No more awards in Australia; no more Radio in the UK Academy

Above: OOH advertising for NOVA in Brisbane today. NOVA is a radio station, not that you’d know from this; Ash, Luttsy and Nikki are I think the breakfast crew. This type of advertising seems only to exist in Australia, and this campaign is all the same - a picture of someone, their name above it, and a slightly strange tagline. You might think this is another opaque ad campaign that assumes knowledge from the audience (what’s Nova? Is it a streaming service? Is it a magazine?) - but then you realise that it’s probably only aimed at those with ratings diaries to fill, and literally to remind them the name of the station that these personalities are on. Fun fact: today, Oct 28, is the first day of a week out of survey - and I bet none of them will be on-air next week.

In Australia, the ACRA radio awards, last held in 2024, will no longer return, according to the organisers Commercial Radio and Audio. “Individual networks continue to celebrate the amazing work being done across our industry through their own recognition programs,” suggests the CEO, Lizzie Young. Permanently cancelling the radio awards is quite a shock - and does send a signal of a less showbiz, less relevant industry. Meanwhile, the Australian Podcast Awards isn’t happening this year either: Podnews reporting it’s shifting to 2026. And the ABC Local Radio awards are long-since mothballed. Is there any opportunity for audio to be recognised in the country any more, excepting genre-specific awards like the Walkleys?

• The Radio Academy will, from next year, be known as The Audio Academy. As a former trustee, I was asked what I thought; I’m conflicted. It’s the right move from the Academy, which runs the ARIAS (the Audio & Radio Industry Awards); but it seems another loss of the word “radio”, rather than a redefinition of it.

Classifieds

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“Making it up as they go along” - Mark Damazer, former BBC Radio 4 Controller, on the BBC’s international audio offer, in Roger Bolton’s Beeb Watch.

Damazer suggests that the BBC’s press office is currently suggesting that “the music rights issue” isn’t the reason the BBC removed most radio stations from clear visibility for international listeners - and, instead, suggest it’s just all about money. He “raises an eyebrow” about that.

I know - for certain - that what has driven this is wholly the concern about music licensing: I’ve spoken to too many people within the BBC about this. Of course it’s also about earning money - and the fact is that the BBC’s music stations (both live and on-demand) would give the BBC more availability for advertising, were they able to do that - but, the music rights issue prohibits them from doing so.

I wonder why the BBC’s Press Office is telling a former Trustee something different?

• BBC Audio isn’t (yet?) linking to the new BBC DAB+ stations - BBC Radio 1 Dance, BBC Radio 1 Anthems, and BBC Radio 3 Unwind. I’ve updated my guide on how to listen to BBC radio overseas to add those links; they work just fine. (They didn’t; but they do now - presumably now they’re fully licenced broadcast radio stations, there’s no reason to treat them any differently). I wonder how long it’ll take for the BBC’s official list to include them?

  • Thanks to those who pointed out that some BBC Local Radio stations are on DAB+. The above stations are the first BBC national services in DAB+.

• A company in the US is publishing 3,000 podcast episodes a week using AI - and not listening to almost any of them before putting them out there. I interviewed Jeanine Wright, the company’s CEO, for the Podcast Business Journal. Of course, radio could do this too. Let’s hope it doesn’t.

• In the US, a new law will mandate AM radio in cars - but only for the next eight years. John Catsimatidis, the owner of WABC in New York - an AM station - calls the eight-year clause “unnecessary”; though his station’s website notes that “since the onset of FM, and podcasts, an increasing number of younger consumers opt for content they hear through their phone”. (This radio consultant suggests, based on US listening trends, that AM radio’s audience will have entirely vanished by 2034.)

• Someone finds a software-defined radio dongle, and does 50 different things with it. Some quite fascinating things. Some things that are less fascinating. Lots of things that “are not allowed in Germany”.

• An interesting comparison between “high-attention media” and “low-attention media”. I’ve always considered speech-based radio as high-attention media; podcasts, too - but the research appears to point to ad money shifting away from high-attention media and toward social media and OOH.

I was in Canada last week, and am now at home (hurray) - where I’ve spend the last four days mainly in bed, recovering from a surprisingly bad cold (but that’s all it was, say the tests). Here’s a full trip report if you like those sorts of things. This is the first time when I’ve no speaking engagements (save a pre-recorded one early next week) until March of next year. I love speaking; I like the travel rather less. (I am planning to be in the audience at some of SXSW Sydney, however).

Where I am speaking next

• The Health Podcast Summit, virtual (Oct 1-2)
• Radiodays Europe, Riga, Latvia, (Mar 22-24, 2026)

Supporters

Thank you to the supporters below, plus Greg Strassell, Sam Phelps, Richard Hilton, Emma Gibbs, Jocelyn Abbey and James Masterton for being regular supporters.

If you’d like to support my work in any way, you can BuyMeACoffee - become a member to give regularly or just give a one-off coffee, or five. Here’s where to do that. Or, alternately, here’s a way direct with Stripe.

I’m on Bluesky as @james.crid.land or on Mastodon as @james@bne.social - tip, use the second one.

My website has more detail about who I am, and what I do, and whether I can help you further.

Selected bits from Radioland are in RadioInfo in Australia, and RAIN News in the US
Lesen Sie außerdem ausgewählte Artikel auf Deutsch in Radioszene