Hello, I'm James Cridland, the radio futurologist,
and this is Radioland, my weekly radio newsletter.
It's January the 27th, 2026, and this podcast
is sponsored by rss .com. rss .com is a very
good podcast host, which you should go and have
a look at. It includes a little program called
Paid, which helps you get paid for your podcast.
I know, amazing. Now, in Australia, the ABC is
coming off the iHeartRadio app. It's operated
in the country by ARN. Radio Info has covered
the news with a familiar set of reasons, rights
issues and audience data, both of which are,
I would suggest, red herrings. The rights issues
are already covered by the ABC. If you listen
to ABC Local Radio online during sports coverage,
you get alternative programming anyway. and the
ABC's streaming servers get full streaming data
from listeners, however they tune in. For now,
the ABC's radio stations are also available on
Radio App, the CRA's uninspired copy of Radio
Player. They've never been on Listener, as far
as I can see. Now, I understand that the ABC
got free carriage on the iHeart app, so this
isn't a cost -saving exercise. Instead, it's
relatively clear what's up, I think. The ABC
is planning to restrict access to its radio stations
online from anything other than its own ABC Listen
app. Now, the ABC Listen app doesn't require
login currently, but it's almost impossible to
get into the app without registering and there
are plenty of reasons why it's a good idea. That
then gives lots of data about listeners to the
ABC to help them. But it's a bit disappointing
seeing the ABC, which is currently enjoying among
its worst ever audience shares, willfully making
it even harder to tune into its stations. So
let's hope it's only a temporary change. All
Australians pay for it, after all. There again,
nobody ever lost their job by copying the BBC.
Congratulations to Christian O 'Connell. who
has done over a week now on his new national
breakfast show in Australia. His show on Gold
Brisbane sounds technically flawless, with the
nicest traffic guy you could ever wish for, by
the way. The show is time -delayed by an hour,
which I can only assume means it'll be rare to
hear anyone call from Brisbane, but he's much
as I remember him, warm, friendly and respectful
of the listeners. However, let's hope nobody's
trying to tune in on the Gold Brisbane website,
which I will read to you because it's brilliant.
The website is brisbane .thegoldwebsite .com
.au. Yes, thegoldwebsite .com .au. Wow. Anyway,
if you try using that, well, it doesn't have
a working audio player. It's got a listen live
button, but it doesn't do anything when you touch
it. It's not either got any details of how to
tune in, which seems... which seems a bit of
an issue. In case you're wondering, it's on DAB
+, which a third of Australians use every single
week, a higher figure than the iHeart app, which
is also bewilderingly not referenced. Bewilderingly,
I should say. And by the way, as a fun fact,
when Christian was on Virgin Radio, which he
was in the UK, the How to Listen page was the
number two most trafficked page after the Listen
Live page, which was number one. Also, the iHeartRadio
page for Gold Brisbane says just great hits,
but when you listen to the radio station, they
say just great songs. One of those is not like
the other. Congratulations to Vinnie Lowe for
the 25th anniversary of the Radio Feeds website
at radiofeeds .co .uk. Some people might say
it looks 25 years old as well, but it works and
it works very well. If you want to listen to
any UK or Irish radio station, I can only guess
at how much work it is to keep it all updated.
On radio feeds, I noticed that Petersfield's
Shine Radio has just begun broadcasting on DAB,
on the small -scale East Hampshire DAB Multiplex,
which is now in testing. A proper local radio
station run by volunteers with quite the range
of programming. It's probably worth a listen.
When I tuned in just now, one of the local school
kids told me the time, which is a really clever
idea. Just record school kids telling you the
time. Great plan. AM. It's time for the AM Death
Watch Corner. And in Japan, NHK Radio 2 is to
close on March 31st. NHK operates two national
AM stations. It was decided to close Radio 2
in 2021. It was specifically funded as an educational
radio station with language courses and other
educational programmes like Junior High School
Basic English Level 1 and 2. and Radio Business
English, Portuguese for Beginners, Time for Religion,
and Visual Impairment Navi Radio. NHK has been
slowly moving some of these educational and language
programmes from Radio 2 over to NHK's FM station
and to NHK Radio 1, which will continue on AM,
although it will get a new name, I understand.
Europe R, which is a news and talk station, has
launched a television channel last month. Europe
R TV is free to air on Astra 19 .2 East. I can't
find a web stream of it, though, although I do
link to a clip of Europe R live on Canal Plus's
CNews. I hope I pronounced that right. Anyway,
it's a right -leaning, rolling news channel in
France. A competitor, BFM, a business news station,
started in 1991 on FM but added a full, rolling
news channel in 2005. And a business channel...
shoot in 2010. And whenever I've seen BFM, I've
been struck by the way it sounds like a radio
station but looks like a TV channel. It's a nice
trick if you can. Perhaps some podcasters might
find that useful too, just saying. And last week
I suggested that US broadcasters were asking
the FCC to make it easier to switch their AM
stations to FM. That wasn't entirely correct.
They're asking for it to be easier to simulcast
their AM service to FM as well, which is known
in US speak as a translator. Now, while the vast
majority of listeners will indeed switch to FM,
I oversimplified, so apologies for that. But
if you do remember the WJLX stolen AM mast, there
are at least some radio stations in the US quietly
turning their AM transmitter off in favour of
the FM translator doing all the work, which,
by the way, is illegal. Now, where am I speaking
next? I am speaking at Radio Days Europe in Riga
in Latvia in March. I'm talking about the future
of audio being people powered. I'm not panicking
at all because I haven't written it yet. No,
there's no panic going on there. But it will
be a great thing. I'm at the end of the first
day. So no excuse for not coming. I think I'm
in the third stream and you can come. and see
me there. The podcast show also, I am speaking,
I am opening up the event and also recording
a Pod News weekly review live on stage at the
end of the event as well. And that will be not
hidden away in a tiny little room, by the way.
I think there's something exciting going on there.
So I'm looking forward to that. Thank you to
Greg Strassel and Sam Phelps and Richard Hilton
and Emma Gibbs and Jocelyn Abbey and James Masterton
for being regular supporters. Thank you also
to the good folks at Play It Software, at Media
Realm and at Brunn Audio Consulting for your
kind support as well. I should also thank RCS
who... have a little banner in the newsletter
version of this. So thank you, RCS, for signing
again for another year. That's very good of you.
So thank you so much. If you would like to support
my work in any way, you can buy me a coffee.
You can become a member to give regularly or
just give a one -off coffee or five. You can
do that at buymeacoffee .com slash James Cridland.
I'm on, I said blue sky here at james .crid .land.
I'm really not on blue sky. I tell you what,
let's go in and edit that right now while we
talk so that I don't end up saying it again.
I'm on, edit, I'm on Mastodon as james .bne .social.
You should come and follow me there. That would
be a lovely thing. And my website has more details
about who I am, what I do, and whether I can
help you further. You will find that at james
.cridland .net. And until next time, keep listening.