BBC Sounds gets launched, longer ads apparently preferred, and Bobby Bones

Worldwide

• Smart Speakers are having their 2004 iPod moment – there are some interesting ideas here for content strategy (scroll down to ‘Conclusions’ for those). They’re just as valid for radio broadcasters.

• Unlocked Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus now have support for FM radio (in some countries as I understand it, the wireless chip is apparently different in some territories)

• A set of podcasts about the future of radio, by Martin Heer (as part of a university project). Worth a listen!

• Popular podcast app Castbox altered RSS feeds and is still removing links - the wild west of podcasting’s distributed nature, once more

• How much is a broadcasting licence worth? Canada’s Corus reckons… $1bn less

United States

• When talk radio was a kinder, gentler world - a nice look back. I wonder why ’nice’ radio isn’t around as much as it was?

  • In the beginning of a trend, the above link is blocked for people accessing this from an EU IP address. I’m an EU citizen, yet I can see it. Should I alert the authorities?

• Denton TX - a 67W FM community radio station. As the article says, lightbulbs often use more power.

• Spurious study showing that apparently people prefer longer ads. This research will probably be used by dumb people, and that’s a worry. Trust me on this: they prefer GOOD and ENTERTAINING ads. Not longer ones. (However, some longer ones do have more space to be good and entertaining.)

• Significant growth in smart speaker use among radio superfans in the US/Canada; doubled in a year.

• Google Launched a New Podcasts App. Is It a Game Changer? - Seth doesn’t share my enthusiasm, but I think much of that is to punish Google for its previous transgressions.

• Entercom is pulling its radio streams off TuneIn, in favour of its own platform. (I think this is a mistake - watch AllAccess later this week, and I’ll tell you why)

• Why Radio Host Bobby Bones Ran Negative Ads Against Himself - a good and quite humble read.

• Scout FM brings its personalized podcast experience to CarPlay and Android Auto - this is a clever way of reworking the podcast-in-car experience.

• In the US, fewer women and people of color worked at radio stations in 2017 than 2016, a new survey shows. Will not make political point, I’ve got to get into the country in a few weeks.

• Slate’s Facebook traffic has dropped by 87 percent since 2017. Goodness. I know of plenty of radio stations who’s websites are essentially driven by Facebook referrals rather than organic traffic. Good luck to them.

• Nielsen posts some interesting growth figures for streaming media

United Kingdom

• The new BBC radio and audio and podcast app, BBC Sounds, went live. It’s UK-only (but, since digital rights management merely punishes the technically illiterate, I have it). It looks nice, and has some nice touches - some editorial “buckets”, as the lovely Ben Chapman unromantically calls them, which bring together BBC programming under a common theme; the graphics and imagery is good and uses the new BBC online font. It’s an MVP, and lacks downloads and Chromecast support; I’d personally have called it a beta to have deflected some of the whinging. I’m also disappointed that on-demand radio programmes aren’t properly topped-and-tailed; but the BBC have only had 16 years to fix that, so perhaps I’m being a little impatient.

• BBC News weighs in on BBC Radio 2’s drivetime show. It must be difficult doing a show under this kind of pressure.

• Someone (presumably the Advertising Standards Authority) has told Capital, in the UK, to justify their “number one hit music station” strapline. Someone had to write this genius explanation.

• The World Cup is having good effects on UK radio listening, apparently. And yes, this was even before England inexplicably scraped through.

• How Much Should we Care about Commercial Radio Localness? - David Lloyd blogs sense, as ever.

• Happy birthday to BBC Radio Leeds - which was, for a long while, my local BBC radio station. As a station, I fear it’s lost its way.

• Fascinating changes to how the UK chart is put together. And literally a Lazy Buggles Headline.

Australia

• How ABC iView (BBC iPlayer equivalent) came to be. Interesting read.

• Lazy Buggles lede in this story… sigh. I’ve left a comment, but really, I’m not the radio marketing board.

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