James Cridland

Australia's final 2024 radio survey, and less AM in the UK

Brisbane City Hall

  • Hello from a hot Australia, where the last radio survey of the year has just been released. Commercial radio has posted record numbers, and a record share of 75.9% of radio listening, which is the highest share in more than two decades. That, of course, suggests that the ABC is on its lowest share for more than two decades - possibly something you’re unlikely to see reported, but it’s quite the concern (see below for more). In Sydney, Kyle & Jackie O are still #1 FM, though Ben Fordham on 2GB has beaten them again. However, in Melbourne, their show is only doing 5% - down even on last survey. Ooof. The people they replaced, now on Nova, are #1 (on FM) with 11.5%.

  • Welcome plans about ABC Radio National (a speech format not unlike BBC Radio 4), which firstly has changed its name to ABC Radio National by all accounts (though nobody’s told the logo-makers), and secondly is to have continuity announcers from early next year. The station is a confusing mix of packaged programmes with no handholding - a continuity announcer will make big difference to how easy it is to listen to the station for a prolonged period of time. I still dislike the name of “Late Night Live”, which as you’ll guess from the title, airs between 2pm and 3pm, thus making every word of the title inaccurate. (It’s a repeat. I’d call it “David Marr” for the repeat).

RCS

  • In the UK, national AM station talkSPORT is wanting to turn off a further seven AM transmitters, reducing its AM coverage from 92% to 88.9% of the UK population. The station has reduced coverage twice before. It’ll result in a maximum reduction of 0.5% of total listening hours - assuming that not a single listener bothers to retune to DAB, satellite, or listen online. It’s fascinating seeing the difference between AM listening in the UK to that of Australia.

    • Here’s a fun fact from the DCMS Audio Report. In 2021, national AM cost £4.2mn to broadcast a total of three stations. National FM cost £4.4mn (for four). (National DAB cost £2.7mn). That £4.2mn cost for AM? That was just for 3% of all radio listening. Ouch.

  • Worthwhile highlighting that AM is where the ABC’s flagship stations, ABC Local Radio, are in the capital cities. And that’s hurting them. If I were in charge, I’d be moving ABC Classic to a digital-only format in the cap cities (DAB+ is fine, it’s also on free-to-air TV services, and online), and simulcasting ABC Local Radio onto FM as well. Of course, that’s not allowed under ACMA rules - you can’t simulcast an AM service on FM. But this is one place where the rules need to change, if ACMA is to be seen to be a sensible regulator and not one trying to kill the medium.

  • Good news for UK community radio. They’ve been forbidden from earning more than £15,000 (US $19,000) each year from advertising and sponsorship. Now, the government is to relax this rule, as long as they money gets reinvested back into the station. FM licences are also being automatically extended for ten years (rather than five). Sensible moves.

  • I wrote a thing about video podcasts via RSS, and why it really isn’t a good option for anyone. It’s relatively relevant for radio. Perhaps.

  • Valerie Geller’s “Beyond Powerful Radio” has a new edition. Generations of broadcasters have used this book to hone their style (and goodness, you can hear where they haven’t!) Now on its third edition, it contains even things about podcasting, artificial intelligence, and plenty more. You can buy through Amazon, or in the US, bookshop.org (where you’ll be helping both local bookstores and helping… me, given it’s an affiliate link.)

  • All change at ABC Radio Sydney (702 ABC Sydney?) (who knows?) as Richard Glover leaves, but also unexpectedly Sarah Macdonald, who hasn’t had her contract renewed. The optics of this are poor. The ABC’s head of radio, Ben Latimer apparently made the decision but didn’t have the guts to tell her directly, leaving it to a temporary station manager; and only after a few days did he send out an all-staff email to explain. Latimer is a former commercial radio person, which I personally think is a benefit to the ABC and not a drawback, but that helpful past is now being used as a stick to beat him with. Poor people decisions like that won’t help, especially at the ABC.

  • But, if you think the ABC’s optics are poor, the optics at ARN’s WSFM are worse. The station just celebrated being #1 in Sydney last survey - an astonishing success in a competitive market - but ARN have decided to remove Mike Byrne, WSFM’s content director who got the station there, saying that the job is now redundant. Such is the world of media these days that even when you achieve everything you set out to achieve, you still get fired the next week.

  • Meanwhile, on 612 ABC Brisbane, or ABC Radio Brisbane, or whatever it’s called, former incumbent of this slot Spencer Howson is doing the breakfast shift this week and last. What’s interesting to me as a listener is how fast-moving and full of content the show sounds - I made a remark on Bluesky suggesting it sounds like a station with ten producers. This morning, Hugh Cornish died - a TV star in the state (and the first person on TV in Queensland) - Spencer had not only a colleague of his on-air to pay respects, but also played an astonishingly prescient clip of his from the 1980s about what the future of television was going to be like. Impressive. Of note - as I write this (at 2.25pm), Hugh Cornish’s death has still yet to be reported by anyone other than friend-of-this-newsletter Mister Brisbane.

    • (When Spencer last did this slot, the station was called “612 ABC Brisbane”, a good name on-air. Off-air, I’d make sure the logo, and any written words, calls it “612 ABC Radio Brisbane”. Add the word “Radio” when you’re not on it. This isn’t difficult.)

  • BBC Radio 2 has appointed Scott Mills to be the next breakfast show presenter. The right choice to have a radio professional in what I assume is now the biggest slot in European radio. Meanwhile, the Boom Radio killer, an online-only BBC Radio 2 oldies service, is back on the cards, after slightly changing the original plans that the regulator told them they couldn’t go ahead with. I’d spend the money on BBC local radio, personally.

  • Chairman Kim Williams of the ABC decided that even though he’s never listened to Joe Rogan, he thinks he’s deeply repulsive in a live interview. Unsurprisingly, this got back to Rogan, and even to Elon Musk. I’m surprised that such an apparently lauded media executive like Chairman Kim made such an unforced error. You’d assume that anyone at the ABC would be keen to learn from the world’s most listened-to audio creator.

  • Want to supercharge your radio show? Here’s a £1 week-long trial of Show Prep - from a world class radio consultant and the best show-prep writer in the UK. Great for UK stations, or for English-language stations everywhere, too. (ad)

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I’m done for this year, but…

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