ABC comes off iHeart

In Australia, the ABC is coming off the iHeartRadio app (operated in the country by ARN). Radioinfo covers the news with a familiar set of reasons - rights issues and audience data - both of which are, I suggest, red herrings. The rights issues are already covered by the ABC - listen to ABC local radio online during sports coverage, and you get alternative programming anyway; and the ABC’s streaming servers get full streaming data from listeners however they tune in.

For now, the ABC’s stations are also available on RadioApp, the CRA’s uninspired copy of Radioplayer. (They’ve never been on LiSTNR, as far as I can see).

I understand that the ABC got free carriage on the iHeart app; so this isn’t a cost-saving exercise. Instead, it’s relatively clear what’s up, I think: I bet that the ABC is planning to restrict access to its radio stations online from anything other than its own ABC Listen app.

The ABC Listen app doesn’t require login currently, but it’s almost impossible to get into the app without registering (and there are plenty of reasons why it’s a good idea). That then gives lots of data about listeners to the ABC to help them. But restricting stations like this is not a public service thing to do, and is the thinking of product managers, not radio programmers.

It’s a bit disappointing seeing the ABC - which is currently enjoying among its worst ever audience shares - wilfully making it even harder to tune into its stations. Let’s hope it’s only a temporary change - all Australians pay for it, after all. There again, nobody ever lost their job by copying the BBC…

• Congratulations to Christian O’Connell, who has done over a week now on his new national breakfast show. His show on Gold Brisbane sounds technically flawless (with the nicest traffic guy you could ever wish for, by the way): the show is time-delayed by an hour, which I can only assume means it’ll be rare to hear anyone call from Brisbane. He’s much as I remember him: warm, friendly, and respects the listeners.

  • However, let’s hope nobody’s trying to tune in on the Gold Brisbane website. It doesn’t have a working audio player (a tantalising “listen live” button doesn’t do anything) - or any details of how to tune in (it’s on DAB+, which a third of Aussies use every single week - a higher figure than the iHeart app, which is also bewilderingly not referenced). Fun fact: the “how to listen” page on Christian’s old station Virgin Radio was the #2 most-trafficked page, after the “listen live” page.
  • Also, the iHeartRadio page for Gold Brisbane says “Just Great Hits”. The audio says “Just Great Songs”. One of those is not like the other.

• Congratulations, Vinnie Lo, for the 25th anniversary of the Radiofeeds website. Some people might say it looks 25 years old too! But, it works, and works very well, if you want to listen to any UK or Irish radio station. I can only guess at how much work it is to keep it all updated.

• On Radiofeeds, I notice that Petersfield’s Shine Radio has just begun broadcasting on DAB on the small-scale East Hampshire DAB multiplex, which is now in testing. A proper local radio station run by volunteers with quite the range of programming, it’s probably worth a listen. When I listened, one of the local schoolkids told me the time (what a clever idea)!

Classifieds

• Supercharge your radio show with world-class prep: the right show prep delivered to you on time, EVERY day, without fail. Grab a £1 week-long trial of Show Prep and stop chasing round looking for things to use on your show, running out of time before the show, and trying to sight-read the newspapers!

• AM deathwatch: In Japan, NHK Radio 2 is to close on Mar 31. NHK operates two national AM stations; it was decided to close Radio 2 in 2021. Radio 2 was specifically funded as an educational radio station, with language courses and other educational programmes - like “Junior High School Basic English Level 1 & 2” and “Radio Business English”, “Portuguese for Beginners”, “Time for Religion,” and “Visual Impairment Navi Radio”. NHK has been slowly moving some of the educational and language programmes from Radio 2 over to NHK’s FM station, and to NHK Radio 1, which will continue on AM, though it’ll get a new name.

• Europe1 (news and talk) launched a television channel last month. Europe1 TV is free-to-air on Astra 19.2E - I can’t find a web stream of it, though; though here is a clip of Europe1 live on Canal+’s CNEWS, a right-leaning rolling news channel in France. A competitor, BFM (a business news station) started in 1991 on FM, but added a full rolling news channel (watch) in 2005, and a business channel offshoot (watch) in 2010. Whenever I’ve seen BFM, I’ve been struck by the way it sounds like a radio station, but looks like a TV channel. Nice trick if you can.

• Last week, I suggested that US broadcasters were “asking the FCC to make it easier to switch their AM stations to FM”. That wasn’t entirely correct - they’re asking for it to be easier to simulcast their AM service to FM as well (known in US speak as a “translator”). While the vast majority of listeners will, indeed, “switch to FM”, I over-simplified; apologies. But - if you remember the WJLX “stolen AM mast”, there are at least some radio stations in the US quietly turning their AM transmitter off, in favour of the FM “translator” doing all the work.

• Oh, and I blogged about my trip to Orlando, and choosing a new phone to buy, if you want to take a peek at that.

Where I am speaking next

• Radiodays Europe, Riga, Latvia, (Mar 22-24) The future of audio is people-powered: The way people consume media is changing. James Cridland, the radio futurologist, takes a look at global trends in radio and on-demand. How will we listen - on which devices? How can we make our output truly unique? How do we do it in a resource-efficient way? And what part does video play in the future of audio? In this wide-ranging session, bringing together data from North America, Asia, Australia and Europe, we’ll learn why the future is bright - as long as we understand why our audience comes to us in the first place.
• The Podcast Show, London UK (May 20-21) - I’ll be keynoting at this event, as well as recording a Podnews Weekly Review.

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 Mastodon as @james@bne.social

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
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