Hello, I'm James Cridland, the radio futurologist,
and this is Radioland, my weekly radio trends
newsletter. And it's February the 22nd. I'm going
to be talking about all kinds of things, including
radio in Sweden, and it's a special Australian
regulation news corner to come. But this podcast
is sponsored by rss .com. Podcast hosting that's
actually free. Unlimited episodes, unlimited
storage at rss .com. A familiar name has joined
as a regular supporter of this newsletter, Marty
from New York, a .k .a. Marty Edelstein. Now,
I've written about Marty on my blog all the way
back in 2007, arguing that every radio station
needed a Marty. He still pops up in my feeds
now and again, no longer actually in the 95 grind
in New York City, which must be a great relief
to him, but still listening to the UK's Virgin
Radio and the station that also replaced it on
some frequencies, Absolute Radio. He still comes
over to the UK every so often, I notice, from
his Facebook feed. So thank you, Marty. You can
support this newsletter if you like. Dear listener,
buymeacoffee .com slash James Cridland is where
to go. And for radio stations everywhere, get
yourself a Marty. Ray Jarre released its MIDAS
Winter 2025 survey. A lot of useful data in there,
all about audio listening in the UK. Adam Bally
has taken a look at the numbers. Radio's certainly
not dead. There's plenty of impressive numbers
in that report and also plenty of things for
us to think about. Radio Ready, it's a new website,
radioready .info, looks like an interesting campaign,
seemingly spearheaded by Bauer Media Group, but
with plenty of other partners as well, not one
of which has sent me a press release about it.
But it's a good place to find data and information
about how important radio is to have in the car.
The list of partners seems very European, with
the Australians also taking part. Nothing from
the rest of the world, though, particularly North
America, which seems a bit of a shame. The US
radio industry in particular seems aloof and...
about this sort of thing but surprised not to
see some Canadian participants at the very least.
Global aren't listed as a partner although they
kind of are through Radio Centre but they too
have done some nice work getting Global Player
into Android Automotive so it's available inside
a ton of different cars now. To be honest I'm
in two minds about whether the right thing to
do is to have separate players for each broadcaster
or work together on a more inclusive solution.
I guess it depends who you think you work for.
Do you work for radio or do you work for a specific
broadcaster? Well, I suppose you're going to
say you work for a specific broadcaster, in which
case, yeah, well, that's kind of how these things
are going to work, I suppose. AM Death Watch
section now and WGR AM 550 in Buffalo. It's a
sports station. And it probably won't be called
that anymore because it's to simulcast on both
104 .7 and 107 .7 in Buffalo. as well as more
stations move off the am band also today it's
a special day in perth as abc radio perth moves
to 102 .5 fm today i link to a nice two minute
piece about its am transmitter which will fall
silent in a couple of months the abc has also
run a number of pieces up to the switch off some
older voices welcoming the switch a look at some
of the history and an oddly defensive piece saying
that nothing will change with its programming
there's a sort of feeling that an FM broadcaster
is something slightly different to an AM broadcaster,
whereas in reality it's just all about the content,
isn't it? Anyway, the ABC has also covered Kalamunda
Community Radio, which needed to switch down
the dial as a result, and good on them for doing
that. Some impressive promotion of a podcast
I linked to today, but it strikes me that radio
stands to benefit even more from this sort of
thing, advertising on petrol pumps. As you put
the nozzle into the car, you get a little clip
of a podcast, which I thought, what a brilliant
idea, and also horrifying at the same time. But
it's pretty cool. You should check that one out.
And in Sweden... NRJ has lost its national FM
licence. There are three national stations in
Sweden. They used to be allocated based on the
highest bidder, but licences are now a beauty
parade from the Swedish media authority, who
made a decision to award two licences for music
channels and one for, quote, content that is
not currently represented on commercial radio.
And that one has gone to Aftonbladet, which is
a tabloid newspaper. the licence instead. So
NRJ will have to try to secure regional broadcasting
licences, which will be given out in a few months
instead. Rix FM and Bauer's Mix Megapol got the
other two, by the way. And I read that Afton
Bladet launched as a newspaper by criticising
the Swedish king, so he banned it. It then restarted
as a brand new publication called New Afton Bladet,
which the king banned. Then it relaunched again,
called newer Aftonbladet. Then the fourth Aftonbladet.
