Where should a radio station be? And RAJAR Q1 2019

Where should a radio station be? I asked this week in my column. In Brisbane (above), four of the biggest radio stations in the city are moving studios - all to better locations.

When I was working in radio commercial creative in the early 1990s, all the talk was of the ‘ironing board test’ that had been undertaken 10 years before. Good to see that it’s been done again, with work done around relevant context. It’s easy to forget that radio offers some quite advanced targeting in comparison with print, for example: copy that can vary depending on time of day and even the weather.

Steven Goldstein asks: If Canadian Radio Is Losing Audience Faster Than Other Countries, What Can They Do About It? He’s right to highlight that Canadian broadcasters - the big ones, at least - have more tools than the average radio company to turn the numbers around. I hope they do.

RAJAR was in the UK last week. Adam Bowie’s thoughts include the observation that BBC Radio 2’s new breakfast show, hosted by Zoe Ball, is on virtually the same number of listeners as Chris Evans, who left to Virgin Radio. Yet, Evans himself has posted an impressive first set of numbers at just over 1m. Impressive that the BBC managed to magic a replacement million from somewhere.

• Meanwhile, Matt Deegan writes about RAJAR, highlighting the growth of digital. DAB is nearly, but not quite, the most popular way of listening to the radio in the UK. No surprise that DigitalRadioUK boss Ford Ennals is delightedly tweeting the figures, and especially highlighting the growth of digital radio in cars.

In a seamless segue, here’s a fun advertisement in Swiss German for getting DAB+ into cars. Switzerland will be the next country in Europe to switch off FM.

A clever idea for talkability of radio stations, or a dreadful stunt from a divided country desperately lacking in ambition? Three radio stations are now broadcasting excerpts of speeches from US President Donald Trump.

Delighted to see the news that the BBC has started producing RadioVIS hybrid radio images for all its radio stations. RadioVIS, which uses the internet to enhance broadcast radio, was something I was heavily involved in way back in 2009. Good to see the BBC finally got there.

Check that licence’s expiry date: in Ghana, two stations were taken off-air for not realising their licences had expired. The fact that both radio stations are affiliated with the opposition party is just pure coincidence, I’m sure, but naturally there are demonstrations against the decision.

I missed this earlier - Numeris is to measure all radio markets year-round starting this summer - quite a change for Canadian radio. Having short ‘ratings periods’ is bad for the listener, and I hope this results in better, more consistent, station output.

Digital billboards are useful things for radio - this has been done before, but it’s a nice trick

talkRADIO is the last Wireless radio station to move into the new building. Their studios look nice - I like the backdrop, though they’ve bafflingly retained the scrolly text on the background.

Howard Stern is doing the interview rounds at the moment. Variety asks whether the age of the shock jock is over; I’d also recommend this episode of Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend for a long interview with the man.

ViLOR is clever technology from the BBC which removes a lot of studio equipment from their individual local stations, and saves everyone money. This work has just been completed. I’ve heard some negative discussion of it - but nothing like the negative discussion that there used to be about the poor state of local radio’s technology in some studio centres. A good use of new technology.

Interesting thread on Twitter about how people listen to the radio. Yes, the FM/DAB split is quite interesting, but much more so is the almost entire demise of AM. When will stations start switching off, I wonder?

Great to have heard Russ Williams on this edition of the RadioToday Programme. He’s a top broadcaster with a lot to say.

Some fascinating data about audio consumption online in Spain. Particularly that news is most-often consumed live, not on-demand.