New Heart Breakfast; the Global Player; and Rova
You may have noticed that this newsletter has been relatively sporadic of late; and that’s partially due to an increase of workload elsewhere - and also partially due to an awful lot of travel over the past few weeks. I hope to publish more frequently again from here, and apologies if you’ve missed this email from your inboxes over the past few weeks.
UK: Here’s a brand new television ad for the brand new breakfast show for the UK on Heart. Curiously, the outdoor advertising, which I saw a bit of in London, uses the same creative, which is utterly confusing without having seen the TV ad - using a picture of a bee, and Jamie and Amanda with their arms outstretched as if they were aeroplanes. Global must have the data, but I wonder how many people will see the outdoor creative before seeing the TV ad: or, indeed, never see the TV ad?
- Here’s a perceptive review of the show. Yes, it’s replaced a whole set of local radio breakfast shows, but in fact, those stations still have local news and local travel. I suspect that listeners may be sad about losing the people who they woke up to for the last ten years or so, but won’t care a jot about the fact that Jamie and Amanda are in London - the success of the BBC Radio 2 breakfast show would be good evidence of that. Indeed, the local content still on Heart is a competitive advantage that BBC Radio 2 doesn’t have.
Wonder what a podcast sounds like if it’s recorded on the floor of the NAB Show? It sounds like NAB Podcast 94: Spanning the Globe for Successful Podcast Strategies, which was published earlier this month. Enjoy me being polite but a little critical of US radio.
Here’s a new television ad for the New Zealand radio aggregator app Rova. Includes a logo for Google that they stopped using in September 2015, which makes me twitch a little.
This is an interesting thought from Michael Hill.
In the UK, ITV teams up with Global adding its podcasts to Global Player - interesting move. Every broadcaster is trying to make their own super-duper audio app: the hard work is to ensure that listeners install it. We listen to about four station on average per week, so my theory is that the best we can hope for is for a listener to install the app for their most-listened-to station, and an aggregator app for the rest. I can see benefit for ITV to get its podcasts in a new place; but less clear of the benefits for Global.
Apple released a slew of changes to podcast categories; but as I point out, they consulted with virtually nobody beforehand, and appear to be acting a little like an arrogant dictator of an industry they do not own.
Amazon Music, in France, is giving away cash just for listening. I’ve heard of this sort of idea somewhere before - on, ah yes, the radio.
Bad podcasting will teach you how to make good radio says Amanda Keller. Would be nice if this were a little less combative, but yes, the thought is good: listening to bad audio will teach you how to make good audio, yes.
Triton Digital releases February’s Webcast Metrics. In it, a little extra piece of information about WPLJ’s last day, which managed significant increases, as well it might.
Studio chairs - minging, though this one is especially. Yeuch. @layoverpaige probably wants more pictures of unhygenic studio chairs if you’ve got any.
VISTA Radio launches 98.1 2day FM in Lethbridge - congratulations to my friends at VISTA for a great new station, and a good execution of their brand strategy.
Obviously, I also write fluent Italian. Here is a recent article of mine about the FM chip in mobile phones. Ciao, bella!
US Attorneys and FCC Combine to Shut Down Pirate Radio Station - always interesting to read these.
I was interviewed about podcasting and radio, in English, in La Lettre.
ATSC 3.0 has energized the idea of TV receiver chips in mobile devices, according to this piece. I’m not so sure - ATSC is a US transmission standard, and mobile phone companies are much more interested in covering global technologies; but always good to keep your mind open.
Nielsen’s Audio Today survey is out, saying that in the US, radio is listened-to by 92% of the population every week. That figure last year was 93%, just saying; but since the figures don’t include any decimal points, perhaps the decline is less than it seems.