1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,240 Hello, I'm James Cridland, the radio futurologist, and every week or so I write a newsletter 2 00:00:06,240 --> 00:00:09,560 all about the future of radio and international radio trends. 3 00:00:09,560 --> 00:00:13,440 And this is it for March the 20th, 2023. 4 00:00:13,440 --> 00:00:16,460 Can your presenters publish to your website? 5 00:00:16,460 --> 00:00:22,160 Because there was a great tweet from Amanda White last week highlighting just how hard 6 00:00:22,160 --> 00:00:25,560 it is to get anything done at the BBC. 7 00:00:25,560 --> 00:00:29,440 And I can corroborate much that's in the tweet as well. 8 00:00:29,440 --> 00:00:31,840 Here's a choice quote for you. 9 00:00:31,840 --> 00:00:36,600 The choice quote is, I can take control of a radio station and open the mic to hundreds 10 00:00:36,600 --> 00:00:37,800 of thousands of people. 11 00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:43,560 I can broadcast live on television, but I'm not trusted to post anything on the BBC website. 12 00:00:43,560 --> 00:00:49,480 Now, it is 25 years ago now and much has changed, but when I worked at Virgin Radio, we gave 13 00:00:49,480 --> 00:00:53,760 our presenters the tools, if they wanted them, to be able to post directly onto the Virgin 14 00:00:53,760 --> 00:00:54,840 Radio website. 15 00:00:54,840 --> 00:00:57,120 Why wouldn't we do that? 16 00:00:57,120 --> 00:01:01,360 Well, I hate to mention it to Amanda, but as a BBC senior manager in the late 2000s, 17 00:01:01,360 --> 00:01:07,120 I was able to publish directly to the BBC website without any editorial oversight, which 18 00:01:07,120 --> 00:01:09,800 I found a little bit strange. 19 00:01:09,800 --> 00:01:15,440 Anyway, BBC local radio journalists went on strike last week protesting at the loss of 20 00:01:15,440 --> 00:01:22,120 local programming on these stations and full marks to the BBC's Gail Lofthouse on BBC Radio 21 00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:28,400 Leeds, who ended her live show this way before giving over to the strikebreakers. 22 00:01:28,400 --> 00:01:34,800 Epichondylitis, whether you play Watt or not, the answer is tennis. 23 00:01:34,800 --> 00:01:41,080 It's tennis elbow, something I have had and I have never played tennis in my life. 24 00:01:41,080 --> 00:01:42,480 Question number three. 25 00:01:42,480 --> 00:01:45,080 In the body, ossicles are very small watts. 26 00:01:45,080 --> 00:01:49,720 I can't tell you how many times people have said testicles to me. 27 00:01:49,720 --> 00:01:50,720 It's not rice. 28 00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:52,280 The answer is bones. 29 00:01:52,280 --> 00:01:57,800 And finally, what is the common word for a sanguiness crust? 30 00:01:57,800 --> 00:02:02,920 The answer is scab. 31 00:02:02,920 --> 00:02:04,680 Enjoy the rest of your day. 32 00:02:04,680 --> 00:02:08,720 I shall return tomorrow after 11 o'clock. 33 00:02:08,720 --> 00:02:09,720 Yikes. 34 00:02:09,720 --> 00:02:15,800 Now, AM's enforced switch off in the car in the US is getting people quite worked up. 35 00:02:15,800 --> 00:02:21,760 Science Magazine uses the but in times of emergency defence, but no data is put forward 36 00:02:21,760 --> 00:02:27,480 as to how many AM radio stations actually bother to broadcast any emergency information 37 00:02:27,480 --> 00:02:28,480 in the US. 38 00:02:28,480 --> 00:02:33,880 And particularly on weekends, most AM stations in the US are an empty studio, rebroadcasting 39 00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:40,000 something from satellite or something from a computer and wholly unable to produce any 40 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:41,960 emergency broadcasting at all. 41 00:02:41,960 --> 00:02:46,240 Unless you know different, of course, but I don't think in the US that that defence 42 00:02:46,240 --> 00:02:47,760 stacks up anymore. 43 00:02:47,760 --> 00:02:53,840 I would love to see more data to the contrary, but the evidence isn't particularly good. 44 00:02:53,840 --> 00:02:56,720 Australia's new radio audience figures also came out. 45 00:02:56,720 --> 00:03:01,240 ABC Radio Melbourne on AM posted its worst ever figures. 46 00:03:01,240 --> 00:03:05,360 2GB on AM slipped from number one in Sydney. 47 00:03:05,360 --> 00:03:07,160 4BC on AM. 48 00:03:07,160 --> 00:03:08,840 6PR on AM. 49 00:03:08,840 --> 00:03:11,040 And 5AA on AM. 50 00:03:11,040 --> 00:03:13,960 So post large drops in audience. 51 00:03:13,960 --> 00:03:20,440 ABC Local Radio and other cap cities on AM showed a small rise in audience after for 52 00:03:20,440 --> 00:03:22,520 most their worst figures. 53 00:03:22,520 --> 00:03:28,900 And ABC RN on AM is currently near its lowest figures as well. 54 00:03:28,900 --> 00:03:35,080 And if you walk to your local electronics store and you try and buy an AM radio, well, 55 00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:38,440 good luck because they're beginning to be quite rare as well. 56 00:03:38,440 --> 00:03:45,560 I think AM is increasingly unfit for purpose and broadcasters relying on AM for their flagship 57 00:03:45,560 --> 00:03:50,360 services need to have an urgent plan to fix it. 58 00:03:50,360 --> 00:03:55,000 In other news, Kerry Jones posts a short video explaining how he's using chat GPT for his 59 00:03:55,000 --> 00:03:56,000 radio service. 