and normally I'd wait until next
week to send out the first Radioland of the year,
but there's already too much news, so here we
are, and happy new year to you. This is Radio
Centre's last year and closures as we move into
2026, and this podcast is sponsored by rss .com.
Now, I've long been impressed at Radio Centre
in the UK. It's a vibrant trade body for the
radio industry, which is probably a good reason
why UK radio is so well thought of and so successful.
And they've just published their annual review
2025, which is only two pages, but there's a
lot there. If you're not in the UK, can you say
that your own trade organisation has done as
much as Radio Centre has in the past year? Now
here's a new radio station in Montgomery in Alabama.
Turn your radios up. What if your radio station
actually listened to what you play? The new Streams
100 .5 is powered by what you stream. Every song,
every week. Hey. Yo, it's your boy Chris. Hey,
guys. It's your big party. We track millions
of local streams right here in Montgomery and
turn your choices into the city's unique playlist.
You pick the hits. We put them on the air. Hey,
what's up? This is SZA. What up? This is Drake.
Streams 100 .5. Powered by what you play. Well,
it's an interesting idea. It's choosing its entire
playlist based on music streaming stats for the
city. The station says it's a first ever. It's
using a service called StreamStats from Bridge
Ratings. And if the data is filtered for the
age group that this station is aiming for, then
it sounds like an interesting way to produce
a music policy. Although if it just offers the
same music you can get on your streaming device,
but with horrible ads and no way to skip the
bad songs, then I kind of wonder why you'd want
to tune in. Christian O 'Connell's new national
breakfast show here in Australia starts on Sydney's
Gold 101 .7 later this month, but he did a week
in Sydney just for Sydney before Christmas. A
bit of a baptism of fire given his week was directly
after the atrocity in Bondi Beach, but Christian
is a professional broadcaster who knew how to
pitch things. So I'm aware that some of you might
be tuning in right now going, who is this? Please
tell me the radio's broken. It's not an English
guy, is it? It's the last thing we need this
week. It's an uninvited Englishman suddenly on
the radio. I'm Christian O 'Connell, and we are
the show that is going to be replacing Jonesy
and Amanda. And the good news for you guys is
you're going to have two great shows come January
on this radio station. We're going to be waking
you up, and then Jonesy and Amanda are going
to be taking you home. This is going to be some
radio station for Australia. Now, the whole thing
is going to be available as a podcast. And you'll
recall that Smartmaster Kyle didn't even bother
going to Melbourne before his launch. So already
Christian seems to be doing things well. Now,
clearly, ARN is missing a trick by not putting
this show onto 97 .3 in Brisbane. It will, though,
be on DAB +, which a third of Australians use
every week in the cap cities. Gold would be a
clear market leader given an FM frequency, but
instead ARN is using KISS 97 .3 to compete against
two other top 40 format stations on FM, leaving
the only oldies FM outlet. to the tired, sports
-infused Dad Rock Triple M, and nothing else
grown up for anyone over the age of 35. Gold
97 .3 is the obvious choice, and as a Christmas
present ARN, I've bought gold973 .com .au for
you. It's all safe and sound for when you launch.
Just ask gold973 .com .au, which weirdly already
works. In Canada, Numeris published some listening
trends for quarter 3 .25. There's more listening
to radio at home. And Edison Research has actually
said something similar about at -home audio listening
in the US as well. Average weekly hours per listener
is also listed in the data. Most markets are
up. Radio streaming accounts for between 12 %
and 16 % of total radio audience through the
workday. Here we are in 2025 and live radio is
hitting a peak of just 16 % of total radio listening
online. Does Radio Player Canada or iHeartRadio
Canada or any of those apps only get 16 % of
all mentions on air? I bet it doesn't. I was
interested to be interviewed on ABC Radio Brisbane
and ABC Radio Perth about AM's future. and the
ABC Radio Perth switching to FM. You can listen
and watch to those. You'll find a link in the
newsletter version of this podcast. Also, Spotify
has added a playlist mix feature, which I've
tried, and it's fatally flawed, rather unfortunately.
