WEBVTT

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Hello, I'm James Cridland, the radio futurologist,

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and this is Radioland, my international radio

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trends newsletter for February the 1st, 2026.

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This podcast is sponsored by rss .com, which

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is a great podcast host. It's got an API so you

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can get stuff from your play out system directly

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into a podcast from that. And it's also got a

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thing called paid so you can get advertising

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in there and pay its way as well. It's very good.

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rss .com is where to go. Your emergency broadcaster.

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You've probably heard that line from radio. And

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I've often been a little bit nervous about shouting

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that radio works during emergencies when others

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don't. In Portugal, on January the 28th, one

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of the big masts in the country operated by RDP

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was brought down. by strong winds as part of

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Storm Christine, which pulled eight FM radio

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stations off the air. And after a grass fire

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near Bendigo, large parts of regional Victoria

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in Australia lost access to all of their television

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and most of their radio stations after two transmission

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sites caught fire, impacting as many as 356 ,000

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people. Yes, there are temporary lower power

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transmitters. now in place, but when we say that

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broadcast radio is resilient in emergencies,

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what we often mean is that broadcast radio has

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one point of failure, better than others perhaps,

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but all you need is that one thing to fail. Multi

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-platform radio, which is certainly the future,

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mitigates this somewhat. US broadcaster Odyssey

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has removed a number of third -party podcasts

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from its radio and podcast app, including my

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own PodNews Weekly review, which used to be there.

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An Odyssey spokesperson told PodNews, which I

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also run, we've removed a number of lower -engagement

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third -party podcasts from the app, which accounted

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for a very small percentage of overall listening.

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But I'm sure they weren't talking about my show.

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Last week, it was reported that the ABC in Australia

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were coming off the iHeart app in the country.

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From what I can work out, the ABC in Australia

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is also coming off TuneIn shortly, according

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to a conversation I've seen between ABC audience

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support and a listener. They're coming off iHeart

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and TuneIn quotes for quite a variety of reasons

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around fault resolution and licensing. According

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to the ABC audience support person, in my book,

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if you're a radio broadcaster that everyone in

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Australia pays for, I don't have a choice where

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my tax goes, then you should be available for

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your audience in as many ways possible. Consistency

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isn't the ABC's strong point. It'll remain on

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radio app, apparently. Anyway, it's a disappointing

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decision. and it'll harm the ABC's audience figures

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long term. One of the biggest Brisbane radio

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names has been reportedly forced away from the

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ABC. after apparently falling foul of its conflict

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of interest policy. Spencer Howson is said to

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have been offered a permanent slot on Saturday

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breakfast for ABC Radio Brisbane, but only if

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he walked away from one of his Monday to Friday

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jobs as a media trainer for a company called

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Media Potential. A potential workaround that

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he'd not interview anyone he'd trained wasn't

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deemed acceptable. Consistency isn't the ABC's

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strong point. Chanel Vela, who co -hosts ABC

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Radio Melbourne's Monday to Friday breakfast

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show, hardly a part -time gig, is also a media

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trainer. Anyway, it's a disappointing decision

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and it'll harm the ABC's audience figures long

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term. The FCC has told broadcasters that if a

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candidate appears on a talk programme, they may

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require equal time for other candidates. according

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to media lawyer David Oxenford. The ruling appears

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to target shows like Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen

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Colbert. Now, Letterman was once broadcast on

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the radio. I don't know whether these shows still

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are these days, but it's certainly something

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to be aware of for radio as well. Howard Stern

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has also got a mention in terms of this too.

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Thank you. retains full editorial control over

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the final selection. It's worth comparing Radio

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France's strategy with the BBC's. The BBC puts

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selected first run shows onto BBC Sounds before

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anyone else, but the archive is available to

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all. Radio France puts all of its stuff everywhere,

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but keeps the archive within the Radio France

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app only. One difference, here's another one,

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the BBC either commissions shows for itself or

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very occasionally licenses old versions of third

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-party shows for BBC Sounds. Radio France seems

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to have a different view here as well, although

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I don't see anything in the PIA's press release

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talking about money or about advertising, so

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I wonder how that works. The former breakfast

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show on Hot 97 in New York, Ebro in the Morning,

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has popped up as one of the first signings for

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Creator X. who call themselves a creator -led

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advertising exchange. It's run by a man called

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Matty Stout, who is managing director of CreatorX.