60 00:03:56,000 --> 00:04:01,880 I've not yet taken the plunge with AI, but he seems to be doing quite well doing that. 61 00:04:01,880 --> 00:04:05,760 The world's longest serving female DJ is profiled in The Guardian. 62 00:04:05,760 --> 00:04:13,040 Mary McCoy is 85 and she's on KVST FM, which is a radio station better known as K-Star 63 00:04:13,040 --> 00:04:16,920 Country 99.7 in Huntsville in Texas. 64 00:04:16,920 --> 00:04:25,160 AM FM radio ratings overtake TV among persons 18 to 49 for the first time in media history, 65 00:04:25,160 --> 00:04:31,240 says a blog post from Pierre Bouvard from Westwood or Cumulus or whatever it is that 66 00:04:31,240 --> 00:04:32,240 they're called. 67 00:04:32,240 --> 00:04:35,840 They would gently point out that of course this all depends on definitions. 68 00:04:35,840 --> 00:04:36,840 What is radio? 69 00:04:36,840 --> 00:04:37,840 What's TV? 70 00:04:37,840 --> 00:04:41,400 And the uncharitable might point out that this is a feature of radio's decline of listening 71 00:04:41,400 --> 00:04:44,120 time being slightly slower than that of TV. 72 00:04:44,120 --> 00:04:49,840 But even so, it's not going to stop me or anyone else using this new stat with abandon. 73 00:04:49,840 --> 00:04:55,720 Someone contacts me just after I sent this out as an email saying, yes, not sure that 74 00:04:55,720 --> 00:04:59,880 this was the case in the 1940s or 1950s. 75 00:04:59,880 --> 00:05:03,600 So perhaps this isn't the first time in media history at all and I would probably agree 76 00:05:03,600 --> 00:05:05,360 with them. 77 00:05:05,360 --> 00:05:09,960 I also link to the history of radio drama in India, which is quite the read. 78 00:05:09,960 --> 00:05:15,560 And I put out a few more old blog posts online from 2007. 79 00:05:15,560 --> 00:05:19,440 There's a piece there about Radio Silly's pre-launch blog. 80 00:05:19,440 --> 00:05:24,040 There's a piece there about John C. Dvorak who says all sorts of silly things about internet 81 00:05:24,040 --> 00:05:27,760 radio, highlighting the mistakes that many commentators make when assuming that the internet 82 00:05:27,760 --> 00:05:29,080 is free to broadcast on. 83 00:05:29,080 --> 00:05:30,080 It's not. 84 00:05:30,080 --> 00:05:33,080 Bandwidth costs serious money if you're doing it properly. 85 00:05:33,080 --> 00:05:40,680 And Radio in Norway, more futuristic than you think, was a look back at how research 86 00:05:40,680 --> 00:05:45,080 worked in the country back in 2007. 87 00:05:45,080 --> 00:05:50,640 And finally, Paul Easton's funeral will be at Chilton's crematorium in Amersham in Hamden 88 00:05:50,640 --> 00:05:55,200 Chapel on Monday, the 27th of March at 11am. 89 00:05:55,200 --> 00:06:00,960 There will be refreshments afterwards at the King's Arms Hotel and I hope the wine list 90 00:06:00,960 --> 00:06:03,440 is good for his sake. 91 00:06:03,440 --> 00:06:07,480 Thank you to Richard Hilton, to James Masterton and to Brunn Audio Consulting for your ongoing 92 00:06:07,480 --> 00:06:10,080 support of this newsletter and this podcast. 93 00:06:10,080 --> 00:06:11,360 I'm very grateful to you. 94 00:06:11,360 --> 00:06:14,080 If you'd like to support my work in any way, please do. 95 00:06:14,080 --> 00:06:15,080 Buy me a coffee. 96 00:06:15,080 --> 00:06:16,080 Buymeacoffee.com. 97 00:06:16,080 --> 00:06:18,300 James Cridland is where to do that. 98 00:06:18,300 --> 00:06:22,800 You can give regularly or just give a one-off coffee or five, then that's all good. 99 00:06:22,800 --> 00:06:25,560 And perhaps I will see you at a big event somewhere soon. 100 00:06:25,560 --> 00:06:30,280 I'm at Radio Days Europe next week, Prague, March 25th to 30th. 101 00:06:30,280 --> 00:06:33,640 I'm at the NAB show in mid-April. 102 00:06:33,640 --> 00:06:36,040 Spotify's event in Berlin in mid-April as well. 103 00:06:36,040 --> 00:06:38,000 Still haven't found out what it's called. 104 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:40,080 The New Zealand Podcast Summit in mid-May. 105 00:06:40,080 --> 00:06:44,320 The podcast show 2023 in London at the end of May. 106 00:06:44,320 --> 00:06:48,600 And Radio Days North America in early June, among many others. 107 00:06:48,600 --> 00:06:53,360 My contact details are james.cridland.net slash contact if you're there in any one of 108 00:06:53,360 --> 00:06:54,480 those. 109 00:06:54,480 --> 00:06:56,220 And I'm also on Masterton. 110 00:06:56,220 --> 00:07:00,380 Just give me a search james at crid.land and you'll find me there. 111 00:07:00,380 --> 00:07:04,860 My professional website has more details about who I am and what I do and if I can help you 112 00:07:04,860 --> 00:07:06,120 further. 113 00:07:06,120 --> 00:07:08,440 That is james.cridland.net. 114 00:07:08,440 --> 00:07:19,120 But until next time, keep listening.