James Cridland

Radioland gets a Marty; NRJ to leave national radio in Sweden

The Flat Iron building in New York

Above: the Flat Iron Building in New York City, from a visit in 2011.

  • A familiar name has joined as a regular supporter of this newsletter - “Marty from New Yawk”, aka Marty Edelstein. I wrote about Marty on my blog in 2007, arguing that every radio station needed a Marty. He still pops up in my feeds now and again: no longer actually in the 9-5 grind in NYC, which must be a great relief; but still listening to the UK’s Virgin Radio (and the station that also replaced it, Absolute Radio). He still comes over to the UK every so often, I notice from his Facebook feed. Thank you, Marty! You can support this newsletter over here. And for radio stations everywhere, get yourself a Marty.

  • RAJAR released its MIDAS Winter 2025 survey - a lot of useful data about all audio listening in the UK. Adam Bowie took a look at the numbers. Radio is certainly not dead; there’s plenty of impressive numbers in the report.

  • RadioReady looks an interesting campaign, seemingly spearheaded by Bauer Media Group, but with plenty of other partners as well, not one of which sent me a press release. It’s a good place to find data and information about how important radio is to have in the car. The list of partners seems very European (with the Australians also taking part); nothing from the rest of the world, and particularly North America, which seems a shame. The US radio industry, in particularly, seems aloof and insular about this sort of thing; but surprised not to see some Canadian participants.

    • Global aren’t listed as a partner (though they kind of are through Radiocentre); but they, too, have done some nice work getting Global Player into Android Automotive, so it’s available inside a ton of different cars. I’m in two minds about whether the “right” thing to do is to have separate players for each broadcaster, or to work together on a more inclusive solution.

  • Kyle Sandilands (see below) had such a big argument with Jackie O on Friday that Jackie O is taking a break from the show. Here’s the audio, telescoped slightly. Cheery, happy breakfast radio from Australia’s ARN. Just as a reminder, we’re in year three of a ten year, $200mn, contract, with these two; ARN’s entire market cap is currently half that, at $94.26mn. And, with the evidence of this audio, Brooklyn Ross, the sports guy, isn’t being paid enough.

RCS

Classifieds

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  • AM deathwatch:

  • In Wade Kingsley’s The Quarter Hour podcast, Mark Ritson explains the data he thinks can move the needle with clients to increase spend on audio, and how to present it to brand marketers.

  • Some impressive promotion of a podcast, but it strikes me that radio stands to benefit even more from this sort of thing - advertising on petrol pumps. I’m simultaneously impressed and horrified at the idea.

  • In Sweden, NRJ has lost its national FM licence. There are three national stations in Sweden; they used to be allocated based on the highest bidder, but licences are now a beauty parade from the Swedish Media Authority: who made a decision to award two licences for music channels, and one for “content that is not currently represented on commercial radio”. Aftonbladet, a tabloid newspaper, has won the licence instead. NRJ will have to try to secure regional broadcasting licences, which will be given out in a few months. (Rix FM, and Bauer’s Mix Megapol, got the other two).

I read that Aftonbladet launched by criticising the Swedish king; he then banned the newspaper; it re-started as a brand new publication called “New Aftonbladet”, the king banned that one too, after a bit; so they launched “Newer Aftonbladet”, which was also banned; in total it restarted 26 times before the king decided to stop banning it. That’s one way to get past the regulators. Speaking of which…

Australian regulation news corner

Back to the ACMA, Australia’s lack-lustre media regulator. Last we heard, way back in November, ACMA said they were minded to add licence conditions to ARN’s KIIS stations in Sydney and Melbourne, after broadcasters Kyle & Jackie O repeatedly broadcast immature filth on the air. On Nov 12, the proposed new conditions were published, and ARN had 21 days from notification to “make representations”. If it’s 21 working days (let’s be generous), that means Dec 9 was the deadline for those.

The ACMA have confirmed to me that ARN have, indeed, made representations. I foolishly assumed these representations would be public, and asked for a copy; the ACMA’s media department ignored that request.

So, what now?

It’s more than two months since the ACMA have heard from ARN. The ACMA has a legal duty to regulate the Broadcasting Services Act 1992, which includes a requirement “to encourage providers of broadcasting services to respect community standards in the provision of program material”. Every day, there are five hours of Kyle & Jackie O broadcasts on the two stations in question; and also an hour on many other ARN stations.

And yet - the ACMA sits on its hands, paralysed by indecision.

The authority gave me this statement: “The ACMA is considering the licensees’ representations and we will announce the final additional licence conditions once a decision is made.”

Mumbrella reports that the ACMA “copped a grilling” at Parliament earlier this month. Hardly surprisingly - it, surely, can’t take more than two and a half months to reach a decision?

In the meantime, CRA (which has a co-regulatory duty) published a new code of practice, which I mentioned a few weeks ago. It contains a “special care” provision for when children are likely to be in the car - but the meaning of “special care” isn’t defined. The ACMA said in Parliament that this might mean “warnings before certain segments”, which sounds as if broadcasters could get away with a jaunty faux-warning at 8.05am suggesting that the next 55 minutes might contain adult themes. After all, nobody will actively tune in at 8.06am, will they?

Just to clarify: the ACMA is a proper grown-up effective regulator, and Kyle & Jackie O’s show is absolutely a place where your brand is safe next to the smut and filth.

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 Marty from New Yawk, Gavin Watson, 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.

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