LBC's election coverage; and Alfred shows us the future
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Very impressive to see LBC doing vision as well as audio for the coverage of the UK General Election. Here’s a best-of reel, to save you watching the whole slightly depressing eight hours. A clever piece of positioning from LBC to communicate that they were just as important as the BBC and ITV over the election - and I saw very high figures online when I was tuning in. A really very good production from all concerned. (Clever use of Facetime with the reporters out at the counts).
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Indeed, I noticed that people could watch ITV, Sky News and LBC (and many other international broadcasters) live on a variety of platforms including YouTube, Facebook and Twitter - reaching people on the platforms they use. As far as I can see, the BBC decided to force people to their own platforms. When will the UK public service broadcaster start serving the UK public?
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Interesting to note that everyone on LBC was wearing small TV-friendly microphones and hidden earpieces, except those in the radio studio. I wonder whether next time, the big headphones, at the very least, will disappear? (Although hopefully “next time” will be in five years).
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Even more impressive, I think, are the plans for Alfred, a new community radio station in Shaftesbury in England. This is a beautifully crafted community radio licence application. An ambitious and truly different radio station, and exactly right for 2020. It contains no music at all (quite rightly, since music is now a commodity you can get everywhere, and the average listener in Shaftesbury will be able to get many, many music radio stations in any case). It’s a really good read, and I’d recommend it to anyone as a really clear guide to where the future of radio might be going.
Classifieds: It’s easy to do “that was, this is”, but here’s a £1 week-long trial of Show Prep, from a properly decent radio consultant, that’ll supercharge any radio show.
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Absolute Radio put a cleverly edited video on Twitter highlighting their breakfast show guests this year. Nicely done.
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Excepting the excellent, handsome if slightly over-shouty voiceover, take a listen to this clip from 1989 - it couldn’t be any more embarrassing and old-fashioned!
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The power of audio. What a beautiful story this is. How utterly lovely.
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WBUR is looking at the future of radio. With an orange. Intricate flashback to late 1980s advertising for a UK mobile phone network?
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You know that General Election exit poll that got it pretty well spot on? Spookily… UK radio research is worked out in quite a similar way.
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Multi-platform radio listening in France, anyone? Interestingly low - just 13% listen on a digital platform. The absence of a properly national DAB+ network is probably partly the reason.
Thank you to Rupert Brun, Barrie Stephenson, Cleanfeed and Richard Hilton for your continued support.