Hello, I'm James Cridland, the radio futurologist, and every couple of weeks when I can be bothered,
I write a newsletter all about the future of radio and international radio trends and
all of that. And this is April 3rd, 2023's edition. Ken Bruce hits the air and Bauer
hits its stride. But before that, for Triple Z, The Zeds, the community radio station in
Brisbane always confused me by not having any RDS signal so there was no branding on
a car radio. And when audience figures are put together using diaries, RDS encoding is
a quick and obvious way of reminding people the name of the radio station so that they
can fill it in in the diary. I offered an RDS encoder to their station manager, then
I offered one to their successor, then I offered one to their successor and finally one was
interested. They got it costed in December and installed by March. I gather if you've
got radio text on your radio then it gives all kinds of information on the screen like
the now playing information and much more. But I don't. My one and only RDS radio receiver
returned to the UK. But in any case, I'm delighted to have made a permanent change to the Brisbane
FM airwaves now that for Triple Z has a proper RDS beacon. In the UK, Ken Bruce started on
Greatest Hits Radio this morning listening to the first half hour. It was a really impressive
listen, although a little bit weird that Ken didn't mention the station name once in any
of his links. Anyway, here's the first one.
Ah, there you are. Now, last time we spoke, we had the end from Abbey Road. Now together,
we're going back to the beginning for a brand new start.
Nicely done. BBC Breakfast on television made the rather odd editorial choice to interview
him live from his new studio and commercial radio so that he could get a plug in for his
new home. After exiting BBC Radio 2 a few weeks ago, God bless the BBC. I bet Radio 2 are
delighted.
Ken's appearance has been marked with a very good TV ad for the station, which is worth
a look, featuring other stars from the station, although not breakfast because some parts
of the UK get a different breakfast show. It's a really good, clear ad and it's worth
a look. You can find that in the show notes and in the newsletter at james.crid.land,
which is a website address, obviously.
The day before, lots of good luck messages from the radio station and also, which was
quite nice, a filmed welcome in Golden Square from the power staff. I suspect that it was
rather laid on ahead of time. But in any case, the only thing I would have done is to remove
the rather obvious route to the on-air studio for security reasons, although perhaps I know
the building rather better.
Cleverly, they're using his appearance as a way to flog radio without ad breaks like
at the old place. The ad-free premium service is free for the first 90 days.
Gradius 6 Radio has also replaced a number of other radio stations today too for maximum
effect. Link FM's FM transmitters plus CFM and Radio Borders. Bauer has clearly taken
a step forward with this launch. Not a foot wrong. Every opportunity taken to gain from
it. So bravo to them.
It was splendid to be at Radio Days Europe earlier this month. Excellent to see so many
friends and to have raised a glass to Paul Easton on the occasion of his funeral as well.
At the event was Roger Langtoe, who wrote a really good piece on experience announcement
at the show, which is very smart for in-car data. They can basically work out where your
listeners are, what your listeners are doing and all of that stuff. Really interesting.
In New Zealand, in a bewilderingly sudden move, National News Talk station today, FM
was pulled off the air after only a year of existence. The station is run by Media Works.
Its competitor is NZME's News Talk ZB, which is the dominant station in the country. It
looks as if Media Works is basically just thrown in the towel. That station is now just
playing non-stop music until they work out quite what to do with it. It'll probably be
a music station, won't it?
In Australia, the ABC is beginning to take action on its ratings slump. Last survey,
ABC Radio Melbourne slumped to its worst ever figures. But it's also worth pointing out
drops for other AM stations, 4BC, 2GB, 5AA and 6PR. While I personally believe both ABC
Local Radio and ABC Radio National need severe route and branch changes to improve their
programming, which at some point does sound a bit like a jumble sale, I'd also suggest
that the AM band is part of the issue here. I gather in Australia it's illegal to simulcast
the same output on both AM and FM, but perhaps that's a law that needs quick, fast change
if the government's broadcaster, as the ABC is, is to be given a chance of still existing
in the future.
Talking of the demise of AM, Longwave 252 is to be turned off this month in Ireland,
another AM service biting the dust. Meanwhile, I link to an astonishing graph, it's well
worth a look at, showing UK newspaper consumption since 2000. Well worth a look, you'll find
that at james.cred.land.
Bower Media also announced Rayo, their forthcoming radio and audio app. Their answer to the
global player and BBC Sounds, the press release, seems a masterclass in how to say nothing
at all.
BBC Radio 4's Saturday Live now comes from Cardiff. It was announced with a video emblazoned
with live from Cardiff, except the video wasn't the show going live from Cardiff, it was the
rehearsal, not the actual live broadcast.
The presenters are Nicky Bedi, who lives in London, Peter Curran, who lives in London,
and the producer is Ben Mitchell, who lives in London. The Great Western Railway must be
delighted and I'm sure all of that makes sense to somebody.
But in some good BBC news, from today, the BBC's Daily Korean service will come from
a studio in Seoul, rather than London. It's aired between midnight 30 and 3.30 Korean
time in the morning on three shortwave frequencies. It goes out in the middle of the night, says
Chris Greenway, because that's thought to be the safest time for North Koreans to tune
in.
And finally, Emmys Communications' Jeff Smulyan wrote a book during the pandemic, it turns
out. Never Ride a Rollercoaster Upside Down is rather a good read, especially for his
withering attitude towards Bob Pitman. He really does not like Bob Pitman. Anyway, his
closing thoughts on podcasting are in my newsletter today. Not sure I agree, but always interesting.
When I met Jeff Smulyan, he was very nice to me. He seemed to know who I was, which
is a fair amazement. And yeah, I had a lot of time for him. Anyway, what he says in here
is radio is in the middle of the podcasting frenzy. It's a wonderful way for people to
consume new information, and it has attracted lots of listeners. But the problem is with
no barriers to entry, it's impossible to find a viable economic model. And only a few
podcasts he says have generated significant profits. Moreover, a podcast's profits usually
go to the content creator, with hardly anything left over for the distributor. So while many
peers are again spending a fortune in this space, I believe, he says, the results will
be dismal. When you're in a rut, the easiest thing is to throw a lot of stuff against a
wall and hope something sticks. And I'm afraid, he says, podcasting won't stick. Certainly
not to the degree that it will solve the multi-billion dollar debt challenges of the industry. In
short, it's just bad math. Well, thank you to Richard Hilton, to James Masterton and
to Brunn Audio Consulting for your ongoing support of this newsletter. I'm very grateful
to you. If you, you, 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 by visiting buymeacoffee.com slash James Cridland. And you will also find a little
button to do just that if you're using a decent podcast app. I'm at the NAB show on April
the 17th only just for one day. I'm at Spotify's event in Berlin on April the 20th, the New
Zealand podcast summit in mid May, the podcast show 2023 in London at the end of May and
Radio Days North America in early June. I am also running in early June a get together
in Salford in Manchester. You'll find more details on that podnews.net slash live, which
is where to get your tickets for that. It's a whole day of networking opportunities and
podcasting fun. podnews.net slash live as well to get tickets for that as well as a
conference we're putting on in London in September. And then we're putting on something I think
in November in Barcelona. And I think we're also doing something in no, I think we're
doing a Barcelona in September as well. And I think we're doing November in Mexico City,
Mexico City, a country I've never been to before. Anyway, podnews.net slash live has
all of the details on that. I'm on Mastodon. If you want to follow me there, just search
for my email address james.crid.land. And my professional website has more detail about
who I am and what I do and whether I can help you further on james.cridland.net. And until
next time, thank you for listening and keep listening.