IN THIS POST...
Lots of general links/docs/resources to broaden your knowledge and understanding AFTER some contemporary news updates, especially around the regulation of radio and disruption of online, converged devices...
JAN 2023: BAUER BECOMING RADIO FORCE
Guardian. Local radio is in flux with both commercial chains & the BBC cutting local output. Bauer have bought many local stations and then rebranded them with a national station like GHR, Greatest Hits Radio. They also own Magic and Absolute Radio, which has multiple niche brands itself. The article also compares the audience demographics of BBC R2 and GHR.
SEPT 2022: INDIE RADIO CRASHING UNDER WEIGHT OF ENERGY BILLS
Guardian. Ara would be the Luxembourg equivalent of the UK Indies. This article features a range of stations I hadn't heard of myself. The comments are interesting too - like some others I wonder if they can make subscription work like so many podcasters have.
OCT 2021: BBC WARNS ALEXA etc KILLING RADIO, DEMAND AD BAN
Guardian. The Beeb together with its commercial rivals has asked for a law to ban smart devices/assistants like Echo, Alexa, Siri from inserting ads into radio broadcasts. They don't currently do this ... but the strong suspicion is they will (just think of how YouTube works).
'The BBC is particularly concerned by research suggesting that when BBC material is consumed through a smart speaker or other third party device, audiences are substantially less likely to mentally associate it with the BBC. This has potentially enormous implications for the future of the licence fee and convincing audiences to pay for the BBC in the future.'
A campaign to legally guarantee that new media carry radio "free to air" parallels that to ensure the traditional PSBs get prominence on EPGs (see Guardian).
FM is set to continue until 2030 (originally to be switched off in 2015!) with many rural areas reliant on it. The government report misses the point here that the DAB signal is also patchy in urban areas too - I was able to pick up ONE station in my Yorkshire home a few years back, but the full range on FM. However, AM/MW (especially important for speech radio like R5 and Talk Radio) faces switch off in a few years.
'The British radio industry is facing a demographic timebomb. In the new report, it has renewed calls to scrap regulations that limit the ability to rebrand stations and change formats, as well as asking for continued government financial support for the Audio Content Fund to produce material for under-served audiences.
Though overall radio listenership remains high, it is much lower among younger listeners and people from ethnic minority backgrounds, many of whom feel they are not represented by existing stations and are instead switching to podcasts and streaming music services.'
RAJAR infographics (pdf); UK's most popular radio stations (YouGov); Wiki: UK radio stations; history of radio (techwholesale); BBC bitesize radio history/industry; Wiki: timeline of UK independent radio; history/development of UK radio (media.info)
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/apr/21/ronan-orahilly-pirate-radio-godfather-made-a-sea-change-in-british-pop
BBC Bitesize summary is a really good overview, using multiple useful terms, in an easy-to-digest format as the name suggests!
Lengthy overview of radio 1
General overview
Case studies on how radio/social media work in synergy
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