Doing some tidying up this evening, and discovered my introduction to the recent Club of Amsterdam event. Worthwhile not just deleting it, but posting it here.

Radio is an interesting and, until recently, quite unique thing.

In 1954, a company called Regency Electronics made something called the Regency TR-1. It was the first transistor radio. And for the first time, we could get the latest music, news, and opinion, wherever we were – on the move, at home, in the office, on the beach. The first truly connected device. A device that changed our relationship with music forever.

The accelleration of change is getting faster – and now our connected devices talk back – they learn from us – they tell people where we are and what we’re doing, and we’re ever more comfortable with sharing more and more data, from wherever we are, to whoever wants to use it.

What the humble transistor radio did in the 1950s is now a world away from where we are today. Permanent connectivity is continually pushing new boundaries – new boundaries in technology; and new boundaries in social behaviour. And our preferred future depends on it.

I’m thrilled to be able to connect with all of our speakers and our audience this evening, and I very much look forward to an interesting night. Thank you.

Photo montage: John Ousby. The older radios are the Regency TR-1. Used under licence – thank you, John

I was lucky enough to be able to chair a rather splendid evening recently at the RSA: The Future of Connectivity from the Club of Amsterdam. I heard three rather excellent speakers, and made rather hasty notes so that I could kick off questions.

It’s probably worthwhile you knowing the format for this: three speeches (15 minutes long), followed by 30-minutes of drinks and chat, followed by 30 minutes of Q&A. A rather nice format, I felt, which made for a good evening of discussion.

Dr Ir Egbert-Jan Sol was first – who went through a rather good presentation extrapolating Moore’s Law to encompass many other elements. The size of computers will shrink amazingly in the next ten years or so, if innovation keeps up; and the same goes for the cost of bandwidth. He argued that bandwidth would practically be free in ten years time, and that in fifteen years time, we’ll be down to computers the size of your pen lid. In 2020, he says, the amount of connections to the internet will be equivalent to 250 embedded wireless devices per human being. Wow, that’s some future.

His practical outcome of this was the truly ‘auto’mobile – a car capable of driving completely automatically, keeping a safe but close distance from the car in front, by 2040.

Professor Peter Cochrane was next up – the former BT Chief Technologist, he argued that we do things the wrong way round. Nature makes simple things which combine to do complex tasks; on the contrary, we make complex things to do simple tasks.

He pointed to there being over 4 billion mobile phones worldwide, with over 50% of those being internet-ready; and mentioned his Linked-In account, which shows that there are already 7,982,000 people just three degrees away from him.

He said that, in 2006, the internet had the same number of nodes as a human brain; by 2012, it would have a thousand times the number of nodes; and by 2018, a million times the number of nodes. He says that laptops aren’t smart: they have no sensors, and no concept of adaptability; but that as we build more sensors into things, our machines will be capable of being much smarter. He points to the iPhone, with its camera, its compass, its accellerometer. He says that humans can’t get more intelligent, while computers can. They can access more data, and extract knowledge from it easier. He points to a future which is more run by computers than before.

Finally, Hardy F. Schloer started shakily (”I haven’t received a fax for… nearly four months!!” he announced to a slightly bemused audience, wondering what a fax machine was), but rallied quickly to point to computers’ use being a changing one.

He says people used computers for two things: “getting information” (getting emails, temperatures, stock information, etc), and “posting information” (writing documents, sending emails, managing robots and power plants, etc). The computer is in the middle of us humans, he argues – and that the human’s role in all of this is going to disappear.

Very soon, he says, there’ll be no financial industry left. Computers can learn how to run the stock markets just as well as humans can: you won’t need humans to do this work any more, he argues. He points to chess: the interest in chess as an international sport completely died after computers started beating Grand Masters. And he points to many things – running busy ports, motor racing, banking, etc – being capable of being done almost solely by computers.

And, as was twittered by @kuxi, he said “those who are able to change will survive”.

