Hello, I'm James Cridland, the radio futurologist, and every couple of weeks I write a newsletter
all about the future of radio and international radio trends and all of that. You can get it at
James.Crid.Land, which is a website address, James.Crid.Land, and that would be lovely if you got it,
but this is the podcast version where I read it to you because you're too lazy to read it for yourself,
possibly. Anyway, this is for May 17th, 2023, and it's all about India and the live item tag,
and way too much about the BBC. The Indian government, first of all, has mandated that
mobile phones include FM tuners. They're asking manufacturers not to disable an existing FM radio
feature if one exists, and also asking if FM radio can be added to phones if it's not already there.
It is, though, just an advisory, so it's got no legal weight, and the register notes that it says
mobile phones, not smartphones. About 20% of India still uses feature phones, and if you have a look
at the price of these feature phones, you can buy a phone with a year's free calls for about $19
in US money. So probably not worth holding your breath that Apple will add an FM radio tuner
in iPhone anytime soon. Something interesting is happening in podcasting, and it involves radio.
First, Spotify has been promoting broadcast to podcast, a new feature now offered by Megaphone
that turns radio shows into podcasts at the press of a few buttons, or even automatically.
And not to be outdone, Triton Digital's OmniStudio has been reminding people that they've offered
that feature forever as well. And you can hear interviews with both Spotify and OmniStudio in
this week's Pod News Weekly review. You'll find that linked from the show notes and my newsletter
at james.grid.land. But also other clever people have been working on something called the Live
Item Tag, a new extension to the RSS feed. So here's how it works if you're a listener. You
subscribe to your favorite radio shows podcast in your podcast player. You get the podcasts,
as you normally would. But because this podcast also uses the Live Item Tag, your app is able
to notify you when the show goes live on the radio. So the app can play the stream directly,
letting you tune in and listen, or you can even set it up to open your radio app if you want it
to do that too. Now the Live Item Tag contains a time that the show should go live, but it also
realizes that not every show starts on a clock start. So it includes triggering too to signal
when the show really goes live. So if you're 10 minutes late for some reason, then that's fine.
I think the last time they did tests on the triggering took about 20 seconds to get to
every single podcast app out there, which is pretty impressive. Anyway, currently the Live
Item Tag is supported by three podcast apps, Podverse, Podcast Addicts, which is a pretty
big one, and CurioCaster. But it's relatively simple to add this support for this tag, and other
podcast apps are beginning to add it. I believe that Fountain is going to be launching at any
time soon as well. And there are a few shows that are lit and live, as they call them, most
notably podcasting 2.0, which is on Friday evenings in the UK. The New Media Show, which I think
airs Wednesday afternoons US time, and No Agenda also uses it, I gather as well. And since it can
be added to any podcast feed without breaking anything, it might be worth looking into for
radio stations. A notification to listen seems a good thing. BBC News PR based in London seemed
delighted at the recent silver placing of BBC Radio 4's Today Show based in London. Of course,
it's not called the Today Show, it's just called Today, but you know the one that I mean. Anyway,
it tweeted out a photograph and said, well done, BBC Radio 4 today, clap, clap, clap from the BBC,
except Radio 4 got silver, and Radio 5 Live got gold, which is another BBC channel. And in fact,
it is the News and Sport channel. So after quite a few BBC types wondered whether the gold from
News station, BBC Radio 5 Live, was surely rather more worthy of congratulation, the team tweeted,
and of course, congratulations to 5 Live, we don't PR them from this account. So this tweet
isn't a snub or an omission, but of course, we're proud of all of the BBC family. And then they
promptly deleted both of those tweets, which by the way is against BBC editorial policy.
The back of the BBC ID card still says something about one BBC, but as ever,
the internal five terms drive nonsense like this. Or perhaps it's because Radio 5 Live is in
Salford and not in London, as they were. Now let's move on to BBC Local Radio. This gets a bit
personal in a minute, but their changes seem horrible to watch from overseas. David Lloyd
has written about the funeral for BBC Local Radio, calling it little short of scandalous.
He listens to a poor interview as a senior manager tries to defend the cuts on the runner-up
award-winning BBC Radio 4 Today program. And he listens to another interview on feedback. He
looks at how the BBC can execute its new local radio plan and wonders rightly whether or where
Ofcom is with all of this. And he looks at the poor online offerings currently being presented
as an alternative. You'll find all of those links in my show notes and in the newsletter at
James.Crit.Land. But it seems that the incompetence isn't just in the plans,
but in the awful, dreadful execution by the BBC's HR teams and by management.