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who I've been pronouncing Matty Stout for the

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last three years. But when I chatted to him at

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Podfest a couple of weeks ago, it turns out it's

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Matty Stout. So now I know. Anyway, he said in

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a statement, the creators today are operating

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as independent media companies. Our role is to

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provide the infrastructure and advertising access

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that allows talent to scale without sacrificing

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control. Now, radio might have quite a talent

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drain on its hands if it doesn't get this sort

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of thing right. It's clearly behind many of iHeart's

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savvy deals to work with their talent on networks

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like the Black Effect podcast network, which

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is a joint venture between Charlemagne the God,

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a syndicated radio host, and iHeartMedia itself.

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Hot 97, on the other hand, is owned by Mediaco,

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which appears to be doing nothing in the podcast

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space at all. apart from a show called Ebro in

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the Morning, which they obviously no longer have.

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Not quite sure what's going to go on there then.

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And at last, a radio group that can organise

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a piss -up in a brewery. The big commercial radio

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talk stations in Australia, 2GB Sydney and 3AW

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Melbourne. as well as the less big, 4BC Brisbane

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and 6PR Perth, have been sold by Nine Networks

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to a man called Arthur Laundie for 56 million

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Australian, that's 39 million US dollars. Mr

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Laundie owns 40 pubs in New South Wales, and

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he's worth 1 .75 billion dollars. So these radio

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stations cost him small change, he presumably

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found behind the pokey machines. Seven years

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ago, Nine took control of the group at a valuation

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of $275 million. Hmm, $56 million, not really

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a massive return, is it? Now, most media commentators

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have talked about whether this is an acquisition

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that will pass the pub test, but I won't be doing

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that. Talk has much more of a future than music

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-intensive radio, in my book anyway, though these

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are old stations with old audiences. And those

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stations used to stream live video online throughout

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all of their programming, but those streams were

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yanked a few weeks ago for some reason, which

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is weird. And thank you, ARN, for listening.

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I mentioned last week that the iHeartRadio app

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said that Gold Brisbane played just great hits.

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although the radio station said that they played

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just great songs. Anyway, I spent about two hours

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for this newsletter to go out last week before

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that was hastily changed. So thank you for listening,

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ARN, and I'm loving what you're doing with gold,

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I should just clarify. Now, where am I speaking

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next? I am speaking in New Delhi in India in

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early February, although I'm doing that on a

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video. I'd like to go to Delhi, actually. It'd

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be fun. I've never been. But video, it will be.

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I will be talking about the future of radio and

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AI's part in it. I'm busy trying to work out

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how excited I want to be with the video and whether

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or not I go anywhere or whether I just sit here

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at my desk and record it like everybody is going

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to guess that I will. So who knows? Looking forward

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to that. Also looking forward to Radio Days Europe

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in Riga in Latvia. One of the things I'm doing.

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Peter, is I'm doing a talk about the future of

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audio being people powered. Very much looking

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forward to that. It's the end of the first day.

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Highly recommend that you come. It will be excellent.

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And also, you know, mark the speech very highly

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in the survey. That would be kind of you. No,

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thank you for that. And very much looking forward

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to being there and very much looking forward

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to learning. Anything else that I might be doing

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for Radio Days Europe, it's a fantastic event

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and you should be going to radiodayseurope .com

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is where you can buy tickets. And I'll also be

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talking at the podcast show in London in May,

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doing a keynote, doing a Pod News Weekly review

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live. The show's so good that Odyssey got rid

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of it and various other things as well. That

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is a great show too and you should definitely

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be there. And thank you to our many supporters,

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including Studio with Two Eyes, including Wade

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Kingsley, the often right, often wrong creative

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coach. Rupert Brunn from Brunn Audio Consulting

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Limited and Clyde Broadcast, the radio people.

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Thank you to you for your support. Also, thank

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you to Greg Strassel, Sam Phelps, Richard Hilton,

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Emma Gibbs, Jocelyn Abbey and James Masterton

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for being regular supporters. You, yes, you can

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support my work by buying me a coffee. buymeacoffee

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.com slash jamescridland if you would like to

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give a one -off coffee or you can give regularly

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on there as well and that's a lovely thing you'll

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find me on mastodon at james at bne .social and

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my website has more details about who I am what

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I do and whether I can help you further and until

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next time keep listening