It would seem, in the discussion afterwards, that entertainment is one of the only things that can’t be done by computers. You might want to tell that to the overnight radio presenter who’s job was replaced by a playout system, but I see what he means.

A fascinating evening, and one that – as always – opens up new thoughts and horizons.

Photo: Dawn Danby. Used under licence – thanks. Full disclosure: I didn’t get paid to chair this event, though I did get a nice piece of luggage from the sponsors, a pen from the organiser, and a dinner which was mostly soup and risotto).

An interesting article in Radio World International about RadioDNS. (I say interesting, since I wrote very little of it – Nick’s very good at writing stuff cogently, whereas the old radio copywriter in me can only cope with 30-second bursts).

Interesting, particularly, when you include this paragraph from the Digital Britain report:

Functionality and interactivity must become central to the DAB experience. EPGs, slideshows, downloading music, as well as pause and rewinding live radio must be developed and brought to market on a large scale. Broadcasters and manufacturers must seek to develop and implement digitally delivered in-car content, such as traffic and travel information.

I’d argue it shouldn’t become central to the “DAB” experience; but central to the “radio” experience, whatever platform you use to get the audio. I don’t care what platform you use – I just care that you listen. So it’s good that RadioDNS enables this kind of functionality on internet radio, DAB, HD Radio, FM, or Digital Radio Mondiale.

For the last few days, I’ve been talking about whether your presenters should read out their own personal Twitter accounts on the air (they shouldn’t), and whether they should read out any website address other than your own (they shouldn’t).

Today, it’s time to tackle email addresses.

It’s easy to say “Mail me – studio@smalltownfm.com”, isn’t it? Better still to say “Mail me – james@smalltownfm.com”, since that reminds people who I am. So, what’s wrong with that?

When your users reach for their computer (or email-enabled mobile device), almost all of them will have access to the web. Access, in other words, to your own website.

Yesterday, I pointed out that your website earns you money. It’s also a place where you can also communicate other things about your station – your big competition on breakfast, your latest new signing. But by reading out an email address, you’re giving a reason not to visit it. At the same time as you’re telling your listener to use their computer. This is a wasted opportunity.

It’s also a wasted opportunity since a ‘contact us’ form on your website can help your audience – by underlining who the on-air presenter is; by automatically answering some of the questions your listeners have anyway; by offering a one-click registration (after submitting the email, not before); and, most importantly, by asking the audience to give a little more information to help you make great radio.

An email will give you, if you’re lucky, a name. And lots of spam.

A ‘contact us’ form could give you, if you’ve configured it right, a name, where they are (”Julie in Bingley”), and – if your listener wants to give it to you – a telephone number. So you can call Julie and get her to repeat that great joke, rather than simply reading it out from an email.

In other words – a ‘contact us’ form enables you to produce great radio. So, I’d hope today’s the day your presenters stop reading out an email address – and start reading out: “Contact us on the website – smalltownfm.com.” You’ll do that for me, right?

I’m not mad. I’m not saying you shouldn’t have a studio email address. Respond from it to thank listeners for their email if you like. But only using an email address is a missed opportunity. Don’t give it out on the air.

(As ever, these are my own personal thoughts, nothing more.)

Photo: Thomas Hawk – it’s at Pandora. Used under licence – thanks!

Yesterday, I discussed why you shouldn’t allow presenters to use their personal Twitter accounts on-air.

Today, it’s time for website addresses.

If you’re BigtownFM, when was the last time you promoted your rival SmalltownFM on your station? Not just mentioned it in passing, but actively promoted it? Never, I’m guessing. So it’s odd, isn’t it, when stations allow competing websites to be promoted on-air: because they’re doing exactly the same thing.

Your website earns you money – a fair amount, probably. It’s also the right place to send your audience to interact with your talent: it’s a controlled space, and one where you can also communicate other things about your station – your big competition on breakfast, your latest new signing.