Otherwise, it would be pretty good, but you can't
quite use it if you just want to make some nice
mixtapes, which is a bit of a shame. Now... Goodness,
there's been a lot of closures over the last
couple of weeks. For a start, MTV closed down
all of its music channels. Its last song, Video
Killed the Radio Star, of course, calmer. The
BBC interviewed Ray Cokes from MTV Europe. He
used to get 2 ,500 letters every day, he said.
It's quite a good interview. You should go and
take a peek at that. One of the things that he
says was kind of the death knell of MTV was when
it stopped being MTV Europe and it started having
UK versions and versions for Germany and versions
for France. And he said the community, which
had grown up, of people feeling very European
and feeling very much as if they were in touch
with everything, all of that community just went
away. And I think that's an interesting story
about radio, perhaps, as well. Now, while the
last 10 minutes of Absolute Radio on 12 .15 was
spent with a beautifully crafted piece of audio,
the last song played on MTV's music channel just
faded away, and it was replaced with a rotating
logo with some scrolling text, the first part
of which said, default text. Yes, if MTV meant
anything to you, it clearly didn't mean anything
to its final owners. In Ireland, RTE Plus, RTE
2XM, RTE Junior and RTE Radio 1 Extra, all closed.
I link to closing audio from 2XM. They played
Joy Division's Transmission and RTE Pulse, which
played Ultra Cynics' Nothing Is Forever. Nice
choices. Also closing audio from Radio 1 Extra,
which was very weird. It just ended with a back
announce of a just finished show by a continuity
announcer. You've just been listening to Democracy
Now! And then a few seconds of some rubbish jazz,
followed by a little Barker channel saying this
station is no longer broadcasting. What a graceless
finish that was. The stations were additional
services for DAB, but RTE closed its DAB services
in 2021. and those services have only been online
and via TV since. Notably though, RTE Gold is
continuing. I'll link to a lovely last column
from Perry Michael Simon, who's an excellent
writer about radio who'll be missed. He says
he'll be happily be bought lunch by anybody in
South Florida. I don't know him well enough to
ask. And when I'll be in Florida in a week or
so, he'll still be more than two hours drive
away. But I hope he enjoys not having to write
the thing every week. He's one of those that
really cares about the industry. And I wish him
a long and happy retirement. Now, more AM switch
-off news. In Colombia, Sports Talk National
Format Antenna 2 went off air on December 31st.
Its owner, RCN Radio, is also switching many
of its other AM services to FM, or switching
AM frequencies for Alerta, which is its local
network, and La FM, which is National Talk. Earlier
in the year, it made a significant reorganisation
of its stations, removing many local brands.
It's been going since 1949, RCN Radio. It's a
commercial broadcaster. It's owned by a company
that also owns soft drinks, textiles, a football
team, car dealers and farming equipment. In Thailand,
1 ,993 community FM frequencies were placed up
for auction. The government raised just over
$2 million from that auction, with 2 ,237 companies
participating. The most expensive licence in
the country was 94 .5 in Chiang Mai, which went
for US $44 ,500 for a five -year licence. In
Pattaya, the English -language Fabulous 103 FM
were only allowed to bid for two frequencies,
as Tommy D explains. Over the past few years,
the broadcasting authorities have been looking
at ways to change FM radio licensing. A few months
ago, they finally came up with a new system,
a kind of virtual lottery, officially described
as an auction. That process immediately reduced
the number of FM frequencies by about a third.
In simple terms, it became a game of musical
chairs, where it was guaranteed that roughly
a third of all stations would disappear. To make
matters worse, the list of frequencies up for
auction didn't include the one we'd been using
for decades. And we weren't alone. Many stations
across the country found themselves in the same
position. In our case, we were only allowed to
bid on two frequencies within the province. That
was it. No choice beyond that. Yes, and neither
of those were 103, which was a bit of a shame.
