Radioland, with James Cridland - radio futurologist

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What is a radio, anyway?

[CLIP of Google]

Last World Emoji Day, the UK industry group Radiocentre tweeted that their favourite emjoi ought to be the one of the radio, but radios don't look like that any more - they look like phones, tablets, cars or televisions, so they don't really have a favourite emoji after all.

It’s a succinctly made point; and highlights a failing in the English language — radio means, of course, three different things — a receiver, a technology, and a type of audio programming.

Radio is now on a variety of different platforms. Broadcast technology, like FM or DAB+; live streaming via IP; and on-demand too, in the form of podcasting and other things.

Most, if not all, radio research reflects this. The apparent unsophistication of a paper diary or a web form is actually quite a useful way of understanding how people listen: since it works with every form of radio, not just something delivered on a speaker.

Fewer people are buying radio receivers than ever before. Yet, in most markets, more people are listening to radio than ever before — because radio is not a platform, it’s a thing. I define it as “audio with a shared experience and a human connection”. Alexa, however, defines it as this.

[CLIP]

If we have trouble with defining a “radio”, what about a “smart speaker”, I wonder?

In Q1 2018, the Amazon Echo sold 2.5m devices worldwide; but Google Home sold 3.2m devices in the same time period. It’s the first time that Google has out-sold Amazon for smart speakers.

But that doesn’t tell the whole story, though: Google’s voice assistant works with over 5,000 devices. My JBL Link speaker that is on my deck has Google Assistant built-in; but it isn’t a Google Home. Where does it fit in the figures?

The GPS I use in the car has Google Assistant built-in (very good for sending text messages). The Bose headphones that I take travelling, or the smaller bud headphones I wear on the bus, both have Google Assistant on them as well — I walked over the William Jolly Bridge in Brisbane the other day, asking Google about my diary for tomorrow.

And of course, my mobile phone has Google Assistant in it, too. If it’s on the table, seemingly switched off, I can still turn it into a radio.
[CLIP].

So, you can compare sales of Amazon Echo vs Google Home if you like; but that misses great swathes of the smart speaker ecosystem.

And you can define radio as a speaker in a box that picks up FM if you like; but that, too, misses much of what your audience already calls radio.

Your challenge is to ensure that your radio output sounds great — whatever ‘radio’ it is playing on.

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There's a full transcript of this at https://medium.com/@JamesCridland/measuring-radios-best-customers-dd8b127889d1

I'm at https://james.crid.land

Music by Ignite Jingles

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Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

I'm at https://james.crid.land

Music by Ignite Jingles

Transcript:

I talk a lot about making the most of your radio station’s content.

The tyranny of the transmitter - something that needs feeding 24 hours a day - means that historically we’re not that good, as an industry, making sure that we capture and re-use our content in other ways.

Much of what we do in radio is informed by our history and tradition, rather than what’s right for today’s program-making. Live radio is one of those things - in the 1920s and 1930s, it was the only way to make great radio. These days, far too much of radio is lazy live content rather than well-polished audio.

So it’s fun, then, to take a peek at new radio stations. They have the opportunity to get things right from the get-go, rather than have to reinvent things later on. Change is hard.

Love Sport is a radio station in London, which focuses on sports talk. It’s on AM and DAB in London, and everywhere from Radioplayer, TuneIn and the Amazon Alexa. They’ve worked hard to make sure that they’re available where the audience is.

One look at the website, at www.lovesportradio.com, shows that this station doesn’t just focus on live radio. The “Listen live” and “on demand” buttons are the same size, in the same place. It doesn’t matter how you listen, as long as you do. And, by the looks of it, every single show is available on-demand.

They use clips of what they’ve broadcast on Facebook - a social medium which does rather better than Twitter for short pieces of audio, since it is less “of the moment” and rather better at surfacing posts from the last few days.

One of the more interesting sections of the station is evenings and weekends: and it’s here that Love Sport benefits from being in a city with eleven professional league football teams. The station broadcasts fan podcasts from each club.

Last week, the station announced that it had made those podcasts available on smart speakers, in a partnership with XAPPmedia. It’s another clever way for the station to associate itself with sports fans; and, while smart speaker consumption is still relatively low, it’s a good time to get into these services.

Finally, and for noting, the station is known as “Love Sport” on-air, but “Love Sport Radio” off-air (in logos and online). In the new multiplatform radio world, many brands mistakenly try to drop the word “Radio” - rather than help redefine it. This station hasn’t made that mistake.

It’s tempting, when you launch a new station, to do radio the way it’s always been done.

But better, and braver, to design your programming and distribution strategy based on radio in the late 2010s, rather than the early 1980s.

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Music in this episode from Ignite Jingles.

Typing sound effects in this episode by Sally Walker.

I'm at https://james.crid.land

Podcasting news is at https://podnews.net or wherever you got this podcast.

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Music by Ignite Jingles. Bad editing by me.

Hear this on the Radio Today UK podcast, and, um, here on this podcast app.

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I'm at https://james.crid.land

Music is from Ignite Jingles

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Some people agree, or not, with my thoughts that live radio isn't always best.

Thanks to Tommy and to Peter for their voices.

Thanks, too, to Ignite Jingles for the music.

And to you for listening.

And especially to you for visiting https://james.crid.land to get my weekly newsletter.

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What works? What doesn't? And can I avoid mentioning Viking FM's "Erik the viking" knickers by name?

Music from Ignite Jingles. I'm at https://james.crid.land

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No, really.

https://james.crid.land is where I live. Ignite Jingles made the intro. https://podnews.net is worth subscribing to. Auphonic made this sound (even) nicer.

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I'm a radio futurologist, not a futurist, of course.
My website: https://james.crid.land
Music by Ignite Jingles

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