And here comes a personal side note. I should probably declare an interest here, because I was
the subject of constructive dismissal at the BBC in 2009. I was bullied and I was obstructed while
doing my job. I was set up to fail and I was forced into resigning from a corporation I was
initially so proud to work for. After I found some, my lawyers threatened the BBC with legal action,
and rather than me taking them to court, the BBC settled for a decent financial sum,
along with a gagging order that I wasn't allowed to tell anyone about their awful HR department.
When it's 14 years later, so I don't suppose anyone there will care if I now willingly break
the terms of that agreement. I've never worked for any company with a worse disregard for their
people than the BBC, and it left me in a pretty poor state for some years after.
So with that in mind, Nikki Horn has been collecting some examples of the BBC's awful
way of treating their people in BBC Local Radio, likening it to Hunger Games treatment.
Some examples are, I'll read some of these tweets out, some staff at one radio station
have been told when we said last week that all journalists were now not at risk, sorry that
was a mistake and you're still at risk at this station. Incompetence meets cruelty, Nikki adds.
Nikki also says, I'm told by successful presenters in BBC Local Radio that even if you're successful,
your show will be under constant review and you could be moved off it at any point, so
presenters will go on air daily in constant fear for their job. The BBC Careers Hub website was
shut in mid-April. They're shutting down the BBC's career site and deleting our profiles while we're
all looking for new work. You couldn't make this up. Another person writes, we were given 60 seconds
to save our career and had to treat it like a speed date. We were timed with a stopwatch but
not shown the clock. It all felt so degrading, I was timed as two seconds out. It's honestly been
the worst six months of my career. And others says, I used to work in Independent Local Radio
for GWR and Capital and GCAP and have never known a situation that's been so badly handled by so
many supposedly experienced managers who've managed to demonstrate a complete lack of management
skill. Another, I've given my working life to the BBC and always felt valued but in a 10-minute
Zoom, I'd be made to feel completely worthless and irrelevant. I was called a short time before I was
on air and expected to continue as normal. I was in pieces. And finally, a senior manager said to
one old hand, and I quote, we'll let you know after Easter if you still have a job so you have a week
to find Jesus. And then laughed. And there are plenty more of these too. Rejection letters from
BBCHR haven't even bothered to complete the contact details in there. You should follow
Nicky Horn for more. He's on Twitter as Nicky Horn of all things. Now the announcements of great
people leaving are all over the BBC and a king after 37 years. Jonathan Cowep after 34 years.
David Burns after more than 20 years, almost the entire BBC Radio Bristol lineup. David Fitzgerald
at BBC Radio Devon, who was told he was made redundant, then told to go on air as if nothing
had happened, suffered a heart issue on air and had to be rushed to hospital. Carl Weakley
blogged about what he's heard at his former local radio station. Private Eye has written at least
one column about it. Meanwhile, BBC local radio journalists are to go on strike again in June.
There is no good way to achieve this number of cuts, but this is no way for any employer to behave.
Shame on them. Elsewhere, I link to a story about ad-supported music streaming, which doesn't look
like a great business. Quite a few people are now pulling out of it altogether. Rise, audio sound
ecosystem research is now available in English and available to download. You'll find a link to that
as well in my show notes and in my newsletter at James.Crit.Land. Thank you to Richard Hilton and to
James Masterton as well as Brunn Audio Consulting, SOMA FM and Media Realms Radio websites for your
ongoing support of this podcast and newsletter. If you would like to support my work in any way,
you can buy me a coffee. Become a member to give me regular coffee. That would be nice.
It works now after breaking it. Or you can give a one-off coffee or five. You can do that at
buymeacoffee.com. Now, I am at the podcast show 2023 in London next week and Radio Days North America
in Toronto in early June. I'm free before and after the podcast show in London if you want to
catch up for beers and things. My contact details at veryeasyjames.crit.Land is where to find me.
You can also search for me on masterdonjames.crit.Land and you'll find me on the Brisbane
instance that I'm currently using. It would be lovely to have you follow me on Masterdon. Thank
you very much. My professional website has more detail about who I am and what I do and whether
I can help you further. You will find that at james.critland.net. Until next time, keep listening.