Yet, if you allow your presenters to bypass that by telling their audience that the best content is on YouTube, or their own Facebook group, or – heaven forfend – their own website address, then your listeners never get to see any of your own website. And your presenters are, effectively, promoting your competition. It’s removing revenue from your business at a time when you can’t afford it; and damaging your best and cheapest marketing tool.

To fix this, you need to do three things:

1. Upgrade your website to allow your listeners to interact with your talent in a natural way. Use Facebook or Twitter’s open authentication system if you like, to avoid them having to re-register on a new service; but allow them to interact with your talent on your website.

2. Give your presenters the tools to update it. “Tools,” in this case, doesn’t mean your interactive team – they should be working on great station content, and more great tools. Your presenters should be trusted with producing great content. A simple example is, naturally, a blog.

3. Only when you’ve achieved #1 and #2, ensure that the only website that is ever mentioned on-air is your own website. No others. So your presenter can say: “I saw this really funny YouTube video today – want to take a look? You’ll find it on my page at smalltownfm.com”.

I’m not mad. I’m not saying you shouldn’t be on Facebook. It’s important you are – since you’re reaching your audience in their own habitat, and their own communities. Keep on doing it. But Facebook isn’t your site – so stop promoting it on the air.

Tomorrow, I’ll look at the odd practice of reading out email addresses on-air, and why you should stop that too. (And, as ever, these are my own personal thoughts – nothing more.)

Photo: Flickr user riffraff1. Used under licence – thank you.

When I was on-air in the 1990s, radio stations didn’t need to tell me not to read out my home address, my own email address, or my mobile phone number. It was clear that, when I was on the air, the way of getting in touch with me was the station’s phone number – or my radio station email address. As presenters, we’d never have even considered doing anything else. Of course I’d never have given out my home address, because you never knew what crazies were out there. And of course, I’d never have given my own personal mobile telephone number. When I was off-air, I was not on-show.

Skip forward to today, and many radio stations are allowing their presenters to blur the lines – with personal Twitter addresses making it to air. Probably egged on by such services like Media UK’s Radio Presenters On Twitter chart, a typical radio programme will contain a presenter reading out their own personal Twitter name – indeed, listening to NPR’s “Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me”, I notice that this isn’t just a UK phenomenon.

This will only lead to tears. So this is the first of a three-part series over the next three days on what your presenters should say – and what they shouldn’t.

First – Twitter. If you allow a presenter to regularly promote their own Twitter account on-air – particularly in relation to an on-air feature – then this Twitter account becomes part of the broadcast output. Should the presenter say something inappropriate, it’s indelibly linked to the broadcaster – since the presenter has deliberately linked their own personal Twitter account to their on-air programme. A poor-taste joke, a racist jibe, or a libellous comment: it’s difficult for a broadcaster to argue that this has nothing to do with them if they’ve allowed their talent to promote their personal online presence on the air. Retaining editorial control doesn’t only extend to on-air any more.

And come to that – you’ve signed your presenter. You’ve spent money promoting them, in the press, on television, or at least on your own station. Yet you appear to be happy enough to let your presenter own the relationship between them and your listener.

Fast forward two years, where your presenter gets a bigger gig at your competitor down the road. You remove them from the air as soon as you can, to minimise any damage – and ensure that your presenter is not able to tell his audience where he’s going. But he’s in charge of the relationship between him and his audience. He has effectively cut you out of that conversation. He can communicate directly with them. “Hot news: SmalltownFM weren’t interested in keeping me: so I’m excited to tell you I’ll be on BigtownFM from Monday. Please join me there!” – a great piece of marketing for BigtownFM, and very damaging for you: even if he’s not said anything that’s derogatory against your company. You need to keep that relationship.

So. How do you fix this?