In total, it restarted 26 times before the King
decided to give up and stop banning it. That's
one way to get past the regulators. Speaking
of which, welcome to Australian Regulation News
Corner. At the end of this podcast, because who
knows who's going to find this interesting. Back
to the ACMA, Australia's lacklustre media regulator.
Last we heard, way back in November, Ackerman
said that they were minded to add licence conditions
to ARN's KISS stations in Sydney and Melbourne
after broadcasters Kyle and Jackie O repeatedly
broadcast immature filth on the air. Now, on
November the 12th, the proposed new conditions
were published and ARN had 21 days from notification
to, quotes, make representations. And if that's
21 working days, let's be generous, then that
means that December the 9th was the deadline.
for those representations. Now, the ACMA have
confirmed to me that ARN have indeed made those
representations. I foolishly agreed, or foolishly
assumed, I should say, that those representations
would be public, and I asked for a copy of them.
The ACMA's media department has clearly laughed
under their breath and ignored that request.
But anyway, what now? It's been more than two
months since the ACMA have heard from ARN. The
ACMA have a legal duty to regulate the Broadcast
Services Act 1992, which includes a requirement
to encourage providers of broadcasting services
to respect community standards in the provision
of programme material, something that ACMA has...
failed to do. And every day there are five hours
of Kyle and Jackie O broadcasting on those two
stations in question, and also an hour on many
other ARN stations. And yet, the ACMA sits on
its hands, paralysed by indecision. The authority
gave me this statement, the ACMA is considering
the licensees' representations and we will announce
the final additional licence conditions once
a decision is made. Now, Mumbrella reports that
the ACMA copped a grilling at Parliament earlier
this month, hardly surprisingly. I mean, it surely
can't take more than two and a half months to
reach a decision, a decision on something that
you have already made a decision on. But in the
meantime, CRA, which has a co -regulatory duty
in this country, have published a new code of
practice, which I mentioned a few weeks ago.
It contains a special care provision for when
children are likely to be in the car. care isn't
defined and the ACMA said in parliament that
this might mean warnings before certain segments
which to me sounds as if broadcasters can just
get away with a jaunty faux warning at 8 .05am
suggesting that the next 55 minutes might contain
adult themes because after all nobody will actively
tune in at 8 .06am will they? Ours is a proper
grown -up industry by the way. Now, where am
I speaking next? I'm speaking at Radio Days Europe
in Riga in Latvia. That is next. I am doing a
talk called The Future of Audio is People Powered.
Actually, I'm doing more than that. I'm doing
another thing as well, which I don't know if
I can tell you yet. But certainly my keynote
will be all about how the way people consume
media is changing and, frankly, what makes radio
truly unique. And what part does video play and
how do we do it in a resource efficient way?
Lots of data, lots of things to think about,
lots of reasons why you shouldn't be listening
to me in the first place as well. But I hope
to see you there. Riga and Latvia is where it'll
be March the 22nd to the 24th. RadioDaysEurope
.com is where to get those tickets for that.
And you should definitely do that. It is a real
highlight of the broadcasting. year in terms
of conferences and things and wrap up warm. Also,
I'm speaking at the podcast show in London, May
the 20th to the 21st. I'm doing a few things
there, including keynoting right at the beginning.
You can get yourself tickets for that at podcastshowlondon
.com. That's podcastshowlondon .com. I'll also
be recording a live podcast towards the end of
the second day as well with Sam Sethi, and that
should be good fun to do. Hopefully I will see
you at one of those. And those are the only two
things that I'm speaking at for this year so
far. So nice and quiet, but we'll see if that
changes. And thank you to the many supporters
of my newsletter, including Marcy from New York,
our newest supporter. Also Gavin Watson, Greg
Strassel, Sam Phelps. Richard Hilton, Emma Gibbs,
Jocelyn Abbey and James Masterton for being regular
supporters. There are also many other excellent
supporters in terms of a corporate way of thinking,
like Clyde Broadcast, the radio people, Radio
King, Meliora and Studio and Media Results Inc.
All kinds of people. So a bunch of folk there.
If you would like to join them, then please do
buy me a coffee. That would be lovely. Buymeacoffee
.com slash James Cridland is where to go there.
You can give regularly, as Marty from New York
has decided to do, or you can just give a one
-off coffee, and that's all cool as well. And
I'm on the Fediverse and things, Mastodon and
that sort of thing, as james .bne .social. That'd
be lovely. And my website has more details about
who I am and what I do and whether I can help
you further. You'll find that at james .cridland
.net. And until next time, keep listening.