Hello, I'm James Cridland, the radio futurologist, and every couple of weeks or so I write a piece
all about the future of radio and radio's international trends and all of that. And this
is it for the 2nd of May 2023. It's called AM Radio's US Defenders. I'm recording this on a
Sennheiser Profile USB microphone, in case you wondered. So there we go. I've just been in
Germany. I went to Berlin to be at a Spotify event and while in the German Museum of Technology in
Berlin, apparently Germans invented everything, I saw a thing called a City Radio which looked
like an interesting device. It looked like a little sort of radio receiver except it had buttons
instead of a tuning dial and the buttons had city names on them. Beijing, Berlin, Havana, Paris,
Tokyo and so on and so forth. Sadly though, it isn't what it seems. It's a Bluetooth speaker
and you need your mobile phone somewhere close by to use it. For 99 euro, I was surprised about how
little you got for your money. You'll find a link to a review of that in the show notes and my
newsletter at james.crid.land. Now AM Radio, turned off in many parts of Europe already,
it appears to be having a last ditch effort in the US to keep it relevant somehow as car
manufacturers pull it out of their new vehicles. GM has decided to go on further and will remove
access to Apple CarPlay from their vehicles for some reason, although not quite sure why.
Anyway, in a country where more than 50% of radio listening happens in a car, the figure for much of
Europe is only about 20%, radio feels threatened in the US. Cumulus finds 82 million reasons to
keep AM Radio in vehicles, although much of the data actually relates to AM FM radio, but it's a
spirited defense nonetheless. The owner of WABC Radio, which is an AM station, just worth mentioning
in New York, John Katsimotidis, is leading a campaign to save AM radio, says a press release
and naturally, of course, it's being politicized, as seems to be the way in the US. It's a government
conspiracy, apparently. Katsimotidis is offering a save AM radio spot voiced by Mike Pence, because
there's nothing that we need to do more than make this a red versus blue debate. As Bloomberg
correspondent Liam Denning suggests though, more than two-thirds of AM radio listeners in the US
are older than 55, and the total AM radio reach has more than halved in the past 20 years. Fred
Jacobs, too, is realistic about AM's future, pointing out that in the tech survey, which is made
up of core radio listeners, fewer than a third of new car purchasers believe an AM radio is essential
in the dashboard. He also writes more information for a website called HypeBot, and it's a great
piece with data from Xpery, a company that collects in-car radio data. The main argument,
though, appears to be but emergencies. But FM radio also works in emergencies, of course, as do
mobile phones, and mobile phones have a priority setting to enable important users like police and
fire crews to get access, even if the cell site is otherwise swamped. An AM radio is only going
to work in an emergency if a. You have one, b. You know the frequency to tune into, c. The transmission
tower is unaffected, which is not a given, and d. A station actually broadcasts emergency information,
and not just automated satellite fed stuff from hundreds of kilometres away.
FM stations broadcast just as much emergency information as AM's, and frankly I'm not sure
that this argument has legs. That said, Edison Research shared some heartening research about
in-car listening overall, ending with a comment saying, for radio listeners of all ages, the
best thing for radio is an in-car interface that makes both broadcast and digital audio easily
accessible. And yes to that, because the interface is the important thing, and possibly one of many
reasons why AM radio is failing so hard. It's a dumb, poor sounding experience that's hard to present
on the same screen as RDS FM, as DAB, or satellite radio. Meanwhile, if your flagship services are on
AM, what's your strategy? Because you need one. Elsewhere, I linked to an impressive compilation
of top of our sequences from BBC Radio Manchester from a few years ago. Very nice. It consists of
a throw-ahead to a show later in the day or week, followed by what you'll hear in the next half hour,
then a really clear station ident with a clear list of platforms, then the pips, then news headlines,
sports headline, weather headline, travel headline, then a station ident, and then there you go. It's
a very impressive thing. Here, have a listen to one of them. The clues are written. We just need
your help to solve them. It's Manhunt with Chris and Emma. Saturday from 11. On the way this
afternoon, we honour our own homegrown inspirational women and a gardeners world celebration of our
favourite UK gardens. The pick of the bunch in the UK, and guess what? Tatton Park is one of the top favourites.
