I used to post quite a few links to places: using some code that didn’t work very well from Delicious. I’ve kind of stopped doing that recently, but here are a few recent items you might find interesting, perhaps, that I’ve spotted in my Google Reader.

RAJAR’s latest MIDAS research seems to point to radio not doing very well online, according to Research: Online Radio Languishing Compared With Web Video, a rather critical analysis posted by paidContent:uk. The lack of any growth in internet radio listening is something I’ve been mentioning for some time, but Robert’s analysis should get a few people thinking – as well as Harker Research’s analysis into what music internet radio plays.

People should probably be thinking about how the marvellous-looking UK Radio Player will shake internet radio up a little. I’m proud to have been involved in the early part of scoping this work, and got a number of good technical agreements which has certainly helped the product. What’s nice to see is that the user-interface has significantly improved from where I last saw it, and it’s a great piece of work by, I’m guessing, Adam Powers and the UX guys in my old team at the BBC. Looking forward to seeing this launched. I must confess to being a little peeved that Tim Davie chose to announce this at a media conference and not at Radio At The Edge the previous week: you’d have thought this was a perfect announcement for the UK’s new-platforms-meets-radio conference, but still.

I shared Zoe Williams’s critique of Absolute 80s. I’ve been wanting an 80s station for some time; Absolute seem to have produced one by simply doing a search in Selector for “1980s” and producing a station based on that; the result is a rather dull facsimile of a ‘greatest rock hits of the 80s’ CD. Some surprise tracks might be good.

The programming that new radio stations should broadcast is something that the BBC’s Chris Kimber has also thought about on his personal blog. In his “in praise of Guy Garvey” posting, he highlights exactly why just playing back-to-back music isn’t, quite, the plan. He highlights that the show is “combining carefully chosen music, interesting and informative bits between the music, some humour, and audience involvement”, and also points out, very interestingly, that “there’s really nothing in the two hours that places it in any particular day or time, meaning there’s no jarring time checks or news summaries when you listen on-demand”. Is this programming made for an on-demand audience, I wonder? A nice idea; and a good blog. More please, Captain.

Talking digital, which we were, DAB Digital Radio sales have reached 10 million, reported The Guardian, with a salutary quote: “Sure, you can receive digital radio through your TV set or online, but switchover is not going to happen without a viable portable broadcast platform such as DAB.” That’s true; and much as the internet is a powerful, exciting medium, it won’t be the primary medium for mass-market radio broadcasting for many years to come. (Cue boring thing from me about hybrid ‘broadcast and IP together’ receivers, and a link to RadioDNS’s website.)

Also over the past month, I saw this comparison of headlines about “dreadful Nick Griffin and his dreadful BNP” and, um, the newspaper industry’s rather similar thoughts. (For more about the newspaper industry’s interesting practices, I recommend News of the World?: Fake Sheikhs and Royal Trappings for a quick read; I’ve just finished it).

I read the 348 RSS feeds on my Google Reader wherever I am, courtesy of the website itself and Byline, an iPhone app which works (among other places) on the tube or in the aeroplane. You can follow my shared items here if you so want; complete with my rather cheeky commentary; or if you use Google Reader too, feel free to add my feed into yours – go to ‘Sharing settings’ under ‘People you follow’ and type my name into the ‘Find more people’ box. Feel free to let me know if you’re sharing interesting stuff too.

Finally, a few boring technical updates: my disclosure page has changed slightly, to reflect speaking fees, reference amazon.co.uk affiliate links, and to slightly change my “blogging for money” line. It used to say that “I don’t accept payment for blog postings”, and now says that “I do not make blog postings for payment”. This is to acknowledge that sometimes companies contact me after a blog posting. You’ll also see a change to my front page, and to the site’s look and feel in general if you’re using a relatively new browser. My biography page has also been slightly updated, to reflect the fact that I am no longer the chairman of Radio At The Edge, to reflect my on-going world tour, and to include a link to (and quotes from) my CV.

Tags: 6music, 80s, absolute, bbc, midas, music, radio, radiodns, RAJAR, uk radio player | Permalink | Comments RSS