Now, one of those licenses went for $25 ,000
to another bidder. The station says, as you've
just heard, that the process has made a third
of all stations disappear. And from the 1st of
January, Fabulous 103 FM is now called Fabulous
Radio and it's been online only. And unconnected,
I think, in Bangkok, Tero Radio has closed after
35 years, according to an announcement on its
website. which partially reads, due to shifting
trends in media consumption, we have faced significant
challenges that have made it impossible for us
to continue. They ran four stations, including
Virgin Hits, more recently just Hits. I visited
their studios in 2010, and you'll find a blog
all about that linked from the newsletter. The
Thai radio industry is predicted to drop from
$76 million in ad revenue to $73 million in 2026.
but it's also a very difficult market to operate
in. FM signals are owned by the government, and
when I visited in 2010, the operators of the
stations had to pause every hour for state news.
Elsewhere, I also personally blogged about getting
Linux to work on an old MacBook, or not, a review
of the electric car I've been driving over the
last year, and a review of an email forwarding
solution, because of course I have. Where am
I speaking next? I'm speaking in three places.
Podfest in Orlando in Florida in just a couple
of weeks' time. One of my talks is going to be
where we've been and where we're going. A look
back at where we've come from, including last
year's podcast news and trends to help us understand
how podcasting is changing and how we should
be changing with it. It should be fun. If you
can be there, then that would be fantastic. I'm
also taking part in the new media show that week,
live from stage. The other people will be talking
about crappy TV, and I will be the only person
saying, but audio. Also, Radio Days Europe in
Riga in Latvia. The future of audio is people
-powered. I'll be talking a lot about where radio
is going and what we shouldn't. forget why the
future is bright as long as we understand why
our audience comes to us in the first place.
Very much looking forward to doing that. The
flights are all booked. You'll be glad to know.
So that's a good thing. And my first time in
Riga in Latvia, and that should be fun. And also
I will be speaking at the podcast show in London
in May. May the 20th to the 21st. That is a great
event if you have any interest in podcasting.
And frankly, even if you don't, you should still
turn up. It's relatively cheap to go. Well worth
taking a peek. Podcastshowlondon .com is, I think,
where you go to find tickets and stuff. And if
you read pod news, you'll find some money off
in there as well. And thank you to Great Dane
for 10 coffees. 10 coffees. He or she says, good
to see someone covering the subject I love. We
can't put James on the cover of the Rolling Stone,
but we can do better than Dr. Hook did by buying
five copies for their mothers. I've bought 10
for James. They're right. I don't know anything
about who Great Dane is. I would quite like to.
Buy me a coffee isn't telling me. So thank you
and do get in touch because it would be nice
to say thank you personally. Also, thank you
to Bennett Cobb, who contacted me with a lot
of information about the US's National Public
Warning System, which covers 90 % of the US population,
which assumes, of course, that the US population
own AM radio receivers, which I'm not so sure.
Anyway, I plan to write a little bit more about
that shortly. Thank you also to the many supporters
of this newsletter, including Admaster .info.
cloud -powered traffic and billing tools for
you, Brun Audio Consulting as well, Media Results
Inc. and Radio King, among others, and Wade Kingsley,
who is limbering up to be a competitor of mine
by the looks of things. Well, there you go. So
thank you to them. Thank you to Greg Strassel,
Sam Phelps, Richard Hilton, Emma Gibbs, Jocelyn
Abbey and James Masterton as well for being regular
supporters. If you would like to support my work
in any way, buy me a coffee. That would be lovely
at buymeacoffee .com slash James Credland. It's
easy for me to say, buymeacoffee .com slash jamescridland.
You'll find links in the newsletter as well.
If you'd like to follow me on the socials, then
you'll find me on threads, blue sky and on mastodon
as 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. You will find that website
at james .cridland .net or indeed radioland .email.
I know. And until next time, keep listening.