James Cridland

Infinite Dial Australia 2025 - and KiSS Throwbacks

Infinite Dial 2025

This is Radioland, my radio newsletter.

It’s been the week of radio numbers in Australia.

First, The Infinite Dial Australia 2025 was released - and it painted a very positive story of both podcasting (hitting 50% monthly reach for the first time), and commercial radio in Australia, which remains strong.

It’s not just the numbers: it’s how they were presented. We were treated to a live webinar, including Margie Reid, the CEO of creative ad agency Thinkerbell, Larry Rosin, the President of Edison Resarch, and Tim Burrowes, the publisher of media title Mumbrella (as well as the person ultimately responsible for Thy, so we’ll gloss over that bit). It might have been sponsored by CRA, but it was positioned as independent research, and nicely done.

And, how they were presented were also evident in the expensive, glossy-looking graphics that accompanied the release. The full slidedeck is available directly from Edison Research here - and are the slides you’d expect from a confident, forward-looking industry. Impressive work.

They’re helpful for the Australian industry, because these are the only national numbers we have. Some of radio goes unmeasured; we get occasional regional figures for smaller towns and cities, and then, of course, the eight-times-a-year metro radio figures for the five biggest cities in Australia.

Speaking of which, the latest radio figures were released. Kyle and Jackie O, the radio story for the last year, saw another market share drop of 0.7%, and are now at just 5.1%. To my reading, Kyle and Jackie O is now the poorest-performing breakfast show on FM in Melbourne (well, only beaten by ABC Classic, a station that shouldn’t be on FM). I wonder how much longer ARN can afford to keep them on-air in the city? (It’s not an issue of networking. It’s an issue of a poor product.)

By the way - I learn that “Total” at the bottom of the GfK tables means “Total radio”, and not “Total of the stations above”. GfK monitors all radio, not just the ones in the table (those are the subscribers of the data). No, I didn’t know that either. So, for example, in Brisbane, total radio reach is 2.163mn, against a potential audience of 2.305mn - a total radio reach of 93.8% of the population.

And, then, there was the Australian Podcast Ranker for May 2025, and then there was the Digital News Report for Australia 2025, as part of a wider piece of work. Quite the week!

RCS

In Canada, something interesting is going on in Chilliwack/Vancouver and surrounding areas. Alternative format SONiC Radio has suddenly ceased, and Rogers has launched a new station, called KiSS Throwbacks. For Rogers, it’s the first for this new format (the hits of the 90s and the 2000s) - and I think it’s the first brand extension for Rogers - taking a CHR brand, KiSS Radio, and making an additional service from it. I gather it’s being powered by Super Hi-Fi. When I tuned in, it was midnight in Canada, so I was treated to the automated playout system. Things I liked: a) the music positioner, which started with a modem connection noise which is perfect for the audience; b) all the station positioning jingles, which are all dry at the end, and the playout system knows where to start the next song to make it continue to flow. That’s a really clever thing I’ve not heard before. (The station is available on TuneIn - but is geoblocked so clearly I’ve not heard any of it and this entire paragraph is impossible.)

Here’s a scoped bit of the actual radio station from day one, Jun 19, complete with the signature Super-Hifi “magic intro extender”. Some nice local mentions in here (the reason it talks so much about Chilliwack instead of Vancouver is a licensing thing); and the full-service sound of the station during the day. I’m really pleased to hear the concept of a brand extension in Canada: and this one sounds crisp and well produced. Bravo, Rogers, nice job.

  • My hunt for a universal digital radio continues. (You might remember, I’m looking for a radio with FM, AM, SW, DAB+, DRM, and HD). Thanks to John A Figliozzi for his recommendation of the ChoYong LC90 which looks amazing (and clearly software-powered, with a colour screen). It doesn’t do the DAB+/DRM/HD but looks really interesting. I’ve written to the manufacturers to see about support for digital broadcasting - it strikes me that this device is probably entirely machined to deal with it; it’s just a matter of software decoding. I’m hoping they reply.

  • In the UK, this is a brilliant piece of radio from Nick Ferrari at LBC. The Treasury Minister of the UK government Emma Reynolds - clearly not briefed on the actual release she’s there to speak about, and Nick simply wouldn’t let that go, like a terrier with a bone. It’s why I miss that breakfast show. (It should be noted that they’re in separate studios - she’s in Millbank, he’s in Leicester Square; I’d personally add a location caption in Millbank to explain away the rather strange way she doesn’t appear to look at him).

  • The Queensland government is telling us to buy battery-powered radio receivers. Not entirely sire I’m a fan of the creative.

  • Reader feedback from Susanne: “I have a couple of AM bakelite antique radios that work, and a Pure battery radio for those powerless events Oh also a 12volt Black & White TV with a spare car battery to run it. For the ‘Just in Case’.” Good luck getting that TV to work!

  • Here is a man in India who owns 1,257 radio receivers h/t Simon Spanswick

  • Larry Rosin and Fred Jacobs bring us proof that radio advertising works - but it’s actually nothing to do with advertising. Some great data work.

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

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