James Cridland - radio futurologist

About James Cridland - radio futurologist

A regular audio column with the most interesting news about radio's future. James is a radio futurologist - a writer, speaker and consultant concentrating on the effect that new platforms and technology are having on the radio business across the world. He has a website at https://james.cridland.net (https://james.cridland.net) where you can subscribe to Radioland, his newsletter.

Publisher

James Cridland

Category

business · news

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

9 Nov 2016

Latest episode

11 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

257 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   11 Oct 2026

   A look at 4BH - Brisbane's new #1 music station

   Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note. (https://rss.com/podcasts/james-cridland/voicemail) My newsletter in full is over here: https://james.cridland.net/blog/2026/4bh-brisbane-number-one/ (https://james.cridland.net/blog/2026/4bh-brisbane-number-one/) Here's the top story! In my home town of Brisbane, 4BH (classic hits) made it to the #1 slot - with a share of 12.3%. The news even made it to local TV (https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=904374262609727). It’s an oldies station, with a 31% share of listening by people over 65. It’s particularly impressive when you remember what the station doesn’t have. The station doesn’t have a licence of its own - it’s leasing the AM frequency from Tapt Media. It doesn’t have a sales team of its own - it’s sold by SCA, the owners of B105 and TripleM. It doesn’t have any studios of its own: the breakfast show is either presented from a rented studio in SCA in Brisbane, or from “BBQ” Bob Gallagher’s house. It doesn’t have its own news team - it buys that from Tapt Media. It doesn’t have any sports coverage - it buys that from SENQ. And it’s not live, with presenter breaks being voicetracked (normally voicetracked that day, though). Nor is much of it local. While “BBQ” Bob Gallagher is a well-known Brisbane voice, he’s the only announcer on the station to be based here. Michelle Murphy (9am-12pm, 1pm-3pm) is in Adelaide SA; Gavin Miller (12pm-1pm) is in Melbourne VIC; Jon Vertigan (3pm-7pm, also Head of Music) is in Warrnabool VIC. The website also lists Jamie Row and Cathy Jubb, who broadcast over weekends - they both appear to be in Victoria as well. Breakfast newsreader Chloe Affleck in in Brisbane (working for 4BC); traffic reporter Liam Renton is also in Brisbane (working for ATN). It also doesn’t have a great AM frequency. 4BH’s 1116 AM is such a poor frequency, the licence-owners (now Tapt Media) switched away (https://james.cridland.net/blog/2021/fm-switchoff-uk/) from it in 2021, moving their own 4BC to 882, and giving the worse frequency to lessee 4BH. Listening is particularly hampered in Brisbane city centre, which has a notch in the transmitter to avoid interference. Speaking on The Quarter Hour (https://podnews.net/podcast/iznqr), boss Mark Taylor suggested the station has a great AM signal during the day with 17kW; but it’s switched down considerably overnight (to 7.5kW) - but also highlighting that listeners are listening in many other ways. “Educate your very loyal listeners on how to use the technology. You know, you won’t go more than five minutes on 4BH without us mentioning DAB or the LiSTNR app or to use your smart speaker at home.” Yes to all this. I’d be fascinated to know how many of the listeners use AM, and how many are using something else. (The average (https://james.cridland.net/blog/2025/how-australians-listen/) is 61% to analogue radio, 20% to DAB+, 18% streaming). After all that, it’s the #1 radio station in Brisbane; #3 at breakfast, #1 from 9am-4pm, and #1 over the weekend. That’s quite an achievement. It’s #1 in total share, mind you. Interestingly, it’s just #6 in terms of total cume (the total amount of people listening). People turn the station on, and leave it on - it’s clearly well programmed. So, does a station need to be local - and does it need studios of its own? No. All it needs is a decent music policy, a clutter-free sound, and a warm, well-known personality with a bit of shared human connection. PS: today I drove past an electronic billboard saying “thank you for making us Brisbane’s number one radio station”. A nice touch.

2. 