95.1 FM. DAB digital radio. And the worldwide web. Big Bezzy. Breakfast. BBC Radio Manchester.
At two o'clock, make space in your wallets and purses. Greater Manchester's to trial
ID cards and relief for the family of an Aldam toddler who put a needle in his mouth at a doctor's surgery.
In sports, Bolton awards Jessica Lyonham with a testimonial. Well, this afternoon the rain will
eventually clear, but it's breezy. Top temperature 16 Celsius. No accidents or incidents to tell you
about this lunchtime, but the robots continue on Deansgate with the A56 closed outbound
at Blackfriars Road. Hello, good afternoon. I'm Steve Saul. Very impressive if you ask me. And hello,
ABC Local Radio, who don't even reliably ident the station at the top of the hour at all.
For all that's impressive about that clip though, there's plenty that's unimpressive about BBC
Local Radio. I'll link to a piece from Bill Rogers who posts a talk up of a radio Ulster show,
which just sounds so dull. Tea Time gets a reboot as Viddie Hurrell and Kate Conway come together to
kickstart evenings on the station. It includes something called The Mystery Mixtape, half an
hour of songs transporting listeners back to a chosen year. Yes, because that's what local radio
is all about, isn't it? Not. And it's also very puzzling how BBC Local Radio is so unimportant
that Radio 5 Live doesn't even give it an opt point in the morning when they're opting out of
Five Live for breakfast. Another radio tech company has jumped headlong into AI powered DJs.
It's the turn off Enco, who have launched two new tools. Meanwhile, in the UAE, 102.4 Mi'chi has
apparently introduced the world's first AI presenter on a commercial radio station,
which is a thrill. Some fascinating data that I linked to as well today from my newsletter.
Listeners to reheated radio shows on podcast platforms are older, less well educated and two
thirds male. Whereas native podcasts do much better, the data says. It's data from France,
from Acast. And last Monday morning, captive in an Uber, I was listening to Triple J and Bryce and
Dee, who are doing breakfast. And during the 7.05 AM presenter break, whichever of the duo was a
bloke, said the word shit three times. Shit as an exclamation, that's real shit as an expression of
approval and a bit shit as a description. The song the station then started playing after this
presenter break contained the chorus, we're always doing the same shit. I'm clearly getting old,
but shit that shit sounded a bit shit. Meanwhile, in biscuit news, if you don't have any calls,
if you're desperate for a fun phone in topic, try biscuits. Kay Burley on Sky News in the UK
seemingly ran best biscuit as a talkback piece recently. And the Times of London also ran an
important piece of research about biscuits, though I did get confused with the definition and letter
Jeffer cake through, which of course is not a biscuit. Also, you should try what candy did
you have when you were a child? And if you're Triple J, why doesn't dog shit turn white anymore?
And thank you to Richard Hilton and James Masterton, as well as Brun Audio Consulting,
SOMA, FM and Media Realms radio websites for your ongoing support of this newsletter and podcast.
If you'd like to support my work in any way, you can buy me a coffee, become a member to give me
regularly a system that now works, you'll be glad to know, or just give a one-off coffee or five,
buymeacoffee.com, James Cridland is where to do that. I'm at the New Zealand Podcast Summit
in mid-May in Auckland, the podcast show 2023 in London at the end of May, and Radio Days North
America in Toronto in early June. My contact details are available at james.cridland.net
if you're there as well. I should also mention in early June, Pod News Live, which is a conference
all about podcasting, which you should come to. It's in Salford next to Manchester.
PodNews.net slash live has all the details. I'm on Mastodon if you want to get in touch with me,
or indeed on Noster, just search for James at crid.land and you should find me and my professional
website has more details about who I am and what I do and whether I can help you further.
But until next time, thanks for listening and keep listening.