James Cridland's blog

A radio futurologist writing about what happens when radio and new platforms collide

« | Blog index | »

Audioboo makes it to the mainstream

Posted on Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 at 10:58pm. #

For some reason, my normal wake-up call from LBC 97.3 was changed this morning to a wake-up from BBC Radio 1.

My friend Chris Moyles was waking up Britain in a splendid way as usual, playing some odd music I’d not heard before, and introducing himself as “Hello, I’m Chris Moyles, the really nasty bloke you’ve read about in the papers except I’m quite nice really”.

And then, he started talking about Audioboo. It seems that he’s discovered Tony Blackburn’s AudioBoos, and had rather a lot of fun playing some of them. And he’s Audiobooing himself.

I’ve been talking about Audioboo in presentations for some time now – in the recent Media Guardian conference, Radio Reborn, I played a bunch of radio executives a splendid bit of audio from it – and I suggested that letting your listeners generate great audio will really transform your radio station (far more than texts or emails ever will).

I’m delighted that Chris has discovered AudioBoo; and also delighted that Tony Blackburn is having a bit of fun with it and leaving Chris some gags. I believe that any iPhone radio app should have AudioBoo built-in – so I can listen to my favourite radio station, and contribute to it, in an easy, radio-friendly way.

What would be really good is to now hear more from his listeners. Although probably not this listener, who’s rather less impressed. And probably not my own boos, either.

Photo, to accompany this AudioBoo, from Gwyn Fisher. Used under licence – thanks!

9 comments

gwyn
commenting at May 6th, 2009 at 11:34pm

You’re welcome to the photos. Thanks for the heads up :)

Tony Blackburn on AudioBoo « 853
commenting at May 7th, 2009 at 9:59am

[...] it’s early days, and I’m sure they’re aware of the possibilities it could have to revolutionise the way radio stations interact with their audiences – no more inane text messages, get the listeners to record something instead. Are you listening, [...]

Phil
commenting at May 9th, 2009 at 2:04am

That’s novel – is that a slice of orange?

gwyn
commenting at May 9th, 2009 at 2:15pm

Yep. And even if you don’t it, you feel subconsciously healthier just knowing it’s there.

Stuart
commenting at May 9th, 2009 at 5:40pm

It’s a shame it’s only iPhone compatible, surely it can’t be too difficult to do the same thing with any phone with an audio recorder and MMS?

Phil
commenting at May 9th, 2009 at 7:06pm

Yep, the presentation has magical properties. I’m tempted to change to a more appealing breakfast. Even substituting lemon for orange makes me feel better – I’ll try it tomorrow. If my son likes it then it’s a winner for me :)

AudioBoo: a spoken word YouTube - Front Page News - NewsSpotz
commenting at May 26th, 2009 at 10:17am

[...] is a goldmine for radio stations. "Letting your listeners generate great audio will really transform your radio station – far more than texts or emails ever will," he said.AudioBoo has been talked about as next [...]

AudioBoo: a spoken word YouTube | Ramblings
commenting at May 26th, 2009 at 11:30pm

[...] is a goldmine for radio stations. “Letting your listeners generate great audio will really transform your radio station – far more than texts or emails ever will,” he [...]

Justin
commenting at April 21st, 2011 at 8:34pm

This is a great concept. I’ve never heard of audioboo before. I agree wholeheartedly that this would make radio talk shows so much more creative and colourful. I reckon their would be some great audio snippets that you could create entire segments of radio off.

Leave a comment

Here's my commenting policy