   11 Oct 2026

   To London and back: while Canada's CRTC sits on their hands

   Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note. (https://rss.com/podcasts/james-cridland/voicemail) My full newsletter is here: https://james.cridland.net/blog/2026/to-london-and-back/ (https://james.cridland.net/blog/2026/to-london-and-back/) These are the first few stories. To London, and then on to Germany. As a former trustee of the Radio Academy - now the Audio Academy - I never actually got to speak at the Radio Festival; so it was great to speak at the Audio Festival, in a full room. Always lovely to see so many friendly faces: though plenty of new, younger, faces in the crowd. They tell you that none of the kids are interested in radio these days; but the Audio Festival was clear that there are plenty of younger people. Good. And, also, good to see the Community Media Association later that weekend, with many more people who were enthusiastic and excited about the state of the medium. It’s been very clear, from my LinkedIn feed, that Canadian radio is running out of patience with the CRTC, who promised a year ago to review parts of its regulation of the industry - regulation widely suspected to be holding the industry back - only to do absolutely nothing. I write a full piece, what’s the CRTC even doing? (https://james.cridland.net/blog/2026/canadian-radio-crtc/), elsewhere on my blog. The Canadian industry is in a mess; and the CRTC is partially responsible. The Playdate, a little black and white games console, now has a radio player in it. The Peedee ICF-390 app (https://play.date/games/peedee-icf-390/), just $3, just lets you scan through the dial using the crank on the side of the device: no searching, just serendipitous discovery of radio stations. It’s rather fine. Tom Webster writes Smart TV Killed the Smart Speaker Star (https://soundsprofitable.com/article/smart-tv-killed-the-smart-speaker-star/), which is clearly a lazy Buggles headline - though he apologises for it - and to me - in the first paragraph. “As a conduit for podcasting, the smart speaker is objectively a failure.” Apple Music opened a fancy new music recording space in London (https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/09/apple-opens-apple-music-hall-a-state-of-the-art-live-music-venue-in-london/). Meanwhile, I was able to have a look round Bauer Media’s new “Playground” - which has the capability to become a recording space in the basement of The Lantern, its home in London. Someone I worked with in Germany this week was excited after visiting a public radio station in the US with its own performance space (“they get people in! hundreds of people!”). It’s interesting to see more broadcasters highlight what they’re good at - getting people together, a community of common interest. Of course, podcasting is doing similar too. I realised something about advertising these days - the art of copywriting has disappeared (https://james.cridland.net/blog/2026/advertising-is-shit-now/) from magazine ads, out of home, posters, and other parts of advertising. In a blog post I write a little about this - dimly realising that if the skills required for great copywriting are disappearing, what happens to those media that still require great copy: including radio and podcasting?

3. 

   26 Sept 2026

   Radio in car: shock new figures

   Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note. (https://rss.com/podcasts/james-cridland/voicemail) Above: radio has always been the #1 choice in a car. Until now. This data, from Edison Research’s Share of Ear study, has shocked me. It shows, very clearly, that for young Americans, they’re choosing to listen to media from their mobile phone instead. I don’t know why it’s shocked me. I myself rarely listen to radio in the car. My iPhone connects via wifi to the car dashboard, so I have my collection of podcasts to listen to, as well as music on Spotify. In many cases, why listen to the radio, when I have everything I need on my phone? Now, sometimes, sure, I’m listening to live radio on my phone, via the car’s dashboard. I’ve discovered that BBC Radio 1’s early morning show is quite a good listen for school pick-up time, for example. But that’s the exception, rather than the norm. This is quite the watershed moment. It shows, clearly, that radio has become, for younger Americans at least, less relevant than audio from their own mobile phones. Part of that is that much of US radio really isn’t very good (sorry, but it’s true); but it’s a concern nonetheless. I suspect most people will look at this, shrug, and move on. But I find this the most worrying graph I’ve ever seen about radio’s future. Meanwhile, in Europe, Radioplayer has launched “real-time car radio analytics” (https://radioplayer.org/updates-insights/news/radioplayer-launches-breakthrough-real-time-car-radio-analytics), delivering a real-time view of listening across DAB, FM and streaming. They’re not alone in this - DTS AutoStage also provides similar (https://www.westwoodone.com/blog/2026/07/20/xperis-dts-autostage-major-advancement-in-am-fm-radio-ratings-with-daily-in-car-audience-measurement-from-6-million-vehicles/) to the US market. I’m unaware how much DTS AutoStage deals with DAB or with online radio. But, Radioplayer is present in many markets in Europe, and has some good relationships with auto manufacturers. Some very interesting moves from Global in the UK, which has launched Radio Plus (https://global.com/global-launches-radio-plus/) - “The same great live radio. Just without the ads”. The “just without the ads” promise is only for music radio, where additional music is played instead of the ad breaks. It costs £4.99 (US $6.50) per month per brand (Heart, X, Smooth, etc). Its competitor Bauer has been offering something similar for many years; it will be interesting to see the takeup of this service. Do listeners hate the ads enough to spend money to get rid of them?

Reach and audience

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Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

2 ratings

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