Give your presenters official Twitter feeds for your station, and make it clear that they can only promote these. XFM is doing the right thing here, since it has a set of them – @daveberry_xfm is Dave Berry, for example – but this is clearly part of the station’s output. Ensure that -you- retain the password, and ensure that you actively monitor what they say (just like you monitor what they say on-air.) That way, when you part company with that presenter, you can communicate this fact to their followers your way – and, crucially, you stay in control. Just like you are on their air, right?

I’m not mad. I’m not saying you should stop your presenters being on Twitter personally. But that all station-related Twittering goes on under their official, station, Twitter account – not their own. Don’t let them promote it on the air.

Tomorrow, I’ll be looking at the website addresses you allow on the air on your station. (And note that, as ever, this is my own personal opinion; nothing more.)

Photo: Gilad Lotan. Used under licence – thanks!

Radio and that

Great Use of Twitter by a Radio Station [Paul Easton]
Paul Easton notes a really good bit of Twittering from 106 Jack FM. This is good stuff – and a good spot by Paul.

It’s time to get up, and get on your way… [Does that make sense?]
A rather good piece from Matthew Rudd about what it's like being a breakfast show presenter. And a title, of course, made from the lyrics to a jingle on Simon Mayo's breakfast show on Radio 1. Don't think I didn't notice.

Capital FM’s Summertime Ball [James Stodd – Radio Producer]
A positive review of Capital's Summertime Ball – but a rather negative review of what they did online. Not much, by the looks of things.

NPR: One Old Media Brand That Gets It [CBS News]
A rather interesting article, which details a lot of information about NPR's online activities. I can't help but thinking they're doing a rather more interesting job than we're doing in the UK. We should learn from them.

The BBC World Service now looks pretty on Freeview [Earshot]
…which is a nice thing. Not sure everything in there works very well, but it's a vast improvement from a dull static blue screen.

Save Our Sounds [BBC Radio Labs]
A blog from @radiokate explaining the deal behind BBC Save Our Sounds. Quite an interesting idea.

More New-Media Tripe [Radio InSights]
Quite an amusing piece of article ripping-apart. The Radio Insights team find it really galling that someone who has written for a magazine is slagging off radio. (That someone, Bob Garfield, is also a radio presenter – presenting On The Media for NPR, incidentally).

BBC doubles iPlayer radio quality, DAB weeps [Crave at CNET UK]
Crave don't understand that the future of radio is multiplatform, and it's not a fight between one platform and another. But I like the graphic. :)

A whole lot of nothing [Welcome To The North]
An excellent interview with Toby Foster of BBC Radio Sheffield, and Doncaster's new mayor. Toby does an excellent job here of asking simple questions which fluster and, eventually, completely embarrass the new mayor. A classic radio interview.

Advertising and that

On becoming a household name [Seth's Blog]
Seth points out that clickthrough isn't the only thing that's important when it comes to advertising online. Which is good news.

Brain-dead marketing? [Memex 1.1]
John doesn't like this biscuit's name. I rather like it. It's certainly different.

Miscellaneous and that

Not Playing Ball [Twitter Blog]
Twitter to launch 'verified real names' shortly. Which is rather good, since I've been doing this (with much success) in Media UK for quite some time now. It'll be excellent to be able to use Twitter's verification, perhaps, in future.

The First SoundPour [SoundPour]
A set of people listen to The Beatles (yay), their Revolver album (possibly the best one) (yay), drinking Chimay (yay), and use my photo to illustrate it (yay). I don't really understand what else is going on.

Postbox
A rather nicer version of Mozilla Thunderbird, for the Mac and Windows (sadly, not Ubuntu). Looks nice in Windows 7, that much I can tell you.

The Secret Life of the Airport [BBC FOUR]
A rather beautiful photograph on this programme (the one of Terminal 5). I waive the attribution licence for my employer. I'm rather pleased I spent a bit of time photographing Heathrow Terminal 5, my photos get used an awful lot.

This is a tidied and edited list of my Delicious links from June 11th to June 19th. You can subscribe to this list, live, via rss.