A Lego radio that isn't; and multiplatform's Olympics headache

• Lego has made a radio. It’s a radio with a difference, because it has a thing called a “sound brick”, which has sounds of a radio on it, but oddly is not an actual radio. There may be a missed opportunity here somewhere.

  • Looks like I saw a DAB+ radio made out of Lego in Belgium in 2013; and seemingly an entirely different one at the EBU in Feb 2012.

• In Australia, Commercial Radio & Audio has published The Audio Edge, with data and information about audio advertising.

• Tom Webster has launched a book. The Audience Is Listening: A Little Guide to Building a Big Podcast (affiliate) is not a book telling you how to make a podcast (“you know how to do that”), and instead, tells you how to make your podcast better. It starts with a look back at Puremix, a shortlived set of personalised online radio stations in London.

• Jimmy Buckland has been named Strategy and Operations Director for News UK’s broadcasting division. He has worked for the company, which owns talkSPORT, Times Radio, Virgin Radio UK and other channels, since 2009.

The Olympics are on, in case you’ve not noticed.

Media coverage of the Olympics is rather more confused than it could be: The EBU and Discovery have the European rights until the end of the Brisbane Olympics in 2032. That gives public broadcasters some access in Europe, but full access only via a paid Discovery subscription.

In Australia, Nine Entertainment has the rights. Nine appears to be showing some of the output on free-to-air television, but Nine’s paid-streamer, Stan, is where you’ll find much of the television coverage. There’s an interesting tension between the availability of FTA coverage, and the more comprehensive, and ad-free, Stan Sport coverage (for AUD$31 a month), from the same company.

Nine also has the radio rights, which it’s using for its talk stations 2GB, 4BC, 3AW and 6PR. Those stations aren’t national, though; so it did a deal with the ABC to let them have rights in non-competing areas. This means that ABC Local Radio is able to carry Olympics coverage; but not in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.

And, also not online (lest the stream make it to areas that Nine Radio covers with their own output) - and for some stations, that even means that local breakfast shows aren’t being broadcast online, just in case they carry any rights-restricted material.

Does it matter? It only affects about 13% of the audience, who listen online to ABC Local Radio at breakfast (according to a cursory look at the figures). But that’s still a healthy chunk who won’t be getting their normal programming. That’s an added complication for the increasingly multi-platform world of radio.

• 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)

Where I am speaking next

• Radiodays Asia, Kuala Lumpur (Sep 2-4)
• PBI Conference, Ottawa, Canada (Oct 8-10)
• Lyddager, Norway (Oct 18-19)
• Guldörat, Sweden (Oct 22)
• Independent Podcast Awards, London (Oct 23)
• Audiodays, Denmark (Oct 25)
• ASI International Radio & Audio Conference, Venice, Italy (Nov 6)
• Radiodays Europe, Athens, Greece (Mar 9-11 2025)

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